Two of ours went to private schools and the others went to ordinary secondary schools. Our private students performed marginally less than the others in the Leaving Cert and left school with less street-savvy.
I believe if the pupil wants to achieve any objective he/she will work towards that private or public. Incidentally, all of them are professionals and earn the same as each other.
I'm not going to brow beat you into doing what you don't wish to do, but take it or leave it I think you'll need a Plan B. And I think you're the kind of person who will have Plans A, B and C.
You are right, i do like to have a Plan A, B, and C!
Our preference would be to send both kids to a state school. The problem with schools in our proximity is that they can generally be broken down into the following:
- One private school which historically gets excellent results (if you judge by school league tables, which is a different debate!) and has a very good reputation generally. We would have a good chance of getting the kids in, as i am a past pupil myself. However, i do hold an opinion that this type of school is not suited to everyone, and weaker students can get left behind and end up hating their whole school experience. I think these such kids might do better (both socially and academically) in a state school
- A state school with a very good reputation and although significantly lower than the private school above in league tables, we would be delighted to send our kids there. However, places in this school are very much in demand. It is unlikely we will get in unless we have an address in the catchment area. Houses in this area attract high prices, partly because of this school. The downside is that we would be moving slightly outside of the area we've settled in & slightly further from our wider families, but still not far.
- A state school in the area we live in now. It has on ok reputation and i believe kids generally do well here when there is a good emphasis on education at home, which there is in our case. League Tables wise, it is significantly below the state school mentioned above. A big advantage is we would be staying in the area. However, we might still need to move house or else build a large extension to our current house. That would take up a lot of our garden, which would be a big drawback for me
- The remining state schools in the area have really terrible reputations. This is well-known historically in the areas, not just on League Tables, which they barely feature on. We are not considering these schools at all, even though housing stock in some of the area are good and the areas are nice.
So it is quite the dilemma. I think we need to move house either way. The question is do we try aim for the area with the good public school, after which we would have a valuable asset having bought there? Or do we focus on a decent house in an area we are happy to live in, but not break the bank in terms of having a mortgage that will prevent us sending kids to the private school?