It’s the question that every parent has to face – how should I educate my child? Not only is it a very difficult question to answer its also a very personal one. I attended no less than 5 different schools, from Primary Age up to leaving school at the age of 18. Some might argue that I actually attended 4 schools but my very first school changed its name and its whole set-up when I was still there. After leaving school I went to work in a Government run school in Zimbabwe which I thought was fantastic.

The first school was a small Primary school in a little village in Cleveland. As I was still very young I remember very little of this school but I seem to recall that the standard of education was high and despite only attending for about 2yrs I developed well. The teachers were strict, but they were dedicated to their jobs and when I left the school I was at ‘the right stage’ in my education. There was a uniform that I was very proud to wear and the classes had between 20-30 pupils in them.

The second school was a much larger Primary School in a large town. I only attended this one for about 3yrs. I was a student of ‘average’ intelligence and still seemed to develop quite well. Although it was hampered somewhat by the bullying which I received there. The teachers where generally of a good standard, many of them with a quite traditional outlook on discipline and teaching methods. I never seemed to struggle with any of the academic subjects and I was also involved in several out-of-school clubs such as woodwork, and for a short time Gymnastics. The major mistake this school made for me was to tell my parents that I was 'totally unmusical, and would never learn a musical instrument’. This was said after those that wanted to learn the violin where given basic music tests (pitch and beat, etc) and I failed miserably. The sporting side of the school was also pretty reasonable, although having no playing field
s of its own it meant travelling to the local park for sport. I seem to recall that there was no uniform – although we still had to be dressed smartly – no jeans or tatty clothes. The class sizes here where also between 20-30 pupils.

The third School was a Middle School in a large town in Bedford. This school failed me miserably. The sporting side of the school was good with a wide variety on offer and this was as much as I can say in its favour. In my first year at this school I started to learn the organ, outside of school, and progressed very quickly (thought my last school said I was unmusical!!). After learning this for a short time it was decided that I should take up the opportunity to learn an instrument at school. There were ‘County Council Instruments’, which were shared between several schools, and there happened to be a Clarinet available. I took up it and was taught very badly – I did managed to pass my Grade 4 Clarinet before leaving the school but the technique that I was taught was completely wrong. In my last year at the school I was elected as ‘Deputy House Captain’.

This was the first school I had been in which had Houses and I often wore my house colours at sports day with great pride. After a few months I was preparing for Auditions for Music Scholarships in various schools around the country (my organ teacher lived 35 miles away and I was either doing my music, or my homework so the best option seemed to be a school where I could have everything together. During this time of preparation I was finding the pressures of deputy house captain too much and so asked if I could be excused from duty for a while. This was immediately seen as an unwillingness to put in the effort and was demoted straight away – later when they finally realised what it was about we did get half an apology. I had a friend who was a fantastic linguist and she had similar problems whilst preparing for entrance
exams at private schools as they were the only ones which would allow her to study a variety of languages for GCSE (I seem to recall she was learning Russian, French, German, Spanish and Italian).

The other major problem I had with this school was the academic side of things. After having quite good at school in my previous schools I began really struggling. Again this could be down to the bullying but I don’t think that was to blame. The standard of teaching was abysmal, so bad in fact that when I left to go to my next school I was three years behind in Maths and English (not good considering they are they key subjects required to get by in life). I noticed that those children that were particularly bright were NOT allowed to work ahead, instead they were forced to work on the same things as everyone else – invariably this led to boredom and then they played up – often being branded as ‘naughty’ children. There was a compulsory school uniform which I again wore with pride (well some pride, as it wasn’t that great a school) and class sizes again were 20-30 pupils.

The fourth, and final school, which I attended was a specialist music school. As I’ve already mentioned the strain on our finances, due to long travelling distances for lessons, and the time being spent on this my schoolwork was at jeopardy. There are no state schools in the area we live in that give the option of Organ lessons so we were left with no option other for me to go private. I applied for several schools, 2 of them Specialist Music schools, the others ‘normal’ private schools with good music departments and was accepted at St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. This school operated with the aided place scheme, which is different from the assisted place scheme, which is/was being phased out. Basically what this meant was they looked at my parents income and calculated how much they had to pay. The fees (per year) at tha
t time were around £17,000 but this included all music lessons, boarding and academic fees. It was only on arrival at this school we discovered how far behind I had become in my school work and the teachers worked extremely hard to get me up to the same standard as my other classmates. I took Scottish Standard Grades, Highers and Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CYSY) and passed all of them very well – the school because of its small size had a 100% pass rate in all subjects at all levels!!!

