Public or Private School?

[social]

Went to a public (gov't) school for primary and private for high school and always assumed that I'd send my kids to the latter

However, I recently discovered that the local public high school is rated as being one of the best schools in the state and is really progressive in many areas e.g. International Baccalaureate programme, relationship with university under which gifted kids can do tertiary courses whilst still at school, etc

Assuming that the administration of the school stays the same (and that is a problem with gov't schools), I'm starting to wonder whether I should be spending 30k per year on each kid for a private education when a perfectly good one is available for virtually free

 

[sledger]

In the UK so-called "public" schools are the private ones.

Anyway, having met plenty of people who attended that type of establishment, I would like nothing more than to have nothing to do with such places ever again.

 

[Daemon]

IB is great. I'm not sure what the alternative is like where you are (GCSE?) but I highly recommend it. You might want to check out how they've been doing globally because it might be an indication of the quality of teaching but don't read too much into it. There were more than a few teachers at my school who were terrible mentors for EEs and rubbish at teaching in general, but we still managed to be the best IB school in the world.

Actually that last bit was all I wanted to post, the rest is all fluff to cover up the brag

 

[Jono]

The fact UK labels what are private schools as "public schools" sums up everything wrong with that place. That and the fact that it is the home of GIMP and sledger.

Call them private ffs.

Its up there in annoyingness as the US putting months before days when writing out dates.

 

[Daemon]

Or Europe swapping the commas with dots when dealing with numbers

Bradman scored 6.996 runs at an average of 99,94

So ugly

 

[straw man]

Private/Public debate is a bit different in Oz compared to NZ (and probably other places) as a full third of high-school kids go to Private school in Oz. This is of course because the Australian private system is still heavily subsidised by the government. It also means a sizeable cohort of presumably education-valuing middle class kids are sucked out of the public system, which is not great.

I'm generally much more in favour of public schools and think that private schools are for the most part about a) marketing and b) social cliques. However there are exceptions where I think it's reasonable to consider private schools*:
- If your local public school is dreadful and you're zoned out of the other nearby schools. While a lot of public schools are great, the very worst with poor culture and poor leadership are pretty bad.
- If your child is exceptional at Sport, they will benefit a lot from coaching/facilities. This probably applies for music too.
- if your child is mediocre academically but perhaps has higher aspirations then they're likely to get more of a push-along from a private school rather than being allowed to languish.

That's about it. In Social's case, if the local public school is great and your kids are fairly bright then I'd definitely go public.

* I mean the expensive private schools and not so much the small religious private schools

 

[GotSpin]

I work at a public primary school right now (I'm not a proper teacher though). It's excellent but has the benefit of being in a very well off area.

If you live in a good area and the local schools have a great reputation I would bin the private system.

But as straw man mentions, sport, art and music programmes kind of suck at public schools. I can't speak for high schools, but in primary it's pretty rubbish. Furthermore, I have no idea what your kids are like, but if they have any learning difficulties they might get a bit lost in the public system.

 

[cpr]

In the UK so-called "public" schools are the private ones.

Anyway, having met plenty of people who attended that type of establishment, I would like nothing more than to have nothing to do with such places ever again.

After all the nice things I've said about you too...

 

[Dan]

Ugh, private schools.

 

[straw man]

I work at a public primary school right now (I'm not a proper teacher though). It's excellent but has the benefit of being in a very well off area.

If you live in a good area and the local schools have a great reputation I would bin the private system.

But as straw man mentions, sport, art and music programmes kind of suck at public schools. I can't speak for high schools, but in primary it's pretty rubbish. Furthermore, I have no idea what your kids are like, but if they have any learning difficulties they might get a bit lost in the public system.

I was going to mention special needs but am unsure if that's a pro or con of private schools - it depends. I have a colleague whose son has (mild) learning difficulties and he's received a lot of help from his private school, though I think that particular school has a reputation of being good in that area. However there are also articles such as this that say many private schools try to avoid taking kids that might bring down their exam-result-based rankings, and that they essentially try to leave these students to the public system.

 

[andruid]

In Kenya parents fork out hundreds of thousands of kenya shillings to private primary schools on the premise that they get their kids into the best public high schools

 

[Top_Cat]

Public schooled student all the way here. Mine were particularly crappy so I'm biased against them and would say private is the way to go but, as you said, you should have a good look at the circumstances too. It just struck me, when I first went to uni, how many science forums, conferences, outside activities, seminars, etc. the private school kids, even at mediocre ones, had access to that I hadn't ever heard of. I remember feeling pretty cut out of the loop when a few mentioned they'd met Gustaf Nossel and I hadn't even heard of the bitch...

I'm biased toward the idea of good public education and would prefer it if there was a good private school around and I had kids to send to it. But the resources of private schools complicate the decision so, on balance, it's probably a safer choice.

Also, every IB person ever is a socially awkward wanker.

 

[watson]

Both Private and Public schools can be pretty dire at times. So what matters is the individual school.

If a school has a good reputation with lots of happy parents and children then send your own children there. If all things are about equal between competing schools then consider saving yourself some money on fees and spend it on tuition instead. Thirty grand will buy a lot of one-to-one teaching.

 

[GotSpin]

I was going to mention special needs but am unsure if that's a pro or con of private schools - it depends. I have a colleague whose son has (mild) learning difficulties and he's received a lot of help from his private school, though I think that particular school has a reputation of being good in that area. However there are also articles such as this that say many private schools try to avoid taking kids that might bring down their exam-result-based rankings, and that they essentially try to leavey these students to the public system.

Yeah I've heard of that

Again, I think it depends on the area. A public school with fewer behavioural problems can direct extra funding for teachers aides towards helping kids with learning difficulties. But if there are widespread behavioural issues then classroom management becomes the priority.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day, you can just hire a tutor if you have enough money to afford a private school in the first place. They'll just miss out on a shitload of extra curricular activities.

 

[hendrix]

Was chilling with a girl last week and she asked me what the difference between biology, physics and chemistry is. (she's 24 I'm not a paedo guys).

I really didn't know what to say. I mean, she wasn't a dumb girl. Just totally and utterly failed by the education system. I went to a public school too, and it wasn't a particularly good one. But gee.

In the end I showed her what all three are kaching etc etc

 

[Gnske]

Good public high schools in Australia are rather rare, in my district there's literally only one good high school which I was fortunate enough to attend (even then it was run like a total doghouse). You go further up and down the road and you're guaranteed a TAFE education at best among other criminal offences.

The only saving grace really is you don't have to wear the self-deprecating uniforms of private schools that are always a four-piece fashion faux pas.

 

[Kirkut]

Screw formal education, teach your children how to code and they will be employable by the time they're 18.

 

[Daemon]

I honestly wish they taught that as a compulsory subject back in school. So much more useful than Geography for example (sorry Flem).

 

[Gnske]

I honestly wish they taught that as a compulsory subject back in school. So much more useful than Geography for example (sorry Flem).

Truer words have never been spoken. I did Geography in high school, the lessons consisted of watching movies, dreadful environmental crap, vague descriptions of the world, playing Halo LAN battles on laptops in plain sight and gossiping loudly while the teacher made no effort to ensure anyone did work.

After this the teacher then had the audacity to get frustrated at how no one except two or three out of a class of thirty was passing any tests or assessment.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Geography is awesome.