i went to 2 state (public) schools from the age of 4 to 12, and then from 12 to now ive been in 1 private school.
ive liked and hated both public and private, but for different things.
the private school im at has better education generally, except for maths which theyre a bit crap at teaching, but they teach everything else well. the only problem is the rich ppl here are mean (they dont do stuff like give money to charity) and a few are really stuck-up. when i started here i found that in general ppl were friendly to each other but really unfriendly to new ppl. if you want to fit in, you need to start when youre really young - if you start late, like i did, then it will take years for some ppl to accept you. once youre accepted, its great, its like a big family... the only prob is u have to wait for ages for that feeling!
the public schools were friendlier to new ppl and it took quicker for ppl to settle down and fit in, but there wasnt so much family feeling. the PE lessons at my first school were virtually non-existent (in one year i had about 2 PE lessons per year) and at my second school they were absolute hell - there was this huuuuge field that they made you run around nonstop, even if u were asthmatic, and if u took short-cuts like cutting corners, you were made to run around it properly 4 times for each corner u cut. generally the PE lessons at my private school were better - a good compromise between the not-enough-PE of my 1st public school and the too-much-PE of my 2nd public school - the only problem with PE here is that at first no one would have me on their team for any sport cos i was new and it takes ages for new ppl to be accepted.
what i hated about all the schools ive been to is the bullying and how little teachers do about it. at the public schools it was mostly physical bullying and at private school it was mostly verbal and psychological, and a lot of body-language stuff like ignoring people. again the attitude to new ppl sucks - the ppl who have been here ages used to ignore new ppl like they didnt exist.
now im 18 and every1 in my year group is 17 or 18 now and theyre a lot nicer now.