Guest 717- Registered: 16 Jun 2011
- Posts: 468
#1
Here's an interesting topic....a fantastic idea to improve local children's lives or a new system likely to be abused?
Keeps politics to myself
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#2
i caught a glimpse of that report a day or two ago the k.c.c. councillor was talking about how we can do better for kids in care.
once i looked further i discovered that it was a lot cheaper to send kids to posh private schools than to keep them in care.
i suppose i am being cynical.
Guest 676- Registered: 1 Jul 2008
- Posts: 521
#3
Are we talking public school or private school?
Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#4
On the surface it looks like a win win situation for both sides, the children get a good education and the council saves money.
Boarding school I think.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#5
it is boarding school, to be honest i do not know what the difference is between public and private schools.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#6
howard we have two [2] in dover. dover colledge and the duke of yorks millatry school.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
#7
Heck my socialist principles are going to take a bashing here but due to a limited number of schools in Jersey I have arranged for Natascha to attend a fee paying school as from September. She was required to sit and pass an all day entrance exam to obtain a place at the Jersey College for Girls. As you can imagine many families have the dishdosh on this island so therefore there has to be a filtering system based upon on merit and ability as well as being able to afford the fee's.
The fee's, uniform and trips,vacations,extra curricular activities costs are prohibitive to so much an extent that I may have to start working again (but I am far too lazy and old..joke) to pay for them but who would meet these costs for the child from a care home? We all know that kids can be cruel and a child from a care home background could find themselves stigmatised or bullied if they didn't conform etc. I know thats an appalling slur to make on todays children and society but it's a sad fact of life. I have tried to instill in Natascha the belief that she should treat others as she would like to be treated and not diffently just 'cos they come from a richer (which is more often the case) or poorer background than us.Whether I've succeeded or not only time will tell.
Finally I want to try to give and Stinker the best possible start in life by sending her to a school where academia.discipline.hard work and manners still matter and are rewarded. I'm not sure that I would want to spend the next 10 years scraping the money together in order to send her to a school where (a) there were children that 'had' to be accepted and forced to attend under some government hair brained short lived impratical scheme that risked being scrapped under a new government and (b) a higher risk of a disruptive element within the classroom as children from different backgrounds resented that they had been compelled to attend rather than have a willingness to attend.
I appreciate I sound like a typical snob but I can assure you that's far from being the case however I can forsee all sorts of practical problems arising from this idea. Surely the real answer is, as I've always advocated. is that a good education should be available for all based upon ability,application and hard work not based upon whether your parents can afford it or not.
I am just trying to be a good Dad...and not always succeeding.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#8
Marek - yes we do know children can be cruel and can be picked on for the colour of their hair, background, just about anything really, but that said sending children to private schools from deprived backgrounds is not new. There has been assisted places schemes, burseries etc that have done just that. One early act of senseless vandalism by Blair was to drop a very successful scheme of just that type.
Good luck to your daughter at her new school.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
#9
Barry
Yeah I know about the system you mention and it's a good idea but this thread is marked 'vunerable' children having not read the article what is meant by 'vunerable' that sounded completely different to subsisdising talented kids to go to a ''grammar type'' school who normally wouldn't be able to afford it.
I thought these vunerable kids were juvenile offenders etc. If I have misinterpreted this scheme then please ignore the above previous posting. I'm all for kids having equal opportunities.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#10
Often it is one in the same Marek.
Guest 717- Registered: 16 Jun 2011
- Posts: 468
#11
Some interesting replys here. I can see the good and the bad points. One woman on the news emailed that why should hard working parents, who cannot afford to send their kids to private schools, have to pay for kids to go when they already pay taxes to help their drug addict parents. A strong view perhaps the kid can't help the family it's born in to. I wonder if private schools will be as excepting as they make out they will be should the scheme go ahead?!
Keeps politics to myself
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#12
I fully expect the children to get everything they need at these boarding schools, it will all be arranged through their social worker. I bet they will find it easier to get involved in "extra curricular activities" than those parents, like Marek, who will have to provide for their children.
By vulnerable I think it means those in care but not lucky enough to be placed with foster families.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 659- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 331
#13
It's a ridiculous idea based on cost savings. Children in care often have challenging behaviour. Teachers at boarding schools will often not be equipped to deal with this. Then you have the half terms and summer holidays, when the other kids go home where will the care home kid go? When youngsters are talking about their families and getting their phone calls how will the child in care feel? It is all very well saying they will benefit from a better education but my guess is that most kids will just run away. What is needed is a home and school environment (not one or the other but both). Generally these kids get neither and simply finding a solution to one part without the other will not work because stability, relationships and "family" security are not being provided.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#14
I think Ripple Vale school already caters for this type of pupil? not sure though does anybody else know?
Audere est facere.
#15
Kathy is right. Education is about more than school and more than an academic issue. Children who challenge will need more than a firm hand and few books. And transplanting a set of kids from one environment to another is potentially explosive. Not thought through properly, unsurprisingly.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
#16
Thanks for the clarification everyone. I love this forum.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#17
Martin P - that is quite correct. It is a private school specialising in very difficult youngsters. Chris and his team do a great job there.