Could an offer for a London selective secondary be revoked if you took your child out of formal schooling for last term of Y6?

[Undercooked]

Our Y5 daughter will sit exams for west London selective secondaries next year (Godolphin, LU, St Pauls, Putney High etc).

DH's work may offer him a four month sabattical from April-August next year and we would like to travel with the kids. We would home school while we travelled.

Could we endanger our offer my doing this?

We will apply to State schools too. We will keep our London address while we are away so would those offers be in danger?

[CheeseAndOnionWalkers]

No threat to any offers. There will be home educated children or children from abroad who arrive in the y6 summer holidays.

Any potential problem you had may be with the state school that you are leaving because of SATs.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

I wish we had done this!
Our younger son was offered a place at a leading indie for 10+, but the local schools leaned on the indie not to take those DC for Y6, so they had to change their system, and instead to leave the offer open for Y7 - only so the state primaries could harvest SATs from them
Y6 was effectively wasted as just endless dreary practice for SATs. I wish we had withdrawn him for homeschooling or an adventure.
Lucky you and her - hope you go ahead with your trip! ( And sod the SATs, of no relevance to the DC)

[Bazelle]

It sounds like a very good idea. You will know way before April which indies have given you offers, and even the state schools. I assume there would be no problem at all with the indies, you could check with your LA for the state school for peace of mind. The last term of year 6 was a utter and complete waste of time, they were all sick of each other (in a small prep school), and nobody cared anymore as we all knew where our DCs would be heading for.

[G1raffe]

We're thinking of doing this (possible grammar school entrance not private school!)

[multivac]

That's very sad to read, Bazelle. My kids are in Y6 and are having an absolute ball; making the most of every second. They know where they're headed, too, of course. Can't imagine them having "wasted time" behind them before they turn 12.

[Bazelle]

Actually multivac DD now in year 6 is enyoying herself, but she is not in the same pushy prep as DS was, they have 2 forms in her year, so a good 50 girls to choose from and play with, whereas for DS there was only one small form of 12 DCs, co ed, therefore only 6 boys, half of them "annoying" apparently...and the pressure and the focus was only, and I mean only, on the 11+ indies exams, so when that was out of the way there was a bit of a vacuum.

[TeddTess]

it won't affect your independent offers (you will get them by mid feb and have accepted by march)
but i am not sure about the state ones if you decide you're going state not private (you will have decided by then and paid deposits). You will have received the state offers in march but if you are out of the system for the summer term i am not sure what happens. It should be fine but i would check with your education authority (maybe say your husband is posted abroad for that period and you will send them to school there rather than travel and home educate. they can just enter "educated elsewhere" on the school register)
your primary (assuming state?) will get the hump because of the SATS results but don't worry about it.
sounds exciting. do it!

[llhj]

I'd be astonished if state schools exerted any influence whatsoever on private heads in asking them not take pupils for 10+. Privates are entirely about making money and if they can get a year's fees in hand then that's their priority.

[whatwouldrondo]

We applied to some of those private schools from overseas and a health emergency around Easter meant their overseas schools were closed for a couple of months. We did go back for the last couple of weeks of Year 6 but quite a few didn't. I don't know of anyone who had a problem with that from the private schools. The school she ended up in regarded it all as great experience.

We had problems with state school applications though as we did not move back to our address until August though it was our house, we had to prove we were resident via utility bills, council tax etc. Presumably you will be able to do that if you don't rent out your house. I think it unlikely they join up the dots with absence from school, admissions have enough problems in London!

[Bazelle]

Privates are entirely about making money and if they can get a year's fees in hand then that's their priority.
They will make money only if parents are willing to pay, they have to deliver what parents want.

[Undercooked]

Oh that's great, thank you! I do feel bad about her current (state) primary who have put a lot into her for 7 years and who will no doubt wish they could have her SATs results. I wish I could do this without hurting them but we can miss out on this opportunity just because of SATs.

Now we just have to decide where to go....

[PettsWoodParadise]

We've done this with DD. She has her offer for Grammar and finished at her Indie just before Easter. We have a great programme ahead and she is still going to the leaver's ball as that isn't on school premises. She wasn't learning much at school and had a dire maths teacher who was destroying her previous love of maths. We weren't prepared to carry on paying for an inferior education that DD who usually loved school was starting to dislike to a great degree. Her fervour for maths is back now she is looking at wind variations and triangulation as she looks to study air navigation. Some things you can't learn in a classroom but socially and long term starting back at school from September is also the right thing to do.

[Michaelahpurple]

A few girls in our area miss the summer term and go to a particular French located boarding school for a term so not unheard of for the indies you are targeting. If you are at a few paying school now the only complication is that it takes a confident parent to give notice in January before the 11+ results are sorted so most end up sacrificing a term's fees

A great opportunity for you all, provided she won't be too sad to miss leaving events

[Undercooked]

We are not at a free paying school so the only problem is missing SATs. She is a bit sad to miss leavers events but she understands it is a trade off and she is more excited about four months of travelling without us working.

[llhj]

Can't help but feel gutted for her primary though. I'd been absolutely shamefaced going in to tell them.

[whatwouldrondo]

Can I just add that I have never heard of any of the pupils at any of the London day schools going off to French boarding school for a term beforehand. I wouldn't want that to get added to the already considerable burden of competitive parenting in London

Ilhj Most state primaries in London are very clear about not preparing their pupils for entry to the selective senior schools (state or private) .The result is that a heady mix of anxious parents and a voracious tutoring industry makes it very hard to protect your child from it being a stressful process. The state primaries then add to this by putting them through weeks of boring SATs preparation. It is all a bit having your cake and eating it. I do hope the teachers concerned will focus on what an amazing opportunity this is for OPs child, as the independent schools will.

[llhj]

If she was in an independent, they'd be demanding final term fees not celebrating opportunity let me tell you.

[Undercooked]

I do feel v bad for her state primary but really we can't prioritise SATs over an opportunity of a life time to travel and spend time together as a family and see the world.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Undercooked
Don't feel bad! Why should the child be a stat for the school?
If every parent withdrew their kids for the SATS week the gvt could not use that as a measure for schools, and we would not have the tedious cramming for SATs that blights Y6.

[G1raffe]

It does sound brilliant. We really do want to do this. We're wondering about most of the year but I think too my daughter will miss brownies, schoolfriend etc.

I've always flirted with home ed so to do it for a year would be good.