Pugsy

Mitzy would be so proud of you lot.

But just IMHO there's no way I'd put my kids thousands of miles away in an unstable, unlawful african country, sorry. But have a jol, really!! Stay safe.

Tegwyn

I agree completely. There are so many people desperate to get out of there for the sake of their children. I know of so many that left for that very reason and even more that are still in the process of getting the hell out. They can afford the private schools but that is not their main concern. But, to each their own. If after all the news about what is going on does not raise red flags then the best of british luck to them.

whalewatcher

I second or third that. South Africa, now and for the forseeable future, is a bad atmosphere for children to grow up in. I was strongly motivated to move back to the UK to shield them from it. It wasn't just a matter of keeping them physically safe, but protecting them morally and culturally as well.

We've been lucky to get our kids into a really good state school, there are many! But I also think England is a much more nourishing environment intellectually for people to grow up in. Here you can soak up ideas just walking down the street. Doesn't matter how good a school you go to in SA, once you step outside it you're in an information drought.

Daxk

Whalewatcher,this is an honest question,before I left SA in 2004/5 I was offered a very good position in Birmingham,Tipton.
I turned it down as I had heard so many horror stories about English Edu,the Health service,unfriendliness,etc.
Yours is the first positive post about a state school in the UK

Pablo

I made one earlier. Most Grammar schools are still part of the state system, for all Labour's efforts to destroy them in the name of "equality". So are Church of England schools, and Catholic schools. Any school where the ideologues and social engineers and "educationalists" cannot interfere tends to be good.

Pugsy

Whalewatcher, you're so right. It's not just the physical safety, it's protecting their innocence, their spirit. I don't want my kids knowing of the atrocities committed, particularly those committed against children. And I don't want them living in some bubble either.

On a positive note, we also have had a great experience with our UK life and state school. We're in Spain for hubby's job just now, but won't hesitate to go back to Wales one of these years and to put the children back in their old schools. Small class sizes, high academic standards, high tech. facilities, rugby and football pitch, lot's of extra curricular, etc. We're in private now, but I'm not hung up on that. I'm committed to them receiving an excellent education though and many state schools can provide. Hence some of the very high house prices in the good school's catchment areas!

whalewatcher

Hi Daxk. As an NHS/Grammar school product with 'Made in England' stamped on my backside I just don't recognise the country I lived in for 30 years in these Daily Mail-type stories, so often passed around by South Africans who've spent a year or two in London. No doubt there are rough spots, and I'm not sure Tipton would have been the best area to go to, but if you get out of London and the inner-cities you'll find swathes of normality.

We got our kids are into an unremarkable semi-rural primary school. If we'd found a private school in the Cape peninsula as good as this we'd have been over the moon. Committed teachers, involved parents, a good ethos, lots of extra-curricular activites. Feeder for a very good secondary school. Our kids love it and are thriving there. Moreover we looked at several others in this ('lower-middle class') area which would have been as good. The Ofsted reports are your friends.

Old Lob

hire a car but not one as attractive as a mercedes. Listen to the warnings. Even Durban is getting dangerous now.

Daxk

Thanks Whalewatcher, I figured as much as i have many friends in the UK whose kids did and are surviving quite well.
It's semantic as I moved to Ireland and in the same way,stayed the hell away from the larger cities and towns.
I am extremely happy with our choice of School here as well as the feeder Secondary.

Pablo

Daxk,

I see our old friend 6000 has been busy misrepresenting you and also posting that the people on this site are "disgusting racist expats". He seems to have caught on to the ANC habit of shooting the messenger. And meanwhile South Africa descends into chaos.

whalewatcher

I'd forgotten about 6000. But I sympathize with him. He's only been in the Cape a few years; for my first 5-6 years I sounded like him only more so. If you come to SA after a lifetime in the UK the light and space of the Cape puts the zap on your head. So surprised to find yourself where you are and doing what you're doing that you try too hard to fit in. After you've acquired about 7 years of memories you feel like you fit in, everything's normal. That's when you suddenly realise this isn't normal, you'll never fit in. You don't have to come from outside Africa to feel like that, so it currently appears.

Now I'm back working in the UK for a great boss - who is black! I wouldn't have gone to SA if I was a racist, I haven't left it as one. My opinion of the ANC...that's a different story.

Pablo

I'm glad you're settling back in to UK life, Whalewatcher. As for our friend 6000, I used to have a certain sympathy for him too - but that sympathy has been much diminished by his dishonest attack on Daxk, who is, I believe, a decent man. As you suggest, 6000 is in for a very rude awakening.

Tegwyn

I wouldn't bother too much with labels. People who usually cannot defend the obvious resort to the "racist" label as a last resort, hoping to shut up the OP. It is ineffective anymore. What is screaming from the headlines about the vicious bloodlust his comrades in SA manifest, the term racist is a compliment by comparison.

Daxk

Naaah I was stupid, I started with a bit of irony and then allowed myself to venture onto a battlefield I was'nt qualified to fight on.

I must admit the man is Good, and he is intelligent, but it was also time he got me back for passing his post on Conditions in UK Hospitals over to his ex-superiors for comment..

I'm afraid I was hoist by mine own petard this time. but thanks for the compliment.

Pablo

He has learned a few sophistical tricks and he uses them dishonestly. As for your UK hospital spat with him, if he hadn't been lying he wouldn't have needed to worry.