{"id":61573,"date":"2018-01-16T08:15:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-you-should-park-your-prejudices-when-picking-your-kids-school\/"},"modified":"2018-01-16T08:15:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:15:28","slug":"why-you-should-park-your-prejudices-when-picking-your-kids-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-you-should-park-your-prejudices-when-picking-your-kids-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School<\/b><\/p>\n

Choosing your child\u2019s school is one of the worst parts of being a parent. Having just completed my son\u2019s secondary school application, I\u2019ve certainly felt how stressful it can be.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure many of you are anxiously awaiting the results of your choices right now too. You\u2019ll have trawled Ofsted reports and attainment tables, had endless conversations with friends, or you might even have suddenly found God to get your kid into a faith school. All to land that coveted place you believe will equate to a life of endless happiness and success for your beloved.<\/p>\n

You might also have prejudices about state schools. After all, record numbers of kids now go to private schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, before I moved here from Salisbury, I thought state schools in London meant unruly pupils, drugs and knives, with incapable teachers struggling to cope with too many kids with no interest in learning.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m lucky to have done well in my career, so thought I\u2019d be stumping up to send my kids to private school, where they\u2019d be safe and well-educated. However, when it came to my son, it wasn\u2019t so straightforward. Having seen the sacrifices my sister made to educate her kids privately, I wanted to make sure it would be worth it.<\/p>\n

So I obsessively researched all state and private school options and the education system as a whole. I looked into the data behind school performance and what factors may be influencing outcomes and what really determines a good school.<\/p>\n

I watched talks by Ken Robinson<\/a> on how little the education system has changed since the Industrial Age. I even got into the psychology behind the choices we make with Daniel Kahneman\u2019s \u2018Thinking Fast and Slow\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I thought about my friends, ranging from those who went privately to those who went to rough estate schools.<\/p>\n

Then I thought of my own personal experience.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a first generation Egyptian immigrant and I arrived in Britain as a child not speaking a word of English. However, I made it into a highly selective grammar school. Which, by the way, did little for my future academic success – I left school at 16 and didn\u2019t go to university, despite growing up in a family of academics. But whatever our educational background, my friends and I have all done pretty well for ourselves.<\/p>\n

All of this combined to challenge my previously held beliefs. What became apparent is that school choice is a small factor in determining a child\u2019s future success – academically or in life. Yet we\u2019re obsessing about giving our kids an education that may be irrelevant to the future workplace they\u2019ll be entering into anyway.<\/p>\n

In our current age of tech, innovation and AI, what role does a school system designed for the Industrial Age have now? Unless of course you want to be a lawyer, doctor, teacher or scientist. Surely teaching our kids creativity, the value of diversity, a love for learning and being a decent human being are far more important than academic success by way of systemised exams and rote learning?<\/p>\n

True diversity is something you rarely see in private schools. And it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if fear of diversity is what drives some people towards the private system in the first place, with the percentage of pupils with English as a second language and the number of kids getting free school dinners cited by some middle class mums \u2013 based on my personal experience – \u00a0as to why a school isn\u2019t good enough. Which is a complete fallacy – it\u2019s often kids of first generation immigrants who work hardest at school. They come from families and a wider culture where jobs in the likes of medicine and law are the aspirational professions of choice.<\/p>\n

There are of course some children from socially deprived backgrounds who do struggle in the school system. The latest research shows that kids from the poorest households are two years behind when they sit their GSCEs<\/a> and those on free school meals and receiving pupil premium are 27% less likely to achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C<\/a>. But this is more to do with their circumstances of birth rather than the quality of the school \u2013 it\u2019s because they\u2019re less likely to have books at home, to have space to do homework or have parents who have the time to help them with it.<\/p>\n

It stands to reason that a school where most kids are from affluent and highly educated backgrounds, where their parents can afford additional tutoring, and has an admissions policy that selects kids that are likely to perform well academically, will have higher academic results compared to a school where most kids come from less privileged backgrounds. But how much of that is down solely to the school itself?<\/p>\n

When I chose my son\u2019s secondary school, my decision was based on its inclusive culture, diverse curriculum that embraces creative and academic subjects equally and its strong community ethos. The kids are representative of the wonderful diversity we have in London and particularly a borough like Brent where we live<\/a>. It also has a respectable level of academic achievement, which I\u2019m sure comes from happy kids in an environment where they\u2019re supported in a way that suits them – where everybody can thrive no matter what their background or abilities.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the kind of education money simply cannot buy.<\/p>\n

\nwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/why-you-should-park-your-prejudices-when-picking-your-kids-school_uk_5a54e0bae4b0cd114bdb3686<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School Choosing your child\u2019s school is one of the worst parts of being a parent. Having just completed my son\u2019s secondary school application, I\u2019ve certainly felt how stressful it can be. I\u2019m sure many of you are anxiously awaiting the results of your choices right … Continue reading Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/why-you-should-park-your-prejudices-when-picking-your-kids-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why You Should Park Your Prejudices When Picking Your Kid\u2019s School Choosing your child\u2019s school is one of the worst parts of being a parent. 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