What is Value for Money?

If you are going to pay for private education in the UK you then have a very large choice of schools to pick from unlike the limited choice dependent on catchment area in the state sector. However this does give you the problem of which one to choose.Before we carry on let me just clear up one thing for those of you from America. In the UK private schools are often referred to as public school, especially the schools that have a very good reputation.

When you are looking at schools, remember you are the customer so shop around. The first choice is what type of student your child will be, a day pupil, and weekly boarder or a full boarder. Obviously if you are looking at your child being a day pupil you can only look at schools within a certain distance from your house but if you are looking at boarding you have the choice of all schools.

You can find lists of schools and advice on the Independent Schools Council website www. isc.co.uk.

What is the Cost

Price is going to be another important factor and most schools will have their fees displayed either on their website or on their prospectuses. A lot of schools have bursaries and grants available and it is worth checking what may be available. Private schools are not cheap.

So you have picked the geographical area and the schools that fall into your price bracket. The next step is to look at their websites and prospectuses. Private schools are businesses and these are marketing tools for them and so they should be highly professional documents that give you a general feel of what the school can offer.

Here are the Supa Swap suggestions of other things to look out for:

1. Exam results (although in my opinion these are not the most important aspect as some schools have a selective entry and so will have better results because of this)

2. Press releases

3. Extra curricular facilities, especially in sport and music.

4. Is there an entrance exam

If you know of anyone who has children at the school, talk to them. Personally recommendation is probably the best gauge of a good school.

Finally and most importantly, make an appointment to visit. have a tour of the school meet the Head Teacher and get a feel for the school. Ask difficult questions, what are their discipline policies, how does the school deal with bullying, what career support is given.

Remember you are the customer, there is plenty of choice in the market. Shop around and make sure you are 100% satisfied.

Is your Child a Budding Mozart?

Many children today have the opportunity of learning an instrument while at school. Schools have a number of peripatetic music staff who will visit to give individual lessons to students. However these lessons do come at an extra expense and with the added cost of buying an instrument it can be a difficult decision for parents to make.

So what is the benefit of playing an instrument? Of course not all students have a musical bent, and some are not suited for musical tuition. Most music teachers will give a consultation lesson to asses a students suitability for the instrument. Most of the time this initial lessons will be free.

Children can gain a great deal from musical tuition. It offers the ability to discipline their thinking in a way that they have probably never done before. As a further benefit there is probably the opportunity to get involved with choirs and orchestras, chamber groups and bands, and these groups offer the same benefits of being the member of any team.

Types of Musicians

Musicians tend to fall into two basic groups, those that work music in a very mathematical way and others who have a natural feel. Music is not as creative a medium as say art and it can be analysed in pure mathematics. A plus B makes a nice sound the same as 1 plus 1 equals 2.

Most schools have a stock of instruments that students can either borrow or rent, which can reduce the cost. However if you wish to buy it may be possible to pick up a second hand instrument. There are a number of places you can find these, local music shops, www.supaswap.com, the local paper and the school itself.

Do We Give in too Easily?

I want, I want, I want seems to be the endless cry at times from your children. iPods, iPhones, PS3, Wii, Trainers, New Jeans, the list is endless and what makes it worse is the phrase, but everyone at school has one.

Ok, I do understand that it is not always easy to refuse and the last thing you want is for your child to stand out in school for not having the basics to fit in. So what is reasonable and how do you know if everyone a school really does have these items or is your little darling feeding you a line to get what they want.

Cruel Children

We remember being a school, and how cruel children can be. Children will look for anything to make you feel small, your trainers are out of date, you don't have the latest game etc. So keeping up with the Jones is important in some ways but it does have a limit. Like a mini arms race it can escalate with parents and children trying to out do each other.

My advice is get to know your fellow parents. Lets face it, we are all suffering in the current global recession, some more than others. So when your are in the the same boat you should paddle in the same direction. Talk to other parents, ask them what they think and what they are buying.

It is also worth checking out www.supaswap.com where you may find just what you are looking for at a much cheaper price.

Don´t be emotionally blackmailed by your children. Know the facts, talk to people and be sensible.

Are Teachers Lucky?

