Why do British royal children not go to state schools like the Scandanavian royals?

Totally agree Casdon moving into a good schools catchment area, renting a small flat within the catchment area even giving a relatives address who happens to be in the catchment area are common practice in U.K.

The schools admissions department have to become amateur sleuths these days.

volver

No. Twisting the words again Callistemon.

Although anybody who thinks its sensible to make little Johnny/Jeannie commute goodness knows how many miles on goodness knows how many buses just to get to a primary school isn't displaying great traits of normality.

The nearest primary school which could offer a place to my DGC and some if their friends was 6.1 miles away and needed 2 buses to get there. It wasn’t even because they lived in a rural setting, just that the nearest schools were full.
The benefits turned out to be immense-apart from the travel costs.

GC number one has just had absolutely amazing GCSE results. I am so proud.

And yet, as she goes to a top private school, she has had full timetabled lessons throughout Covid (via Zoom), and then thorough help to revise and prepare for exams, from teachers, parents, grandparents who have top degrees in most subjects, access to a quiet room with a computer, books, and so much more. As every child should have had, EVERY single child. Not just my GC or some of yours.

This concept of grading for schools and school choice is unique to the UK- and yes, does lead to massive cheating. My sil and bil actually bought a property in a 'great school' area, so that their GD could go to that school. They spent a few night here and there at that address, to pretend they lived there.

Grammaretto

That's nice to hear Katie59
Comprehensive schools were very scarce in my day and the local secondary modern had a bad reputation.
However I wasn't happy at the grammar school so I was always going to be a misfit.

I don't find that "nice to hear" at all. Dyslexia does not mean low intelligence. Why would it be "nice" to hear that the expectations for bright people, being disabled in a way that will not stop them being able to learn given help, were so very low. Would that be okay for someone who was clever but blind, or deaf?

just that the nearest schools were full.

That's what I mean, and I don't mean it argumentatively.

Society seems to accept that its OK for small children to be bussed 6 miles away when there is a closer school that is "full". Schools shouldn't be "full" If your child needs to be educated, they should be close enough to pop home for lunch! I know that this is how it is, but why do we put up with it? Why aren't we putting pressure on governments to fix education even at this level?

I suspect its because many people are shrugging their shoulders and just saying, "oh well, education is f***ed, we'll just pay privately."

Did you actually read Katie59's post DaisyAnne?
She said she had been happy and had not felt a failure at her secondary school and it sounded as though even the pupils with learning disabilities were catered for.
That is what I thought was nice.

Of course they are volver and then under those you have the shifting houses to get into certain schools.
One of the things that happens though which substantially causes schools to begin the decent into failure is that schools with low numbers have to take children who have been excluded from other schools. The result is that a school which wasn't doing too well and was just passable becomes a "sink" school on its way to complete failure. Then the parents who can mange to so move their children to another school and the school slips lower. There needs to be some other method of dealing with excluded pupils

you cannot have mixing with the rabble who pay for them through taxes etc

just that the nearest schools were full.

That's what I mean, and I don't mean it argumentatively.
I didn’t suppose you did, but having fought for classes of no more than 30, it was difficult to ask for a place specially for my DGS (who has ASD). We took him to school, to avoid the buses. (He could have gone to a school nearer us, but he didn’t live in the catchment area so they wouldn’t accept him.)
Better that than being told I had to accept a 40th child in my class because the parents had argued for it. ??

Norwegian royals have no choice as there is no private education there, Spanish royals go to private schools and many royal offspring come here to go to Eton and Harrow

Mollygo

just that the nearest schools were full.

That's what I mean, and I don't mean it argumentatively.
I didn’t suppose you did, but having fought for classes of no more than 30, it was difficult to ask for a place specially for my DGS (who has ASD). We took him to school, to avoid the buses. (He could have gone to a school nearer us, but he didn’t live in the catchment area so they wouldn’t accept him.)
Better that than being told I had to accept a 40th child in my class because the parents had argued for it. ??

Couldn't they have had 2 classes of 20 each?

I know, I know that there isn't enough funding. But where there's a will there's a way...

volver

Mollygo

just that the nearest schools were full.

That's what I mean, and I don't mean it argumentatively.
I didn’t suppose you did, but having fought for classes of no more than 30, it was difficult to ask for a place specially for my DGS (who has ASD). We took him to school, to avoid the buses. (He could have gone to a school nearer us, but he didn’t live in the catchment area so they wouldn’t accept him.)
Better that than being told I had to accept a 40th child in my class because the parents had argued for it. ??

Couldn't they have had 2 classes of 20 each?

I know, I know that there isn't enough funding. But where there's a will there's a way...

From where are the schools going to conjure up extra classrooms?

Schools are insured for a set number of pupils, this number is non negotiable under the present system.

I wish, Volver! Not enough classrooms in those days, we already used the hall and our classes were already split age groups. I had R/Y1 and TAs didn’t really exist. Such fun!
Thankfully we have expanded a lot since then.

My parents sent me to a private school until I was 11 when I passed the 11+ and went on to Grammar. They were ordinary working people who had moved several hundred miles from our hometown in the North of England, where I happily attended a state primary school. On moving to a rural area, I was bullied mercilessly for my northern accent and additionally the learning was very much behind what I was used to. The Head teacher was not interested and called me timid and lazy! I had been a bright and happy child, doing well academically; then I became so miserable I had nervous eczema and was constantly physically sick. There were no school places anywhere else so private was the only choice short of moving back up north. My parents did not particularly think this was the best choice but it was the only one they had and they scrimped endlessly to pay my school fees and later those of my younger sister. Please do not judge those in private education. It is entirely up to parental choice. And I will be forever grateful for the exciting and varied world of learning that private school opened up for me which may have been closed forever if I had stayed in that state school.

