The answer on independent schools is: what is the question?

Should you send your child to an independent school? Is it worth the fees and angst? As we enter the thick of the applications season, Keith Miller looks at some of the chief worries affecting parents

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Boys at Harrow SchoolPhoto: Michael Walter / Troika; Eleanor Bentall; Photolibrary.com; Alamy

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Pupils at Stowe schoolPhoto: Michael Walter / Troika; Eleanor Bentall; Photolibrary.com; Alamy

By Keith Miller4:07PM GMT 27 Jan 2011

Comments

1 I am worried about the rocketing cost of higher education and wonder whether my money wouldnt be better served supporting my children once they get to university. Isnt private secondary education now just one luxury too many?

A glance at the league tables, or a straw poll of the best universities intake, suggests going private is still the best way to maximise your childs chances of getting into a good university in the first place. Of course, market-style reforms may yet mean some colleges, and courses, cost more than others.

2 Should we be giving our 10 year-old extra tuition to prepare for 11+ exams, or are the questions tailored to test innate intelligence, rather than acquired knowledge?

In theory, about half and half. Most 11+ exams are organised around maths, English, verbal and non-verbal reasoning; the first two will reflect the National Curriculum, the others less so. Bu! t practi ce makes perfect; if your child is at an independent prep school there will be a culture of preparing for the kind of questions 11+ exams will ask. If not, tuition is worth considering.