More Record Results

It is GCSE result day today following the A-Level results and the iGCSE results earlier this month. If I was a betting man, I would have been tempted to say it would be a record breaking year this year for results and low and behold I was correct.

Now you may believe that I am amazing at predicting national results but the truth is the results have been record results every year for over 20 years. Do you smell a rat?

Now we at Supa Swap do not want to belittle the hard work of our students, however a number of leading academics are starting to question how hard exams are. On morning TV today, one academic, Dr Pike, showed a question on an exam paper which asked the student to identify which gas was most prevalent based on a bar chart. On the bar chart one gas was about 10 times higher than the rest, hardly a brain teaser and I would hope that most 16 year old students would not need any tuition to be able to answer the question. Isabel Nisbet, chief executive of exam regulator Ofqual rejected this criticism and claimed this question would be a warm up question. One wonders if she was part of a committee that decided that no one can win a race at sports day.

How does it Compare to the "Old" Days

Now I am so old I actually did O-Levels. I remember once a friend of mine, who was an examinations officer for a school, attended an examiners meeting. He told me of an off the cuff comment made by one of the speakers when referring to AS-levels, he said " for those of you who have been teaching for long enough, when I say AS think O-Level". Now I did 9 O-Levels whereas most students only do 4 AS!

Back to this mornings TV. One student was opening his results, live. He wanted a C grade for his maths, he had failed it three times. Well this struggling student passed with his grade C, he was so pleased as he wants to be a forensic scientist. I may be being cruel but if I have ever been arrested and am trying to clear my name, I hope he isn't the scientist examining my evidence, unless I´m guilty of course.

Has English has Gone Mad

As an owner of a little black dress I am fairly sure that I have never referred to it as a LBD, which has now apparently been added to the English dictionary as new word.

It is a fact that language changes slowly through the ages. Our own domain name Supa Swap is an example of this.

However, I’m sure that my English teacher at school, a frightening Scottish spinster, with a sarcastic tongue that could blister paint off a wall at fifty paces, must be spinning in her grave. If I had dared to use three disjointed letters as a reference to words and then had the nerve to tell her that it was new and in the dictionary, I would have been in detention (writing out endless pages from the aforementioned dictionary) until I was old and grey.

Today text speak dominates the teenage vocabulary and communications. If we continue to change our language for convenience sake at such a rapid pace, I do wonder if I will find that some day soon I am the one speaking the foreign language in my own land.

SupaSwap Result Report

Today is the day when thousands of teenagers find out what their hard earned toil has brought them. Yes today is A-Level results day. All the news programs have found a group of nervous 18 year olds to open their results live on the TV and commentators are answering the age old question, are the exams getting easier.
In fact, again this year there are record results and 1 in 12 of the exams have been awarded the new A* grade.  
The question of the exams difficulty is a dangerous one and runs the risk of belittling the achievements of this years students. No doubt the exams have changed radically in the last 30 years, with a heaver emphasis on coursework, and of course the hard work of the teachers, often berated, should not be ignored.

However I must say that my own worry is the next step for these youngsters. In recent years the policy of the British government has been that everyone should have the chance to go to university, as long as you can afford it of course. I completely disagree with this as a policy which I believe downgrades the value of a degree, increases the drop out rate (which funny enough no government quotes) and floods the employment market with a lot of potential employees.

Jobs Fit for Purpose

There are plenty of jobs in this world that do not require a degree but are just as important. Ok that may sound a bit Marxist  but think about it, how would we cope without someone to empty the bins and sweep the roads. Don´t get me wrong I am not getting at these people, I really do think they are important members of society. A degree is meant for those who can prove they are capable of learning to that level. Not everyone can.

Unemployment Looming?

However this year it is estimated that between 170,000 and 200,000 students will be left without an university place due to budget cuts. So what do you do if you haven´t got the course you want? Get a job, I can hear my father saying but ok that´s possible but you are only 18 or 19. Yes a job is useful if you can find one and during the year you can reapply for University. Travel is another great idea, broadens the mind as the old saying goes. Good luck to all of you from Supa Swap who have got your results today, you have your whole life ahead of you.