Grammar or Independent?

zorro · Post by **zorro** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:40 pm

Loopyloulou,
Have sent you a PM.

melinda · Post by **melinda** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:55 pm

A thought I have - and it is only small- is how long does the scholarship last? It it guaranteed year on year?? Or just for the first/second year. I don't know how these work.
This might influence your choice. But in the end it is where you'd be happoer sending her and where she would be happiest.

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:02 pm

I personally think it shouldn't be up to a child to decide where she/he wants to go to school - they do not know what is best for them. Only if you cannot make up your mind and its a 50/50 either way would I consider my kids views depending on what they were.

Snowdrops · Post by **Snowdrops** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:11 pm

I wouldn't advocate allowing a child to chose his/her school either, but if it's down to a choice of two, and there's litereally nothing in it, then I don't see whay a child can't have the final choice.

Scholarships are effective for the duration of the child's education at that particular school.

Bursaries need to be assessed/qualified/awarded year on year.

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:16 pm

For me, it depends why they want to choose X school over Y. If it was because their friends were going there but if they weren't then they would choose the other school then I certainly wouldn't let them have the choice because friends at primary are often not friends at secondary. Similarly if they like a school but don't want to go there because they think its posh then thats not a good enough reason to listen to them because maybe once they hit adulthood they may have wished to have been in the posher school, and the school may not even be posh and does a 10 year old really understand what posh means? The only version they have heard is that its negative, whereas being posh is not negative.

Post by **mitasol** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:26 pm

Port Out Starboard Home

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:30 pm

p.s I am NOT posh!

Snowdrops · Post by **Snowdrops** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:36 pm

I agree wholeheartedly Tipsy, I wouldn't allow my child to select on the basis it's because where their friends were going.

In our case our DD is the only one from her school going to any of our chosen indies and (fingers crossed) her chosen GS. We know without a doubt if she says she likes the school it's because she genuinely likes the school and not through peer pressure or wanting to go just because someone else is going (but if someone we DIDN'T like was going to a school we liked, it would certainly put us off chosing it - by that I mean someone known to be a bully).

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:47 pm

Have to agree with the bully aspect. Since taking son out of choir school we were looking for another one in Oxford but the only one with boarding (which we need) has a child there from DS's old school and that boy bullied him for over a year and seriously traumatised DS. So we had to rule that school out!

capers123 · Post by **capers123** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:32 am

Snowdrops wrote:I agree wholeheartedly Tipsy, I wouldn't allow my child to select on the basis it's because where their friends were going.

We allowed DD to look round the two comps where some of her friends will be going. One was just too far away, and the other was just so calm & quiet that it wouldn't have suited her. Luckily she realised this for herself. Had she been set on that school, we'd have had to somehow dissuade her.

So it was a toss-up between the local comp (poor reputation but improving, with good, buzzy feeling, its own 6th form and good with bright children and arts) or the slightly closer girls grammar. It was decided not by us, but by the 11+. The up side of the grammar is it has a boys grammar next door and they share a lot of the buildings (music, CDT and science) and have some joint school clubs. And she'll have 1/4 mile less to walk each day.

Even if we had the financial wherewithal to pay for private, the only one we would have considered is some way away - a difficult journey especially at rush hours. There is a closer one, but we're not that keen on it.