We have pooled thoughts on the NHS, how about education?

Yes ronib Peter Symonds college is brilliant and highly sought after. As an inspector I worked with some Hampshire comprehensives and standards were very high.

Maizie D but of course, private schools contribute to the economy. Teachers, admin, groundsmen, matrons, cooks etc all pay their taxes and National Insurance! The local economy, hotels and restaurants benefit from visiting parents.

Hoist with my own petard there, ronib 😂

The alumni of the major public schools are not interested in ruling as such but more likely to be successful and energetic business men, investment bankers, lawyers, medics and even engineers!

I'm sure that we could manage without them. There are plenty of talented non private school educated people ready to take their place. They might even be better than them...

Forgot to mention Winchester seems to have an excellent state sixth form college….

CLC has always had an excellent academic record, also St Paul's and Wycombe Abbey spring to mind ronib.

Joseanne

I really have no interest in how you feel volver, but I do remember you using that same word yesterday evening around this time! And no one else has.

It perhaps was not used on this thread- but it certainly was in others on the same topic. Certainly the concept of politics of envy.

Seems Winchester is taking girls from September 2022 but sixth form only.
Not the most appealing prospect..,,

Mamie

Cheltenham Ladies' College, Benenden, Roedean etc Ronib?

I don’t know anyone at these schools so can’t hazard a guess.

That's me told.

I really have no interest in how you feel volver, but I do remember you using that same word yesterday evening around this time! And no one else has.

Joseanne

volver

That's my excellent state education that enables me to select the right word at the right time to encapsulate the way other people think I feel.

Well then you're very mistaken, (London comprehensive education here!)

So you don't think I feel jealous? Good.

Then why did you point out that in your opinion, I'm the only one who uses the word "jealous"?

Or do you think that I'm mistaken that my education was an excellent one?

I think Winchester takes girls.

Cheltenham Ladies' College, Benenden, Roedean etc Ronib?

volver

That's my excellent state education that enables me to select the right word at the right time to encapsulate the way other people think I feel.

Well then you're very mistaken, (London comprehensive education here!)

I don't dislike independent schools per se, I went to one myself and remember the arty farty environment with some affection. My DH less so, especially being hit on the head with a bible by the RE teacher.
I do think that there is a lot of rubbish talked about how superior they are to the state system and we certainly didn't chose them for our children.
My granddaughters have done brilliantly at state schools and could not have got better grades anywhere.
I don't think independent schools are charitable institutions deserving of tax breaks. They don't promote equality of opportunity, which happens to be one of my fundamental beliefs.

Mamie

"Business men" ronib? No women?

Winchester, Harrow and Eton are unlikely to produce business women as male only. Rugby probably does.

That's my excellent state education that enables me to select the right word at the right time to encapsulate the way other people think I feel.

Its only you who uses that word "jealous" volver.

This is a grave misconception just because people dislike public schools.

Its not a misconception we have in my house Joseanne.

It might be comforting to think that people dislike public education because we think that everybody that comes out of them is a toff, or we are jealous because we can't afford it, but it would be wrong. As people have said time and time again on this thread.

"Business men" ronib? No women?

Actually using CH as an example, I don't believe the school is, or ever was, a remarkably political place due to the diversity of its intake. Talking of alumni, one of my uncles educated there became a Labour MP for 20 years, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Health Minister. Just because pupils attend private schools, it doesn't mean they all turn out like the "toffs" associated with Eton or like some of the arrogant types currently in office. This is a grave misconception just because people dislike public schools.

I believe that bear baiting and cock fighting made positive impacts on the economy. We stopped doing that because it was wrong though.

Of course private schools aren't as awful as cock fighting. Mostly.

I think the alumni of Eton are very interested indeed in ruling.

Maizie D but of course, private schools contribute to the economy. Teachers, admin, groundsmen, matrons, cooks etc all pay their taxes and National Insurance! The local economy, hotels and restaurants benefit from visiting parents.
The alumni of the major public schools are not interested in ruling as such but more likely to be successful and energetic business men, investment bankers, lawyers, medics and even engineers!

1. The top public schools own land outside England and a hostile government will encourage relocation of buildings, staff and pupils.

That's fine. They're welcome to buzz off. They don't exactly contribute to the economy, do they? And we can do without their alumni thinking that they are entitled to rule us...

I don’t want to appear too contrarian but
1. The top public schools own land outside England and a hostile government will encourage relocation of buildings, staff and pupils. The schools will continue.
2. I believe that universities enforce more social class rigidity than private schools. Put simply, if you want to be a Labour politician and your family is wealthy go to LSE. If you prefer a more conservative mindset then PPE at Oxford seems to be the route.
3. The argument around private education and privilege has been discussed for years and years. I think that British society remains in the main hierarchical, rigid and fairly static regardless of whether or not individual children are privately educated.

I'm not sure that "working class" is the best description though as it conjures up images of dockers and factory workers. You don’t have to be working class to be relatively poor in terms of income.

That is a very narrow view of 'working class'. My DP's father worked at the main GPO sorting office in London and his mother did clerical work. Not exactly middle class. DP says that the 'middle class' pupils were mostly sons of clergy, not a highly paid profession. And there was the upper income limit (with ways round it). I wouldn't say that CH was by then 'truly' a charity school but it retained more of its charitable ethos than did Eton

I assume that its property holdings in the City were a result of the fact that it was originally a central London school and had charitable endowments from wealthy central London property owners. Who had no idea of how valuable they would be 2 or 3 centuries later...