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Starmer’s biggest challenge could be meeting expectations – politicalbetting.com

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  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,415
    IanB2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    Yes, us private school educated bods are vastly over-represented here, I expect ex-grammar school pupils are too.
    We ex-grammar pupils would of course know better than to write "us private school educated bods...", having better, well, grammar
    Aye but there's less of you ;)
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,772
    Selebian said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    Yes, us private school educated bods are vastly over-represented here, I expect ex-grammar school pupils are too.
    Us comprehensive plebs are too busy doing proper work :wink:
    Tutoring people to get into private schools, in my case :lol:
    Ah, teaching the art of negotiation and sales?

    "Yes mummy and daddy, this would mean no more foreign holidays for the rest of your non-senile lives, but you'll be able to brag to your work colleagues that I'm in a mediocre private school and feel all smug when the state school teachers are on strike. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get into Camford."?
    Don't be silly.

    I would never advise anyone in my subjects (with the possible exception of Theology) to go to Camford.

    I only want them to go to top unis.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,161
    edited July 2023

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    kinabalu said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    Yes, us private school educated bods are vastly over-represented here, I expect ex-grammar school pupils are too.
    You sure are. I dialled down my anti private school posting on here due to the sensitivities it aggravated.
    They're a sensitive bunch, lacking the backbone you get in the comprehensive system.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    The change to mandating undergrad degrees for nearly all white collar jobs removed a lot of ways that people got into the good jobs.

    The two tier university system forms a further filter.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,509
    I'm amazed that you are amazed given you are on here a lot. Only a few plebs around.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,263
    Saudi Arabia signs major order for Turkish drones
    https://www.defensenews.com/global/mideast-africa/2023/07/18/saudi-arabia-signs-major-order-for-turkish-drones/

    The stranglehold of traditional arms suppliers to the region is slowly eroding.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,395
    This thread was spoon fed at its private school and has crashed and burned at uni for not being able to work under its own steam.

    That's three mixed metaphors ... I do know.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153
    edited July 2023
    malcolmg said:

    I'm amazed that you are amazed given you are on here a lot. Only a few plebs around.

    Sigh

    Head Count, not Plebs. While the Head Count were technically low end Plebians, in practise, there was a big distinction.

    It was all about wealth. Especially in land. Have enough land and you were in the Senate. Have enough money and you were in the Knights.

    Head Count were those with so little that they *had to work*.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
    Why not just encourage your child to work hard, trust their teachers and let them find their own level? Kids who are hot-housed and spoon fed to get into top Unis will typically underperform there. I never got any tuition and we've not got any for our children.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,832
    ydoethur said:

    Selebian said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    Pulpstar said:

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    Yes, us private school educated bods are vastly over-represented here, I expect ex-grammar school pupils are too.
    Us comprehensive plebs are too busy doing proper work :wink:
    Tutoring people to get into private schools, in my case :lol:
    Ah, teaching the art of negotiation and sales?

    "Yes mummy and daddy, this would mean no more foreign holidays for the rest of your non-senile lives, but you'll be able to brag to your work colleagues that I'm in a mediocre private school and feel all smug when the state school teachers are on strike. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get into Camford."?
    Don't be silly.

    I would never advise anyone in my subjects (with the possible exception of Theology) to go to Camford.

    I only want them to go to top unis.
    Ah yes. Hull?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    By 16/17 they have a massive amount of education and skills in learning behind them already. Momentum as it were.

    Combined with a carefully selected school and personal tuition in each subject, this adds up to a pretty likely outcome.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    edited July 2023

    I’m amazed at how many on here are privately educated. But I invariably found, working in the UK, that I was one of the few non-privately educated.

    I am a Comp educated lad, as was my brother who got an exhibition at Cambridge.

    He quite liked it there, but it does depend on the College. Particularly in the Eighties there were a lot of Brideshead type posers at some colleges, varying from harmless fun to total arseholes.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
    Why not just encourage your child to work hard, trust their teachers and let them find their own level? Kids who are hot-housed and spoon fed to get into top Unis will typically underperform there. I never got any tuition and we've not got any for our children.
    We find this at Medschool. The state educated students do better once in.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
    Why not just encourage your child to work hard, trust their teachers and let them find their own level? Kids who are hot-housed and spoon fed to get into top Unis will typically underperform there. I never got any tuition and we've not got any for our children.
    Ah yes, the "hot-housed and spoon fed" argument.

