Is private school still worth the money?

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8th September 2022

Small classes, long school days, space for extra-curricular options and time to take part in them. Spending money on private education has long been seen as the best way to set a child up for success. Finding equivalent provision in the state sector is hard, if not impossible, and if something comparable exists, the chances are it comes with huge demand, tricky admissions criteria and a pricey catchment area. Opting for the fee-paying school which specialises in sport, arts, academics, or all three is attractive for those who can afford it. But in recent years, families are starting to question whether shelling out for private school, instead of furthering their child’s chances, might actually count against them in the future.

Above all else, a fee-paying parent expects an academic private school to guide their child towards a top university. Increasingly however, there has been a reported reduction of privately educated pupils going to leading UK universities. Pressure has mounted, in the name of widening participation and inclusivity, on Oxbridge and Russell Group institutions, to alter the social make-up of their student bodies. The Higher Education Statistics Agency issued every university with a benchmark for the percentage of places going to state-educated students, and the top universities now make offers according to ‘contextualised admissions’ which take into account an applicant’s background as well as the average performance of the school they’ve attended. In 2011, 42% of students starting at Oxbridge had come from private schools. For the intake ten years later, that number had dropped to 31% . If you look at the undergraduate intakes at THES’s top ten universities in the UK (including Oxford and Cambridge), the percentage of privately educated students has declined by 5% over the same period. If the trend continues then those numbers are destined to fall further.

Is state school a better option for your child?

Do these changes warrant a reappraisal of the benefits of private school? Would your child stand a better chance of getting into a top UK university if applying from a state school? Unfortunately, we don’t get to run a control experiment to see how our children would fare in different educational settings. When it comes to academic results, some state schools, particularly grammars can go toe-to-toe with best performing private schools. According to grades published by The Sunday Times Parent Power, of the 50 schools with the best percentage of A* and A grades at A level (from 2017-2019 – the most recent results unaffected by Covid), 41 are private schools and the rest are state grammars. Private schools have the upper hand with grades and grammars clearly demonstrate their value but other types of academically selective state schools have also achieved spectacularly in recent years’ university admissions. State sixth forms which offer places to students with impressive GCSE grades, such as east London’s Brampton Manor and London Academy of Excellence, now routinely record tremendous Oxbridge and Russell Group success stories. While these schools are hubs of academic excellence (90% of A level grades at Brampton Manor were A* or A in 2022) some of their pupils are also likely to receive offers to top universities’ thanks to the contextualised admissions process. A child coming from a family that could afford private school fees, would probably not.

Returning to that university admissions data, 31% of Oxbridge undergrads attended private school but we also know that only 16% of school leavers are privately educated. Despite all the moves to shake up admissions, private schools still succeed in getting a disproportionate number of their pupils into top universities. The ratio is not as skewed now as it was ten years ago but still demonstrates a clear advantage. And while the private sector’s numbers to Oxbridge may have taken a knock, they’re increasingly filling the hole left behind with admissions to Ivy League and other leading overseas alternatives.

While all state schools are judged on a raft of academic performance measures, most private schools offer something away from academics which set them apart. The Telegraph recently reported how private school alumni increasingly dominate professional sport - Millfield, a private school in Somerset, saw 20 of its pupils past and present compete at the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games. There are state schools which cater to talent outside academic subjects. For example, Twyford Church of England High School in London (pictured) reserves places for musicians; The Hertfordshire & Essex High School and Science College for sporty pupils. But limited resources mean these schools can’t match private schools. A place at a state secondary school is funded to the tune of £6,000 a year. Average fees for a private senior day school come in at around £16,500. Extra money makes all the difference when employing staff (the pupil-teacher ratio in private schools is 10:1; in state schools it's 17:1), building theatres and studios, and maintaining sports facilities.

What else do your school fees buy?

Is it all down to money? Yes and no. School fees pay for a lot but there are other features which don’t come from a cash transaction. At a private school, parents have literally invested in their children’s education. This results in a culture of high expectations, shared ambition, and a general feeling that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Private schools use their independence to go beyond the national curriculum. Subjects are studied for their own merits even though they may not contribute to the English Baccalaureate or a government-decreed push for future national productivity. The broader curriculum and longer school days give time and space to develop critical thinking and cultural knowledge. There tends to be a consensus between school and parents on matters such as targets, behaviour and discipline - all of which are common in state schools of course but long-established strengths of the independent sector where passing trends and political meddling are less likely to influence how a school goes about its business.

If you’re fortunate to have the choice between a state or private education, only you will know what’s the best fit for your child. Both have pros and cons, some apparent from the outset, others which may take years to be revealed. We believe that a school should be judged by the journey on which it takes its pupils rather than the destination university. For the foreseeable future, that journey is likely to be more comfortable and with a greater variety of passing landscapes, spent at a private school but if a child is dedicated to their studies, passionate about their subject and well taught, the destination can be Russell Group, Oxbridge, and professional and personal success, regardless of the type of school they attended.

Photo credit: Twyford Church of England High School

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