Seaford school sold in secret deal

[Brovion]

How did this get on to private education per se?

BarrelofFun started it!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

BarrelofFun started it!

Nothing like a good pre-good friday debate!

On the Uni front, I thought you were talking about elitism of grades etc.

University is not quite there (financial elitism), although impoverished students stand little chance to go, due to high costs of living.

 

[clarkey]

University is not quite there (financial elitism), although impoverished students stand little chance to go, due to high costs of living.

This is true, but there are more and more state school pupils going to university. More than ever before I believe. Whereas the Government are squeezing every last penny out of the parents of private school pupils, meaning many, including myself may not be able to go due to the cost.

I go to a private school, only because I have a scholarship, and I can say that although there are some very rich people there, most are no richer than the average Briton, me included. I have to admit that the system is corrupt, people getting scholarships for ridiculous reasons, but it doesnt mean these children do not deserve an education.

I am actually quite shocked at some of the posts here slating the private system, and the people who go to private schools, which is pretty disgusting seeing as 400 people may have had their education ruined through no fault of their own.

 

[Gwylan]

... 400 people may have had their education ruined through no fault of their own.

That's exactly the sort of comment I was talking about in my previous post. I'll say it again: if you want the 'benefits' of private education then you should accept the risks.

Of course, the parents of these kids aren't blameless: no-one forced them to send their kids to a school that was going to close. It's sheer hypocrisy to whinge about it.

 

[simonsimon]

The Anglo Saxon MODEL of Capitalism will always throw up winners and losers.

Those WHO back the wrong horse, be it educational or business orientated suffer the consequences.

Thatcher's vision of society just magnifies these failures.

 

[The Large One]

That's working on an assumption - to use your allegory - that we don't have a say in training that horse in the first place.

As has been said, fee-paying schools do not guarantee excellence or quality, no matter how much they claim it. Far from it. Society itself moves on at a far greater pace than many schools are prepared to acknowledge. Therefore, the pupils they spit out from their systems may struggle to cope, especially those that have been geared for success. They are the ones who fall hardest when the don't live up to their own society's (and all of its rules) expectations of them.

 

[simonsimon]

Trainers rarely back their own horses.

Thatcher cared for no one but her own social climbing snobbish class.

Those who brought into this corrupt system and then failed deserved all they got.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

What is worse, though? Parents who have the financial means opting out of the state system and using the private system, or wealthy middle class parents opting out of the local state system and sending their children to much better schools in other boroughs, meaning the local children who should be able to go there can't? I'm thinking of the likes of Harriet Harman, who opted to send her son to a grammar school in Orpington because she didn't feel the Peckham schools were good enough. It's this thing of having to use the state system because you must stick to your "socialist" principles that gets me. Such people are not improving the state system by using it and insisting that it improves; they are using their clout to get the best places in boroughs where they don't live. There is a school in Enfield which is over-subscribed by Islington pupils, meaning that Enfield pupils have to go elsewhere. Anyway, I do not have an axe to grind over private or state education - I was slating greed. As I said earlier, I went to Ardingly, but I am now a governor at West Hoathly Primary School, so I have a foot in both doors, and would willingly use it if I had kids of my own. Saying all this, do not knock Ardingly. It gave us Adam Virgo, who benefited from one of the finest football schools in the country; they gave up rugby years ago, and have as their head of football Graham Dawtrey, a former Albion reserve.

 

[Monkey Man]

if you want the 'benefits' of private education then you should accept the risks.

Of course, the parents of these kids aren't blameless: no-one forced them to send their kids to a school that was going to close. It's sheer hypocrisy to whinge about it.

So you're saying that private schools regularly close down in the way that Newlands has and that the parents of the kids that went there knew that was about to happen?

 

[Gwylan]

So you're saying that private schools regularly close down in the way that Newlands has and that the parents of the kids that went there knew that was about to happen?

Of course not. BUt they knew (or should have known) that there was a risk of it closing. Private businesses fail - that's what private enterprise means.

 

[Monkey Man]

Of course not. BUt they knew (or should have known) that there was a risk of it closing. Private businesses fail - that's what private enterprise means.

So when I pay a plumber to fix my boiler and he goes bankrupt the next day, taking my £100 deposit with him, it would be sheer hypocrisy on my part to complain since he is a private businessman and I should have known this was a possibility? Are you advocating the nationalisation of everything?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

So when I pay a plumber to fix my boiler and he goes bankrupt the next day, taking my £100 deposit with him, it would be sheer hypocrisy on my part to complain since he is a private businessman and I should have known this was a possibility? Are you advocating the nationalisation of everything?

The wellbeing of the nation doesn't hang on whether your financing of a broken boiler falls apart.

The wellbeing of the nation is greatly affected if schools fail kids.

And it's one of the responsibilities of the institutions of state to ensure that this doesn't happen. Sadly, in the case of Newlands, families have put themselves in a very high risk position, probably without realising how fragile the private education system can be.

Fortunately for them, the Local Education Authority is there to help pick up the pieces.



Incidentally, in the case of your boiler, you can always pay by credit card and protect yourself from the consequences of a plumber's bankruptcy.

 

[The Large One]

The story of the Newlands, according to one parent whom I got the story from yesterday, appears to be that when the long-standing headteacher retired around 20 or so years ago, he effectively handed the school on to his family. When he died, it soon became apparent that the children were not that interested in keeping it as a going concern. Hence, it was kind of left run itself, which, without proper support, was always going to be problematic.

I am not going to go so far and say that this smacks of Archer and Bellotti-type behaviour, but the parents (i.e. the customers) are not made aware of the situation, they have every right to feel angry.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

The story of the Newlands, according to one parent whom I got the story from yesterday, appears to be that when the long-standing headteacher retired around 20 or so years ago, he effectively handed the school on to his family. When he died, it soon became apparent that the children were not that interested in keeping it as a going concern. Hence, it was kind of left run itself, which, without proper support, was always going to be problematic.

I am not going to go so far and say that this smacks of Archer and Bellotti-type behaviour, but the parents (i.e. the customers) are not made aware of the situation, they have every right to feel angry.

Reminds me of how Hannington's apparently packed up, at least that's the story I got from a taxi driver.