Are you working class?
I'm not judging just can't get my head around someone sending their kids to a private school!
The results ain't much better tan a good state school. If you're bright you'll get on. We can't afford private tuition but just couldn't to it to my kid.
That's a tough one to answer.
I was certainly born into a working class home, but nobody meeting me would ever guess that. I speak with a regionless accent without glottal stopping, I work as an accountant, I went to university, I spend good chunks of my spare time in proper restaurants (where I use cutlery correctly) or at the theatre, etc. I suspect one of the few things that would betray my upbringing would be that I lack the sense of entitlement many of those born in the better classes have instilled in them.
So what's the measure of one's class? The upbringing or the current lifestyle/behaviour? Whilst my class may be harder to define, that of my children will (barring a disaster) be be middle or upper-middle.
I can understand the pride most people have of their class background, but unless there's the possibility of transition across classes then what's the point in a class system? If there's no opportunity to better oneself then we may as well not bother mentioning class at all.
As for private schooling, those of my friends who went to good private schools are all in very good jobs with resonably successful academic backgrounds (edit: One of them's a slacker that fcuked off to Australia to doss but he was beyond helping even at 12), those who went to state schools are a mixture. I realise that this is skewed by the fact that I grew up near Portsmouth which is pretty much the worst educational distric in the country, but it also has one of the country's best private schools and those who go there almost invariably succeed.
I understand your point about how determined and able kids will succeed at any school, but I don't want to take that risk - I started off determined and able but finished school stoned and able. The route this led to meant an ex-poly uni education rather than the Oxbridge one that I should have had.
Much will obviously depend on the schools in your area - there's only one really good school in Chichester and it's a religious one. Unless the school are happy with me telling my child that when they start talking about Jesus stuff it's just story time like Harry Potter or Narnia then my child won't be going there. In which case the only options are:
a: Move to Winchester for the nearest really good state school
b: Pay for my child to go to Portsmouth Grammar
Despite seeming expensive, b is the cheaper overall option with far less upheaval for the whole family.