    Jessica Ennis-Hill shouldn't have bothered with all that ghastly over training. Once round the track on a weekend does just fine.

    If you want state schools to catch up with private school results, effort and money will be required.

    Take a look at the educational rankings internationally. Then look at the what the state schools manage.
  • carnforthcarnforth Posts: 4,866
    Foxy said:

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
    Why not just encourage your child to work hard, trust their teachers and let them find their own level? Kids who are hot-housed and spoon fed to get into top Unis will typically underperform there. I never got any tuition and we've not got any for our children.
    We find this at Medschool. The state educated students do better once in.
    We ran cohort studies at my old place, and found the private school advantage was clear in Year 1, and entirely gone by the end of the final Year 3.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,772
    This thread had

    been put into a private school

  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    Nigelb said:

    tlg86 said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    ydoethur said:

    Sandpit said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    Not any family holidays I've taken. Or, I suspect, 90% of the electorate.

    https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1680954500100640768
    .@GillianKeegan: “Most of our private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow, they’re far smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a family holiday abroad”

    I know averages can be deceptive but how many families who use private schools *don't* have a hol abroad?

    In answer to the second question, a very large number. It was one of the things you noticed in the mid-level private schools I worked in and with, that many of the children talked about their camping holidays in Devon.

    I don't take foreign holidays myself very often (I haven't left the country since Covid hit) so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, prep school fees often hover around the £5-6,000 mark which doesn't sound ridiculously out of line for a family holiday in a tourist hotspot in say Spain.

    Keegan is an idiot but she isn't making a stupid point here. Far too much discourse about private schools is skewed towards the top end, not considering the cheaper end.

    That has rather different problems of its own that need addressing but they never get talked about.
    Are you sure about your figure of £5k-£6k? From what I can see that is the typical average PER TERM. In which case £15k would get you a good holiday in Europe.
    £15k is now about average day school fees. Inflation in school fees has been running a lot higher than inflation in holidays for quite some time. Back in my day(!) three decades ago, a week in Majorca for a family was about the same as the year’s school fees.

    Add me to the list of PBers who had one foreign holiday in seven years while attending a private secondary school. It’s a decision made by many, many parents in that boat.
    Is there a list of PBers who never set foot outside the UK until they turned 20 and whose parents would never even have considered sending them to private school? (State grammar and a week camping in Wales for me)
    It's a bit four Yorkshiremen on here this morning.
    My parents starved to death to send me to private school.
    But it was worth it.
    My parents kept me in a comp. Didn't even try to send me to a grammar school.

    And they never took me abroad until I was 19.

    Did it bother me? Not much. Didn't particularly want to go abroad. I suffer from heat migraines very easily so the idea of hot summers was not appealing.

    Would I have done better academically at a private school? Almost certainly. There was a significant problem with disruption in my local school that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. And you do see some quite stupid people who went to private schools getting on well in exams and careers.

    But would have I enjoyed it? Probably not very much. I don't like commuting and my local comp was literally at the end of my road whereas the nearest private school was a ten mile bus ride.
    I think this is probably my main personal issue with private schools - the advancement of the mediocre. We see it most obviously in our current government, half of whom I wouldn’t trust to make a cup of tea.
    That I would agree with.

    Which is one reason why I've always been adamant the way to get rid of them is to cut class sizes in the state sector dramatically. That would first, eliminate the edge private schools have and second, really improve education outcomes (much though I hate that cliche) for everyone.
    The strange element in the debate about private and state education is the lack of interest in the actual issue.

    Which is the better educational outcomes achieved by private schools.

    At this point the debate generally devolves to Olympic swimming pools, thick poshos and my favourite - “Over education”.

    Has anyone actually done a study on the effect of reducing class size without changing anything else?

    Edit : The reason for the avoidance of the issue is obvious, to me.
    Not in this country.

