private education for 2 bratish oops sorry british boys! haha

Hiya,

Contrary to that opinion I had a look at both private and state education, including speaking to people who had been through the system and their recommendation was the standard of state education was actually better.  The teachers are better qualified, they also run according to the UK curriculum etc.  Apparently the private schools (not all) are not so particular about the standard of qualification or standard of teaching with their teachers.

I would definitely investigate state education in more detail before you make a final decision.

This is purely my opinion so be sure to thoroughly research this.

Hope you get sorted,  I also have a son of 12 who will be starting school in September, until then he is stuck homeschoolinng with me....hehe  He will be relieved to get to school I think  hehe

Good luck.
Jules.x

Oh my goodness Jules! i have a 12 year old and there is no way i could home school him! for starters he already knows EVERYTHING!  and like mum is so not cool and has no idea of real life!!!!i get comments like... eh? wha ya chattin? i think that actually means...excuse me? i didn't quite understand that!  ha ha ha.  I will explore all avenues but my main priority is that my boys are taught to English standards just in-case they wish to return to the UK.

Amanda x

lucyanya wrote:

Hiya,

Contrary to that opinion I had a look at both private and state education, including speaking to people who had been through the system and their recommendation was the standard of state education was actually better.  The teachers are better qualified, they also run according to the UK curriculum etc.  Apparently the private schools (not all) are not so particular about the standard of qualification or standard of teaching with their teachers.

I would definitely investigate state education in more detail before you make a final decision.

This is purely my opinion so be sure to thoroughly research this.

Jules.x

I concur with the do your research bit. There are 2 things guaranteed with private education - small class sizes and teaching in English. Everything else is open to debate I guess. We have certainly had issues with the school we chose and wouldn't unreservedly recommend them. But we also know a family who use the State Schools and they are really unhappy - mainly because their kids are not being taught in English - despite assurances beforehand they would be, and bullying from Maltese kids.....so research is good, but you won't really know until you've spent some time in the system yourself (or rather your kids have).

Tim

Hi Tim,

Do you not find that the British kids are more the bullying kind.  I have found this to be so in both UK and Spain, and also when my brother went through the Maltese and UK school system, he said the only problems he ever had were with UK kids.  I know a lot of Maltese people send their kids to private school also so private school doesn't mean on UK kids only there but I am surprised you have suffered bullying to a large extent.

I would be very interested to hear more.

Hi Jules,

Just to be clear, my kids have not been bullied, sorry if I gave that impression. Also I don't want to make a big deal out of it because it really hasn't been much of an issue for us...I just mentioned one instance that I personally know about in the context of why that family was unhappy at one particular State school. I know of only a couple more instances of bullying (both at private schools) but I don't want to go into details as it it mostly hearsay.

My kids do tell me who the "trouble makers" are at their school and it is a mix of both Maltese and UK. So, I wouldn't say one nationality is more or less likely to bully, at least not without some hard evidence to back it up.

Tim

From what I've heard, the teasing and in some cases bullying is more towards non-Catholic kids, rather than immigrant kids per se

Amanda,

You mentioned that you would like to maintain a UK education for your kids. My partner will be joining me soon here, and we are thinking of getting her to offer private tutoring. She is over 8 years in the UK secondary system teaching GCSE English Literature, with experience of Language and Media Studies as well, she is second in department, and responsible for Literacy in her school. She might be useful for you?

I have PM'd you if you want to discuss it at all...

Cheers,

Jack