Is private school actually worth it?
With the Labour Government’s private school VAT policy hanging like a Sword of Damocles over already squeezed parents, I have found I am increasingly having blunt conversations with families about the return on investment from privately educating their child in the UK.
You might expect me, as someone who has taught and led in independent schools in London, that I would say, ‘Obviously, private school is definitely worth it’. But I would counter with questions:
For whom?
When?
How?
As a potential fee-paying parent, you deserve to have clear answers to these questions from schools. In a recent webinar with my colleague Mel Ingle, we unpacked these questions by looking at the value proposition of private education for three separate cohorts of children. You can watch the webinar below.
Watch the full webinar discussion
Academic alpha: stretch beyond the curriculum
One clear ROI of private education, particularly in areas that do not have grammar schools, is the academic ‘bump’ for high-ability students from attending a selective school.
Now, since many highly of these schools are cherrypicking from the top 5-10% of the cohort by IQs, strong performances in GCSEs and A Levels are almost a given. The value-add of this type of school (beyond raw grades) is the academic enrichment alongside examined courses, opportunities for senior students to drive the provision within the school themselves, and the pre-university preparation such as research projects, mini dissertations or presentations.
Westminster School
is particularly strong in providing academic enrichment beyond the examined GCSE and A Level curriculum, giving senior students opportunities to lead societies and publications
For bright, academically-inclined children, it can be a relief and a blessing to be in an environment with like-minded peers. These schools have perfected the peer-effect flywheel of encouraging their students to aim high.
Struggling learner: nurture and care
For children who struggle academically, with learning difficulties or sensory challenges, the transition from the familiar environment of primary school to a big, noisy secondary comprehensive can be too much. These are capable children who, with the right support, patience and care, can achieve wonderful things.
Thames Christian School
offers fantastic support, academically and pastorally, to children with additional learning needs, helping them to achieve excellent qualifications
Many families will move heaven and earth to pay fees for smaller, nurturing independent schools that have particular expertise in supporting children with SEND in a mainstream setting. Watch out for schools over-stretching themselves in the coming years, especially as smaller schools fight for survival. Schools cannot and should not be doing it all – if your child has this profile, then make sure that you connect with the SENDCO before enrolling your son or daughter, and that you get along with this key member of the management team, as you will probably be in fairly close contact over the coming years. Also, make sure you are clear what scope of SEND support is provided in the tuition fees. Some schools, particularly those owned by for-profit or private equity operators, can be cheeky about dumping a huge bill on parents for learning support provision.
Average child: dig into value-added scores
Having already explored the value proposition for children at the extremes of the bell curve, it seems only fair that we look at the silent majority – the academically average child.*
*Before you all jump down my throat, I am of course talking ‘average’ in terms of academic scores. Every child I have taught has their own unique personality, skills, interests and story. This is the roughly 55-60% of kids in the middle 'bell' of the bell curve, or those between 90-110 if you are in to standardised scores.
St Benedict’s, Ealing
has very strong quantitative and qualitative value-add for pupils, who over-achieve predicted exam results, and receive very broad education through their current affairs-based pastoral programme
For this sort of pupil, the ROI of private school is pretty clear in my view. A good private school for the majority will demonstrate strong academic value-add, helping these pupils over-achieve beyond their predicted grades. In my view, this is the metric that really matters, and where as a parent I urge you to challenge heads and academic deputy heads when you visit schools. For the majority of pupils, does the percentage of sixth form leavers going on to Oxbridge really matter that much? I would contend not – this is a vanity metric, peddled by usually highly selective schools that are essentially reaping the benefits of cherrypicking at ages 11 or 13. What really counts is what is the school doing to help your child unlock their potential? How do the teachers help your son or daughter achieve better results than they would have done in any other school? Getting over certain thresholds can make a huge difference further down the line. For example, if your child is in the middle of the bell curve, their GCSE predictions are likely to be 5s and 6s. If the school can help nudge a few of these up to a 7, then this opens doors to academically rigorous A Level courses in many selective sixth forms, and is the difference between ‘A grade’ territory (i.e. grades 9-7) vs pass grade territory.
Finding an academic value-adding school doesn’t always involve having to pay fees; I would urge you to challenge any secondary school you are considering for your child to rise to this question.
My personal bias is that, usually, smaller = better, as every child is known to staff and peers, although at secondary level too small can also be a problem; the sweet spot feels like 400 to 700-ish in an 11-18 school.