I have never quite seen the point of private education. Studies show that educational outcomes are shaped mostly by socioeconomic backgrounds. If you are from a stable home you are just as likely to get good grades from a state school as you are an independent one.
So why would a middle-class family with an able child pay for a posh school when their kid could get the same academic outcomes for free? Hard to say. For some, you just can’t put a price on keeping your kids incubated from working-class people, I suppose. However, since my own kids started secondary school (at the same place I attended in the ’80s) I have come to see the state system’s own limitations.
Most kids get on fine. But if your kid doesn’t enjoy, or naturally conform to, the one-size-fits-all model of modern state schools, it can be very difficult. There is not much choice out there for parents who are unwilling or unable to pay.
Most academies are preoccupied with tedious processes and stifling, data-driven performance indicators. Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter Most state schools are big and many kids get lost in the faceless grind, both socially and academically. One of the defining terms in secondary education is ‘resilience’.
The idea they pump into kids is that they must learn to face ‘challenges’ (ie, the legitimate misery school can impose) with bravery and stoicism. In other words: life sucks.