Extra classrooms: We have an army barracks in our town and when we were due an influx of army children an extension was built in record time onto their nearest school. As Volver says; where there's a will

Mollygo

I wish, Volver! Not enough classrooms in those days, we already used the hall and our classes were already split age groups. I had R/Y1 and TAs didn’t really exist. Such fun!
Thankfully we have expanded a lot since then.

Buy a Portacabin

I'm full of bright ideas ?

They should go to state schools. It would do them and the state system the world of good.

The answer isnt extra classrooms or temporary classrooms. When numbers rise in a school beyond the optimum level it impacts on everything not just the class room, space and capacity for meals, room for PE and on and on. It if you are very very fortunate it means a new build.

Can you imagine the bullying they'd get at a state school? That plus pushy parents sucking up to whoever collected them each day in the hope of getting a playdate?

MaizieD

^I’m glad we could give our children an education which best suited them.^

I'd be interested to know what it was that made private education more 'suitable' for some children? Can anyone explain further?

I explained our reasoning. Which quite valid at the time.

volver

Mollygo

I wish, Volver! Not enough classrooms in those days, we already used the hall and our classes were already split age groups. I had R/Y1 and TAs didn’t really exist. Such fun!
Thankfully we have expanded a lot since then.

Buy a Portacabin

I'm full of bright ideas ?

There were Portacabins for all 3 first year forms when I started at the grammar school.

By the time I was in the upper sixth we were allowed to use one as our private common room for breaks and free periods, furnished IIRC with various unwanted manky old sofas but we loved it. I well remember enjoying a coffee and an illicit fag, with the Beach Boys (Good Vibrations) on someone’s transistor radio. Happy days! (Apart from imminent A levels of course.).

Sara1954

I I knew next to nothing about dyslexia, but when my son started at the village school it became very clear that something was wrong.
I spent two years arguing with them, they said he was lazy, disruptive, failing to engage in lessons. His teacher kept showing me other childrens work, and comparing it with my sons, to point out how useless he was.
Our daughter was at a girls independent school, and financial considerations had decided us to leave our son at the village school till he was eight, but we knew we would be doing a lot of harm.
We took him to another independent school, not mentioning anything, when we picked him up they asked if we were aware he had a serious learning problem, probably dyslexia. We were so relieved, and within months he was starting to read, with a lot of help.
Not saying this happens everywhere, but I don’t think it’s an isolated incident.

It was a very steep learning curve, wasn't it Sara. Interesting, we had almost a reverse experience. We started with our local state primary. After two years, they told us that my DD "was a problem" rather than had a problem.

We moved her to a prep school that had a good reputation in the "3 Rs". Looking back, I realise I would not have known what sort of "good" was needed as I didn't know what was wrong. Although, having had my son, who seemed to have "broken the reading code" at two, I realised my DD couldn't.

When we found her teacher had stood her on a chair to tell the class how stupid she was after a spelling test and that other archaic methods were in use, we moved her again. The only school with places in our small town was the one to which no one wanted to send their children. It turned out they were amazing.

Knowing I was concerned, the Head Teacher asked what I wanted. I said I just wanted my happy, outgoing child back; I didn't care if she was "clever" or not. Within a few weeks of gently coaxing her out of her shell, they tested and found she was dyslexic. DD got extra hours with a dyslexia-trained teacher (they were rare). We then paid for further lessons when the inevitable cutbacks happened.

She made it into secondary school for us to find that, although we had been told they "specialised" in dyslexia, her English teacher thought it was a middle-class "get-out". We paid for outside specialist teaching as we didn't want to move her again.

She swept the board in her GCSEs except for English which she just failed. Staying on she started "A" levels while she got her English. We, including DD, now knew more about the system.

At the end of that year, she moved to the local College, was assessed and offered some help. Dyslexia was now widely recognised. She did BTECs and then on to an HND. Later, once she had started working, this was added to, giving her a Boris level Degree. She then moved into teaching and got her teaching qualifications. Changing the part of education she worked in, and while still working, she took a Masters's Degree. Once again she was assessed. Her dyslexia hadn't changed; the scores were the same. The educational psychologist was amazed at the coping skills she had acquired over the years. You may guess I am very, very proud of her as none of this comes without hard work and dedication.

Personally, my experience makes me feel that it is not the way the school is paid for that matters - we went a very different route with my son. It is their ethos and the quality of the teachers and how that fits your child. If I could have done, I would have paid the head and teachers in the local "sink" Primary School in gold bars. However, state schools in leafy areas were also underwhelming and we have seen good and bad from both State and Independent.

All you can do is be as knowledgeable as possible and hope that your research and gut feelings give you an accurate view. I certainly do not want the state provided educational system to be decided by other people's extremist political views. What I do want, is the cuts to stop and a well-funded, knowledgeable State system to be available.

Grammaretto

Did you actually read Katie59's post DaisyAnne?
She said she had been happy and had not felt a failure at her secondary school and it sounded as though even the pupils with learning disabilities were catered for.
That is what I thought was nice.

My apologies.

I seem to remember that Princess Anne's children attended a village school and George attended a state nursery for a while.

Few schools would be able to offer the heir to the throne and his siblings the education that is needed which includes time off during term time for royal duties. Behaviour and manners are very important for the royal children; not a high priority for state schools.

But the most important factor is choice. Parents have choices when deciding on how their children will be educated. Why would that choice be different for Royal children?

Behaviour and manners are very important for the royal children; not a high priority for state schools.

I actually just choked on my coffee.