The class sizes were VERY small, between 3 and 10 pupils per YEAR (there were only 50 pupils in the whole school aged between 7 and 18). School uniform was compulsory for Juniors at all times, but was only worn by seniors at major school functions, such as the end of term concerts (all outside concerts were either black and white, or concert dresses). Discipline was generally very good, although being all artistic people there were some who were very eccentric and had there own ideals of how they should be treated. We had our fair share of scandals, with sex and drugs, but no more than any other private school, or indeed state school. It was an ideal school for me as music practice and lessons were timetabled into my school day meaning that homework could be done during ‘homework’ time. In my last few years at the school they introduced a Head Girl/Boy system and Prefects – however this wasn’t done in the normal way. Prefects were usually ALL pupils in their last year at the school and the Head Girl/Boy was from the group of prefects by all pupils in the senior part of the school. Whoever got the most votes won!

The school that I taught at in Zimbabwe was a secondary school that was run by the Government – a Zimbabwean State school – although in Zimbabwe ALL students whether at Government or Private School have to pay. It had 1500 boys aged between 12 and 18 and class sizes were very rarely below 30! School uniform wa
s absolutely compulsory (any boy not wearing correct uniform would be sent to explain himself to the deputy headmaster, and then invariably sent home to change). There were prefects and a head boy/deputy head boy who were chosen by the ‘top three’ (Headmaster, Deputy Headmaster and Senior Master) and the prefects were chosen by the staff in a staff meeting. All boys are actively encouraged to be proud of their school and by the end of the second week at the school new boys are expected to know the school song off by heart. In addition to this before big rugby (or other major sporting events) ‘war cry’ practice is held in the school gym (where assemblies are held 3 times a week) for all boys to make sure that they can join in on the big day.

Boys entering the school in Form 1 were all given tests to place them into their classes. There was an ‘A’ stream comprising A1 and A2, then the ‘B’ stream that went from B1-B7. There was also a ‘remedial class’ for those boys with severe learning difficulties. Basically after the tests were marked the boys were placed into classes in order of their results – the top 30 average results went into A1, the next into A2 right down to B7. This may sound very cruel but in actual fact is worked extremely well. You knew the approximate level of the boy’s academic abilities and could plan your lessons in accordance. Also at the end of each term the top 3 in each class were ‘promoted’ and the bottom 3 ‘demoted’ – allowing those boys that had been wrongly placed, or those that had simply not learnt enough at Junior school to pass the initial tests, to progress further.

On the non-academic side of things this school excelled in all things. It had the best rugby team in the country, best public speakers (my husband being one of them  ), best drama and best chess (to name but a few). The house system was very much i
n place with the Academic, Sporting and Cultural ‘Shields’ being passionately sought after by each house. Discipline at the school is very strict with VERY bad behaviour usually resulting in ‘being whacked’ ie 3 whacks of the cane (this can ONLY be administered by the three senior members of staff at the school), manual labour for slightly less serious offences (manual labour in this case basically means being walked round the very extensive school grounds (with a prefect) and being made to pick up litter, and detention for minor offences such as not going homework or general petty silliness in class. When I first arrived at the school I was horrified to discover corporal punishment being used and initially avoided sending boys down for it, however within a couple of months I saw that it DOES work and DOESN’T affect the boys long term (my husband can vouch for that).

If I was to try and describe this school in just a few words I would describe it as a Traditional British Public School, the pride, commitment and passions of the pupils doesn’t usually have to be ‘instilled’ as they naturally find themselves drawn into the spirit of the school community. The old boys networks is extremely extensive and old boys though out the world receive quarterly newsletters updating on the latest news.

As you can see from the above I have had a fairly comprehensive experience of various styles and types of education (except for home education) and with that in my I shall now attempt to lay out some of the pro’s and con’s of Private and State Education with a little of my own views on educating your child at home.

PLEASE NOTE: When I use the term ‘generally’ below I acknowledge that it is NOT always the case in all schools.

