Private Schools
Why might I consider sending my child to a private school?
You might consider sending your child to a private school because you can't find a good enough state school close to you. Private education offers you other alternatives. Often they are very good schools. They are spending more money on your child. They may well have better teachers. They will almost certainly have better facilities. It's an opportunity that is there if you've got the money to spend on it, whereby you can give your child an advantage and give them a better education. There are some disadvantages too. You are removing them from the world; you're removing them from the sort of people you are living with day to day and putting them into a rather exclusive environment. Some people see that as a benefit, other people see it as a disadvantage.
How can I find a good private school?
From the Good Schools' Guide, we've been looking at private schools for 21 years now. We know which ones we think are best and we know why we think they are best. You will really get a good view of what's out there and what they can offer your child. Suddenly, once you're beyond that there are a lot of other sources of information. The schools are generally very generous of what they will tell you. There are other sources of data you can go to, but for a comprehensive view of what's possible, the Good Schools' Guide is the best.
What should I consider when looking for private schools?
What is mportant to consider when looking for a private school is whether you can afford it. It's a long commitment. You're setting your child down a different road than the state system. You've got to expect to have to stay the course. A top-line private school education is the best part of a quarter of a million pounds and that is a very heavy obligation to take on. There are cheaper alternatives, like some of the great day schools. You can get through for much less. You can probably get through for one hundred thousand pounds or so, but that's quite enough. And you may be able to move between one system and another. There are senior schools where you don't really have to go to a prep school beforehand, and there are the grammar schools where you can go to the prep school first and give yourself the best possible chance of getting into the grammar. So there are ways of finessing the system, but by large the thing you have to decide on is money. If the money is ok, it's whether want it socially. Is this the kind of world you want to live in? Do you want to shut yourself away from the rest of people and just focus on eduacation as something on its own? Or do you want to mix it and give your child a chance to grow up with everyone else? That's very much an emotional decision.
How do I find out if a private school is any good?
Very much in the same way as you look at any school. By looking at the certain children it produces, by looking at the exam results or statistics it produces, by visiting, by seeing the head, by watching the school in action, and by talking to other parents. Parents of private schools are generally more talkative than parents who are using state schools and generally looked much more at all genres of school, and therefore used to make judgements from one school to another.
What should I look out for when I visit a private school?
Whether you can afford it. It's a long commitment. You're setting your child down on a different road from the state system. You've got to expect to have to stay the course. A top-line private school education is best part of a quarter of a million pounds now. And that is a very heavy obligation to take on. There are cheaper alternatives on some of the great day schools that you can get through for much less - you can probably get through for a hundred thousand pounds or so, and that's quite enough. You may be able to move between one system and another. There are senior schools where you don't really have to go to a prep school beforehand. And there are obviously the grammar schools where you can go to the prep school first and give yourself the best possible chance of getting into the grammar. There are ways of finessing the system, but by and large the thing you have to decide is money. If the money's okay, then it's a decision whether you want it socially. Is this the kind of world you want to live in? Do you want to shut yourself away from the rest of people or, and just focus on education as something on its own, or do you want to mix it for your child to take its chances with the rest and grow up with everybody else? And that's very much an emotional decision.
How do I know if a private school is right for my child?
It's always a terribly difficult decision. You've got to do your work, think about what your child is like, look at the school very carefully, visit, and talk to people. You always remain a bit uncertain because you're taking your child out of the environment that they're used to and planting them in somewhere with its own spirit, with its own way of doing things, which is removed from that. You've got to listen very carefully to the reactions of your child when they get there, and children can get very uncommunicative if they're having an unhappy time. They won't generally tell you that things are miserable unless they're absolutely dreadful, but if they're happy they'll tell you lots. It's being aware that the silence and noncommunicativeness is not what's right. There should be a lot to say. There should be a lot of fun being had. There should be a lot of challenge that they get to tell you about. Listen right for that, and if there's something going wrong, just give them the space to tell you what's going wrong, and then change. Changing between private schools is relatively easy because they always have spaces coming up at any time, and it's easier for them to stretch and make room than it is for a state school, which has to go in for particular systems of admitting people.
How do I apply for a private school?
You have to follow the rules that each individual school sets, and they are totally eccentric. Some of them are just like state schools: you apply by a fixed date, you take an examination or not, but mostly you are having to apply well ahead of time. You are going through some very eccentric admissions requirements and you have to follow the particular practice of the particular school, which makes life very tough and confusing, but that's the way it is. They're our masters, and there's no rules they have to follow.
What admissions criteria do private schools apply?
They have the most wonderful variety, or tassent variety if you're having to go through it. With my daughter, we have been through educational psychologists' reports. We have been through observed play where they're all sitting together and seeing if they hit each other or not. There are schools where, at age three and a half, you have to know your letters and numbers. There are schools where you get in if you are the first to apply. They do it their own way. You just have to know what the rules are for each school. And you also have to know what kind of parent each school is looking for because they will not just be judging your child. They will be judging you. They will say, do I want that person as a parent in my school? Will I get on with them? So you have to put on appropriate camouflage. Your beige twin set and pearls for one school and your curlers for another, and just fit in with the image that they like to see in their parents.
Do private schools have catchment areas?
No, I've never heard of a private school which adjusted its intake according to where you lived. If you're prepared to make the effort to get your child there every morning, that's fine.
Will my child have to board at a private school?
There are boarding schools and day schools. It is a question of what you are prepared to do. Even in this country, it is pretty hard to get to a day school which is more than fifty miles away without making a total wreck of your life, and you will just be governed by that. You can look first at day schools and say, "Is this something that my lifestyle can stand?" Some professionals, like the diplomats, just have to go for boarding, because they are out of the country for long periods. Boarding, even if you don't have to go for it, can be a wonderful option for the right child. There is so much time to do things and enjoy things with peers. You will find that you are terribly lonely without them, you will find that they are terribly bored when they get home because you are not providing all the things they are at school. But it can be a wonderful experience for the right child.
How do I know whether to send my child to boarding school?
According to whether they are ready for it. It's a big separation. The child should be asking for it. They should be saying "can I board? I really want to be on my own and I really want to do these things." You should be clear that they are totally confident to do it. They will probably be much more happier that they are boarding, than you are of the idea of them going boarding. Some children, and I was certainly like that like that, are just not suited for boarding. I had a totally miserable time. I hate being away from home and you shouldn't do it for him. But others love it and you can't tell until you see the individual child and how they are growing up in that particular age. There's age to their boarding. You can get a boarding at 8, that was the old traditional age or you can board at 11 or 13 or 16. My son went boarding at 16. It was just what suited him.
I want to send my child to a private school, but I'm not sure I can afford it, what can I do?
Most schools will offer some kind of assistance and the richer schools will offer more assistance. A lot of the time it's focused on academic children; children who will pass a scholarship exam. But if your child is up to that, you will find that some of the richer schools will pay almost the whole fees. That is what they will dedicate their money to doing. If you're going, Christ's hospital is the ultimate example. Almost all of the children there are supported by the school. The school is immensely wealthy, with hundreds of millions of pounds available for supporting parents who can't afford the fees. Others will generally try and do something, but the support is there. You have to convince the school that your child is the one that they want to have there, so get out there and look and ask.
