| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Falcons Pre-Prep or Orchard House for boys | |
| Posted by: | Anita Blake | |
| Date/Time: | 22/04/15 09:19:00 |
| 'I must admit to being baffled that people think that the point of school is to prepare for exams at an age where the results are utterly meaningless.' Sadly, in 21st century Britain where you went to school is becoming the most important determinant of what you end up doing in life. The £140,000 or so that it takes to educate a child privately looks like a bargain if it significantly boosts their life chances. You only have to look the senior positions occupied by people who went to local schools to see the importance - Chancellor of the Exchequer (St Paul's), Labour Leader of the House (St Paul's Girls), Hammersmith MP (Latymer) and the likely next MP for Ealing Central and Acton (Notting Hill and Ealing). Top positions in the civil service, the BBC, national newspapers, law firms, the City are dominated by people from schools like this. For this reason many people regard prep school and 11+ exams as the most important of all and it is hard to argue with their reasoning. We went down the state education route and the outcomes look to have been quite good in our case. However, it would be wrong to pretend that we had a choice as we weren't really in a position to pay for private education. It would also be wrong to pretend that the state education system offers anything that is comparable to top local private schools at the secondary level. Most children who excel at local state schools do so with the help of private tutors covering areas where the supplied teaching is deficient. |