Places at yr 8 and beyond

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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qpootle5
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:19 am
Location: surrey

Places at yr 8 and beyond

Post by qpootle5 »

Just wondering whether places at yr 8 & up only become available when pupils leave a school or do the schools make room for extra children?
qpootle5
Waiting_For_Godot
Posts: 1446
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:57 pm

Re: Places at yr 8 and beyond

Post by Waiting_For_Godot »

Most senior boys schools (which remain boys or become co-ed) originally only started at Year 9. With development of pre-prep and prep departments senior schools often start at Yr 7 now but they generally always have another intake into Yr 9. Normally what happens is the 11+ entry is a small entry (usually state school pupils) and the new Yr 9 entry was always the number they intended to have. So they don't make extra classes as they have always been in place but they now accommodate Yr 7 & 8 which they did not use to do.

As for girls schools there will be more classes created for the prep school entrants that come in Yr 9 although many girls tend to move on at Yr 7.
guest43
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:06 pm

Re: Places at yr 8 and beyond

Post by guest43 »

And just to add to that...Many independent schools will operate with a desired and maximum number per academic year. Obviously some pupils leave over the course of Senior School for a variety of reasons (moves away, explusions etc!) and if this lowers the numbers below the desired number then the School may be amenable to new entries.

On the other hand they may wish to minimise the disruption (academic and pastoral). For example my DD school inherited some pupils from a local inde school that closed who had not studied a page of French, so to fit in with timetabling etc (and the impossibility of being able to catch up) the new arrivals are having to study (Ancient) Greek instead!

As with all matters relating to independent schools the best approach is always to talk to the relevant school directly.
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Places at yr 8 and beyond

Post by hermanmunster »

agreed re flexibility of indies... depends where they are and the local competition they cannot always have the luxury of turning people down. DD was joining a prep in an area where another school was closing (with less than a terms notice). When she joined, there were quite a few other new kids who had all come from the closing down school - I gather the local indies were very keen to accommodate as many as poss... in case they ended up in the same boat as the closing school!
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