Private Education Pro’s

- Generally you will find that the variety of academic subjects is much wider at Private Schools. Although some st
ate schools do offer subjects such as Latin and European languages (other than German and French) they are very few and far between.
- The range of non-academic activities are usually much more expansive at Private Schools and many offer scholarships for those that excel in them (regardless of academic ability). These often include Music, Arts, and Sports.
- Scholarships are also available at most schools for those students that are particularly bright academically. In addition bursaries are often available to help those students who would not normally be able to afford the fees.
- Generally the teachers tend to be of a higher calibre with more commitment to their work.
- In my opinion, the existence of prize giving and ‘houses’ develop a healthy sense of competition – whether we like it or not the ‘outside’ world is a very competitive place in terms of Politics, Sports (look at the Premiership League in Football!), and the general workplace. With the existence of prizes of house competitions pupils learn how to compete fairly yet with passion a skill that can only help them once they leave school.
- Because of the compulsory uniforms students develop a pride in their school, along with a commitment to help improve it. This is often continued on after leaving with ‘Old Boy (or Girl)’ groups/reunions.
- Class sizes are smaller resulting in more attention for your child.

Private Education Con’s

- The cost is probably one of the biggest cons of Private Education – fees can range between £3000 - £20,000 a year making it well out of the reach of many parents.
- For the above reason it can be seen as ‘Elitist’ as it is only available to those that can afford it (but aren’t BMW’s and 5 Bedroom Houses in the country too?)
- Because of the view of those that think they are ‘Elitist’ your children may suffer bullying from those in your ne
ighbourhood –particularly if they are boarders and are therefore only around during the holidays.
- If they have to become boarders there is a chance that they may suffer from sever homesickness (even with older pupils at senior schools it can happen).
- If they are day pupils you may well find that you have to provide your own transport to get them to school, or let them make their own way there.
- There can be a pressure for them to ‘be in with the crowd’ – which is fine if you have the money. However, if you’re only just able to afford to send them there then the latest Mobile Phones, Laptops and Designers Clothes may be well out of your reach.

State Education Pro’s

- Its’ free!! Obviously this is a major advantage as it means that absolutely anyone can afford to send their child to school.
- Transport is often provided for students living longer distances away – this reduces the pressure on the parents for having to pick up/drop off their children.
- Generally your children will mix with a larger proportion of the local community – obviously there are more ethnic minorities at state schools so your child will learn more about different cultures and be more tolerant towards them.
- Some state schools have excellent teachers and academic records – why pay money if you have a good state school round the corner?
- Some state schools do offer a wide variety of non-curricular activities, so if your child isn’t too bright with their books they could find something else to excel at.

State Schools Con’s

- Unfortunately there are not many good state schools around – if you’re lucky you may just happen to live near one, if not your child’s education could suffer (like mine)
- Teachers are often unmotivated and not very well trained – this I must admit is due to a lack of Government incentives – but it sti
ll affects your child’s education.
- Most state schools do not offer many extra curricular activities – those they do offer are often very limited and the resources are often not very good (not useful for people like myself who are musical)
- Because many state schools do not have a uniform pupils often do not feel that they really ‘belong’ to a school – this often leads to them simply not caring.
- Prize Giving and Houses are virtually non-existent in today’s state schools - as I’ve already mentioned we live in a very competitive society and if they are sheltered from this at school they will struggle in the ‘real world’.
- Class sizes are often very large, this results in some students being left behind or almost ignored.

Home Education Pro’s (I know very little about this type of education so my points shall be brief)

- You can monitor exactly what your child is learning, and make sure that they receive extra help where needed.
- There are no distractions for your child – naughty kids, drugs, sex (and yes they happen in both Private AND state schools.
- You can plan your holidays, and other important functions without worrying about your childs education being disrupted.

Home Education Con’s

- Your child will have very little interaction with other children – they could miss out on some vital social skills.
- There is a risk (especially if you are teaching them yourself) that they may not cover everything that is required in the National Curriculum and they may miss out on things such as school trips and scientific experiments.
- If the tutor you have for you child is sick it can be very hard to find someone to replace them – at school there will usually be a replacement teacher available straight away.


As you can probably tell from most of my comments above I have had a pretty bad experience of sta
te education. I know that not all state schools are bad but I feel that because the good ones are so few and far between people should be allowed to educate their child privately. I hope that when my son starts school we are in a position to send him to a private school (even if that means small sacrifices for us) – I want him to develop the same pride in his school that my husband developed in his school in Zimbabwe. You must remember that not all Private schools are extremely expensive indeed some may only cost as much as you are currently paying for your child’s nursery places! In my opinion it is a very personal choice how you educate your child and I believe that if you can afford it (and want to) then you have every right to send your child to a Private school. It no longer has the same social stigma attached to it as it used to and there are many ethnic groups (particularly Asians) already using them. I hope that in-between all of my ranting you have found some useful pointers to consider when making the biggest decision about your child’s life – their education.