The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[bring the ghost on]

Well that was my original contribution. That Blair had the mandate and the cash to do just that. And didnt.

I have no idea of how much it would cost, but reducing class sizes by about 10-15 kids per class, employing/training enough ace teachers to teach them, and building some new classrooms, or adapting the original ones, doesnt seem to be that prohibitive does it?

I heard today that each Trident submarine has 40 nukes on them. Take 5 off each sub maybe? Dunno.

Good point on the defence front, it could be scaled back massively to make way for domestic spending.

I think it would cost mega money to reach private school standards of funding and class sizes though. There are around 25,000 secondary schools which would need significant work, more schools need opening, and If you're talking about training more teachers, then there needs to be more incentive to sway people to pursue a career in reaching, namely better pay?

Anyway it may well be achievable and I would like to believe it is, my main reservation is whether it's just a luxury that could only be indulged if the country didn't have a ludicrous deficit and also several other areas desperately in need of more funding.

 

[roydo]

Anyway it may well be achievable and I would like to believe it is, my main reservation is whether it's just a luxury that could only be indulged if the country didn't have a ludicrous deficit and also several other areas desperately in need of more funding.

I would swap 5 nukes per sub for ace schools. 10 actually. We dont really need the amount we have do we?

 

[Seanjd]

I'm not going to bother talking about this with you if you're just going to make things up.

I never said it was negligible. I said that £29 a week is not a load of money, in my opinion. Fairly big difference.

If you were to claim JSA, £29 would be over half of your weekly allowance. Again, it's relative. To most people, £29 a week is a lot of money.

 

[bring the ghost on]

I never said it was negligible. I said that £29 a week is not a load of money, in my opinion. Fairly big difference.

Alright, I took the wrong implication from what you were saying then.

Nonetheless, my point remains that it is beyond the scope of what most parents can save. Also, we're working on the basis of a one child family when few are... A two child family would have to save £250 pm, etc, and we're still only talking about the very cheapest of private schools, if indeed there any that cheap locally available.

 

[bring the ghost on]

I would swap 5 nukes per sub for ace schools. 10 actually. We dont really need the amount we have do we?

Not at all. I agree. In an ideal world, we wouldn't be fighting wars in the middle east either, which costs us billions.

 

[Goat]

I would swap 5 nukes per sub for ace schools. 10 actually. We dont really need the amount we have do we?

*Putin Likes this*

 

[roydo]

Not at all. I agree. In an ideal world, we wouldn't be fighting wars in the middle east either, which costs us billions.

*Putin Likes this*

We dont need 40 nukes per sub ffs. When just one is like 20 times the force of Hiroshima.

I am pro nuclear. Power stations and defence. Just think we have slightly too many nukes.

I expect the Mericans told us to though.

 

[Clint Planet]

I'd abolish private schools tomorrow if I could.

 

[roydo]

I'd abolish private schools tomorrow if I could.

An interesting debate on the previous pages mate.

 

[Brennan]

Alright, I took the wrong implication from what you were saying then.

Nonetheless, my point remains that it is beyond the scope of what most parents can save. Also, we're working on the basis of a one child family when few are... A two child family would have to save £250 pm, etc, and we're still only talking about the very cheapest of private schools, if indeed there any that cheap locally available.

My point has always been not to group all schools/families together. I agree my personal example is probably in the minority.

But there are exceptions, and plenty of them.

 

[bring the ghost on]

We dont need 40 nukes per sub ffs. When just one is like 20 times the force of Hiroshima.

As I said, I agree! I wasn't suggesting we need the nukes with the middle east wars remark I made, I was just making the point that getting involved in pointless expensive wars is also part of the problem.

 

[Jags]

My point has always been not to group all schools/families together. I agree my personal example is probably in the minority.

But there are exceptions, and plenty of them.

I agree. I go to private school, and yet for most of my childhood, neither of my parents had a job. I think a serious shift should take place from needs blind to needs aware. My school, which is how I believe all schools should be, is that once you pass the test to get in, then you pay a % of what you can afford. I have been in a room, where some people have unemployed parents, and others have two parents, both on 6 figure sums. You know what? I think that's how it should be. Nobody here is discriminated against due to their parents income. Is right.

 

[Kurt.]

£29 is not a lot now.

But your what, 20? £29 was a LOT of money 20 years ago.

I have nothing to add, I just wanted to point this out.

22 years ago I was earning £29.50 for a 37 hour week as a YTS trainee ffs

 

[jjgnorkett]

You still need to have a decent job to send your child to the cheapest private school. Not something your single mother on minimum wage could do.

I went to a private school whilst my dad was in college learning a trade and my mum was working as a teacher assistant on pretty much minimum wage. I achieved this through an assisted place due to high performance on the entrance exam and low household income meaning that my family didn't pay a bean. The annual cost normally was around £9000. Would I be who I am today with the same grades If I went to a state school? Possibly, but I wouldn't change a thing. I wanted to go to the school I went to even though all my close friends went to a local state school and not a bad one at that. The general opinion of private schools is way off the mark in my opinion.

 

[Pienaar's gloves]

Why on Earth would you want to partake in an education system where those with more money can be set better from the off? Or for that matter, one where you are tested as an eleven year old and it's decided if you're 'good enough' for a 'better' education.

I can understand parents wanting the best for their kids, but my children are going to the best state schools I can find - preferably not academies - and getting on with it like the rest of us.

Private school my backside, I don't know why you'd bother. Grades at that level are over-rated, school is about life experience and you will get that in a normal school.