Prep school students securing places at State selectives
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southbucks3
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Re: Prep school students securing places at State selectives
We have a situation in bucks where there is very little choice of private secondary schools, and a large amount of prep schools. Often parents remove children from state primary at ks 2. Year 3 or 4 to get the extra push from Indies towards securing a place at grammar.
This has been happening for years though, nothing new. In fact it is so normal no one bats an eyelid about it. Sadly the village schools lose funding as they struggle to fill seats left empty by the transfers, and ironically the absence of these children often reduces the class size, which is one of the things the parents are looking for when they move their child to indie.
Proportionally if Sally Anne's stats suggest 11% of in county catchment area places are taken from prep schools, then this year roughly equal amounts out of catchment passed the test as in catchment, 1/3 of these did not take places, so at a very rough estimate a further 7-8 % of seats from ooc came from prep, making 18-19% in total in the bucks area.
However the schools which seem t attract most prep students are both b &,g challoners, Becky high and rgs, which all have predominantly in catchment admissions, but their individual catchment include very affluent areas. Rgs has certainly benefited financially from relieved parents saving school fees, so by default so has my son....thank you!
To answer the second part, yes every child I know at prep is,also doing lots of tuition elsewhere, the parents do not want to take chances. However should the child still not gain a grammar seat, very few will transfer to the state sector uppers, if any.
One parent I know was complaining she had won her child's grammar appeal after paying the deposit for an indie secondary, so had lost the cash. I had to bite my tongue very hard.
This has been happening for years though, nothing new. In fact it is so normal no one bats an eyelid about it. Sadly the village schools lose funding as they struggle to fill seats left empty by the transfers, and ironically the absence of these children often reduces the class size, which is one of the things the parents are looking for when they move their child to indie.
Proportionally if Sally Anne's stats suggest 11% of in county catchment area places are taken from prep schools, then this year roughly equal amounts out of catchment passed the test as in catchment, 1/3 of these did not take places, so at a very rough estimate a further 7-8 % of seats from ooc came from prep, making 18-19% in total in the bucks area.
However the schools which seem t attract most prep students are both b &,g challoners, Becky high and rgs, which all have predominantly in catchment admissions, but their individual catchment include very affluent areas. Rgs has certainly benefited financially from relieved parents saving school fees, so by default so has my son....thank you!
To answer the second part, yes every child I know at prep is,also doing lots of tuition elsewhere, the parents do not want to take chances. However should the child still not gain a grammar seat, very few will transfer to the state sector uppers, if any.
One parent I know was complaining she had won her child's grammar appeal after paying the deposit for an indie secondary, so had lost the cash. I had to bite my tongue very hard.
Re: Prep school students securing places at State selectives
Well. there's an answer to that, as we say in our housesouthbucks3 wrote:One parent I know was complaining she had won her child's grammar appeal after paying the deposit for an indie secondary, so had lost the cash. I had to bite my tongue very hard.
. Presumably, she meant that it was a pain that the appeal date came after the cut-off for paying the indie deposit, rather than that they won the appeal ? ?Locally, we have five independent schools taking children of primary age, but only one with a senior department. Another, very small, 3-16 indie which had a girls-only senior department closed very suddenly right at the end of last term. Of course some will go to indies slightly farther afield, but I think most of the indie primary pupils are likely to come into / back into the state sector at year 7. 'Mixed' families are quite common and I have the impression that it is often the brighter child who is educated wholly within the state sector, with the less able being sent to the indie.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
Re: Prep school students securing places at State selectives
A lot of parents focus on the state selective schools because they can't afford the steep fees at local secondary level schools. I am guessing which prep school you mean and if I'm right, this prep is hardly the average fee paying school in the area. Not only is it not selective but parents often make sacrifices to have their kids there, hence the focus on going into the state sector for many.
Some children at state schools are tutored from year 1 or 2 onwards which is hardly fair. Others can take religious places I can only dream of.. Your post basically implies it's unfair that prep school kids get the places but the entire system is unfair and we can all just do our best to prepare our children as well as we can.
Some children at state schools are tutored from year 1 or 2 onwards which is hardly fair. Others can take religious places I can only dream of.. Your post basically implies it's unfair that prep school kids get the places but the entire system is unfair and we can all just do our best to prepare our children as well as we can.
