Prep or Indie

[eleven]

I Can only afford to pay for 5 years of DC's education in the private sector. The dilema is do I send DC to a prep school and then grammar or state primary school and then an Indie?

[Rimsky]

If we were starting over I would definitely go for state primary, then you can do some extra support from year 5 in order to make sure that you are ready for the exams.

[mangomum]

Hi Rimsky
Please bear in mind that school fees are a lot more expensive in senior school
Then prep . Also there is a lot more to pay besides the fees such as uniform, music lessons, residential trips and even exam fees. Plus if you are looking for entry at 13+ competition is still very fierce and subjects examined even more. Lastly, if u go the stare school route then you still have to tutor you child for 13+ or pay for tuition.
Having said all that I'm not saying that sending your child to a prep school will make it easier to get him or her into a good grammr school.brcause most prep schools will not deliberately educate to a standard that makes it easy for the child to secure a place in a prep.
It's not a decision you ate faced with but lots of luck.

MangoMum

Ps Most indie schools offer scholarships and means tested bursary at 11 + and 13+ so you might be able to get assistance if your child is bright enough.

[faitaccompli]

I went down the route of prep school and then grammar for my son. Whether it will pay off, who knows. What is has done is given my initially rather shy child four years of teaching him to be confident and independent - something which I obviously encourage at home, but was backed up by the school. Parents evenings minimum 3 times a year with chats with teachers as often as I liked, full backing from the head teacher for appeals for 11+ (fortunately not needed in the end) and some fantastic opportunities (things like Latin club, superb sport coaching, fantastic after school clubs). Some state primaries offer this, but not that many. So often children are lost in the mele. The school is selective, so that also helped I think.

Looking at the grammar schools, many of them appear to have as good facilities as my son's senior school if he had stayed on. But of course I am bound to say that as this is what I have chosen for him!

[Reading Mum]

Same here ( so far )

We hope for GS having paid for Indie since DD was 4. In that time she has had a love of learning totally instilled in her. She has been supported and given challenges, we have had excellent feedback on her progress from the teachers. If we are not successful in getting to GS I hope we will get some sort of scholarship at current Indie to continue. There were no scholarships on offer at junior level.

[Rimsky]

That all seems to make sense. I suppose there arent any good grammar schools in our area and we wouldnt feel it right to suddenly swap them out of the private sector at a this stage. Switching into a grammar at 11 would have been great - maybe we should have moved!

[faitaccompli]

That all seems to make sense. I suppose there arent any good grammar schools in our area and we wouldnt feel it right to suddenly swap them out of the private sector at a this stage. Switching into a grammar at 11 would have been great - maybe we should have moved!

We have moved (well, moving on 10th March) - Bedfordshire has no grammars, plus I didn't want to swap him suddenly out of the private sector to a comprehensive where he would be playing football and rugby against his old team mates - so we are moving to Marlow in Bucks (which is where I am from anyway!) to continue his education and, probably more importantly, be close to family as my mother is in and out of hospital at the moment.

It was slightly easier as I work from home and being a single mum, there was no other adult to consider - just what was best for my son.

However, this only became an option in November, we only got the go ahead to take the Bucks 11+ late December as I missed all the deadlines, did nowhere near enough exam prep with him and we were very lucky to qualify - for anyone wanting to go down this route, for goodness sake make sure you do it in time! I really don't recommend the route we took!!!

[Waiting_For_Godot]

I think your decision is dependent on where you live. If you live in a grammar school area and it is grammar school that you want for your child then I'm not sure there is any point paying for prep school at all. Be prepared to do the hard work though and have plenty of free time to enrich and stretch. If you work full time and have little time then a prep school that feeds to a grammar may be of use.

Some prep schools do not prepare children to cope with comprehensive or grammar school environments so be careful in your choice of prep school.

[hermanmunster]

I did the private primary until 11 and then state GS - worked fine for us - good work ethic which helped hugely in senior years - also no SATS

[browneyedgirl]

It does depend on your child and whether you are in a grammar area and the choices you have. But if you know you only have a finite source of funds I would save the money for senior level and get a good tutor and do work with them yourselves at primary level. I don't think there is anything at KS2 you couldn't help them with and they may get into grammar or even a scholarship and you could save the money for university..........