    That would require you to reduce class sizes...
    Once worked at a comprehensive that bust an absolute gut to get down to 24 maximum. Basically all the discrecionary spend in the budget went on that. That was probably not enough to really make a difference (you don't really change much by going from 30 to 24 in a well run school... Suspect the threshold is when 24 becomes 18). It ended up as more a selling point than anything else, and some of the consequent austerities (nothing printed full size, ever) were maddening.

    Can't find the source, but I've seen it said that the key problem isn't so much staff as buildings. Cut the default class size from 30 to 20 and you need 50% more classrooms for the same number of children. And nobody has any intention of paying for that, especially in one go. Hence the use of TAs in primaries, to improve the adult:child ratio without changing the size of classes.
    What are the ranges of class size in private schools? 15 early on, with slack handfuls for some A level subjects?

    My eldest has ended up in a class of 2 for A level Spanish…
    In my experience, there comes a point where class sizes are too small - 2 for A-level Spanish, for example. That's because the benefits of being in a group large enough to engender healthy debate and discussion are lost. I reckon anything less than 6 is too small for the cut and thrust of teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions and the sharing of different ideas to benefit learning.
    My education take that will make everyone hate me is that schools should just get out of the business of teaching A Levels, and do that in sixth form colleges instead. Lots of schools run A Level groups that are too small to be economic and probably aren't ideal from an educational point of view.

    Trouble is that teachers like their tiny sixth form class (I know I did) and parents are often up in arms at the very idea.
    Totally agree. State sixth-form colleges are the crème de la crème of our education system. Sadly, their numbers have reduced from just under 100 to around 50 as some have had to merge with FE colleges, and others have been academised into federations. Scandalous. Another example of clueless Tory education policies.
    We have sixth form colleges in our area (Surrey) and, whilst I agree that they are very good, my secondary school was very poor at advising me on what A Levels to pick. I was basically left to figure it out for myself. Sadly, by the time I realised what I should have picked, it was too late.
    That's a management problem, not a general institutional problem.
    A good sixth form college ought to sort that before it's too late, and facilitate a subject change.
    In my first Biology VI class back in the ‘50’s, the Headmaster suddenly appeared, saying to one of us “You’re not doing this F****; you can get a State Scholarship if you do Maths”.
    And led the lad out without a word to the teacher, who was Head of Biology!
    Mind you, the Head and the Biology master were known to hate each other!
    Gaming the system via subject choice is not unknown, for instance Dudley Moore's organ scholarship from working class Dagenham to Oxford, or Boris's sisters comments on the advantages of Latin and Greek for Oxford entry.
    Did Dudley 'game it'? I'd have thought getting awarded an Oxford organ scholarship was pretty darn difficult, and the man was hardly a shit musician.
    Nowadays the trick is supposed to be to switch from public school to local authority sixth form college to benefit from the potential for positive discrim
    I don't really understand the logic of this. A levels are the bit of your schooling that really matters, surely - it's what gets you into a good Uni. If you're willing to entrust your child to the state system for that, then why not the whole lot, save yourself a load of money (and, for some, guilt) and give your childten the enormous benefit of learning among a diverse cross section of their fellow citizens?
    As said above, you tutor on the side to deliver the grades, and rely on the Oxbridge college wanting to maintain its decent 'not from public school' percentage to deliver the offer
    Why not just encourage your child to work hard, trust their teachers and let them find their own level? Kids who are hot-housed and spoon fed to get into top Unis will typically underperform there. I never got any tuition and we've not got any for our children.
    Ah yes, the "hot-housed and spoon fed" argument.

    Jessica Ennis-Hill shouldn't have bothered with all that ghastly over training. Once round the track on a weekend does just fine.

    If you want state schools to catch up with private school results, effort and money will be required.

    Take a look at the educational rankings internationally. Then look at the what the state schools manage.
    Money is up to the government. If you think that teachers at state schools aren't putting in any effort then I'm afraid you are showing your ignorance. Their dedication in the face of terrible pay and conditions is incredible.
    Private schools aren't training their kids to become great athletes, they are more like a combination of performance enhancing drugs and letting some competitors start the race half way round the track. That's why state school kids tend to do better at uni. I saw it when I was at university, some private school kids were very bright, but a lot had obviously been coached over the line and really shouldn't have been there.
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