Would a public/private school have put you in better stead?

Hades said:
This.

We are lucky to be able to send my daughter to a private school (at great sacrifice to other parts of our lives as we aren't rich) and hope to be able to do the same for my son at some point. The education is marginally better than the state school she was previously attending. But the big difference is the independence and confidence they are teaching her, along with seeing how rich some of her peers are. That last point is both a positive and a negative as I feel she is a little worried that we can't quite have everything that some of her classmates do (i.e. huge house, holidays, etc), but the big positive is being able to aspire to that. My parents didn't even encourage me to go to university (which was free at the time) but my daughter can clearly see the benefit of hard work.
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Or you know, maybe just hide all the money in a tax haven because you know "Hard work".
 
I just think going to school / uni later would have been better for me.

Coasted through school and uni despite when applying myself achieving very high grades but I had certain issues which were never addressed. Now i'm older i'm a lot more stable.

I'd have done so much better. My biggest regret is going to uni when I did.
 
I kinda wished I had gone private when I was a kid, had the opportunity to get a scholarship but never took it seriously. I realise that until I went to Uni (after a gap year), I coasted way too much and wasted a lot of my potential but just doing enough to get by. I presume something like private school would have at least kept me engaged/focused.

I realised Im far too lazy too late...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Skidder said:
I went to boarding school. I loved it and had a huge amount of fun. It certainly didn't give me connections to leverage but it gave me some great friends and terrible a levels. To be fair almost all my friends are quite successful in their fields but I don't think it was an academic benefit. May be just an expectation that you can do well.
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Where did you school? Not the other place?
 
I went to a private school for the first three years of my secondary education, I was nearly 18 months ahead of the curriculum when I ended up at a state school for the last two and a bit years.
I was basically treading water covering mostly old ground for a year and half.
 
Nitefly said:
It is - character building :D
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i suppose though a state school will be very geographically limited, ie you;'re only going to mix with kids from your catchment area.

a private school, especially boarding, you'll be mixing with kids from all over the country.
 
I doubt it, my education stopped at GCSEs and would probably never have been any different regardless of the school.

I moved into employment where GCSEs didn't matter, and have progressed into a career where you wouldn't have been taught what I do at school. I'm doing just fine.

My biggest regret is never going to Uni, not because I missed out on a pointless degree but because I didn't get a chance to live it up for 4 years.
 
I personally think I would be worse. Im sure my GCSEs would have been a bit better if i had gone to private school. But I have the job I have today because I went to university. I don't think I would have got a better grade at university if I has previously been to private school. Going to a huge state school got me meeting people from all walks of life, dealing with bullies, gaining perspective, meeting girls, building confidence which might not have happened at a private school
 
Tefal said:
i suppose though a state school will be very geographically limited, ie you;'re only going to mix with kids from your catchment area.

a private school, especially boarding, you'll be mixing with kids from all over the country.
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lol I would hardly say that's the same. There's barely a difference in culture / lifestyle geographically within the upper middle classes.... Is there? Well the northerners might like billy bear ham more... Or something.
 
My comprehensive school was garbage so I've no doubt I would have done at least slightly better in a good public or private school.

In year 11 they decided mixing sets would be a good idea as top set students would benefit the lower set students... you can guess how that worked out.
 
I felt very pressured to succeed at private school, I went to one from 10-15, left after GCSEs. I was miserable there at the time, looking back it was a cushty existence. I got good grades, a wide education, did exceptionally at sports, but I was devoid of having a personality at the place, so rebelled against it all and grew my hair long and got a motorbike when I did my a levels (no chance of doing that where I went). I miss it now, especially when I see the friendships my friends there had at 6th form. Ah well, I'm happy where I am in life now and probably would have had a completely different life if I'd not left.
 
I think it depends entirely on the school in question. There are good and bad private schools just as there are good and bad state schools.

The two dads on that "My Millionaire Dads and Me" program bragged about spending hundreds of thousands a year on private school, yet their two eldest came out with GCSE results that would make any parent and child ashamed - because they just didn't care, and didn't need to. Kids who have the right mindset and aptitude will do well regardless I think, although the dads did raise the point that in some places it is still a case of knowing the right people, opening the right doors, etc. although I think that's less of the case now.
 
Ayahuasca said:
In year 11 they decided mixing sets would be a good idea as top set students would benefit the lower set students... you can guess how that worked out.
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I recall vividly the difference between the types in the top sets and in the bottom sets.

Maybe someone really wanted to sabotage the top sets that year.
 
Does seem to give some opportunities for interesting school trips:

Putin.jpg


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/vladimir-putin-eton-boys-private-audience-kremlin

Ministers wait hours for an audience with Vladimir Putin, CEOs sit nervously for months hoping for a summons to see him, and even Donald Trump was stood up during a 2013 visit to Moscow and told Putin was too busy to see him.

There was no such problem for a group of 11 Eton schoolboys, however, who flew to Moscow and were met by the Russian president in the Kremlin last week, stopping to take a group photo inside the seat of Russian power with their best “massive banter” poses.
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RT TV interview:

https://www.rt.com/news/356928-rt-eton-college-graduates/
 
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Think someone would have a better chance if they went private, not necessarily because they would end up with better grades but it allows them to make friends with people who are more likely to be in positions of power.
 
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