What would you do?

[Enb76]

Say you have a child, who is 9, they are at a good state primary and are doing well.

Their grandmother who sent all her children private bought a whole load of 11+ material to the house and said child (who enjoys a good workbook) rattled through them and on marking was consistently a) entirely correct on the maths, b) generally only one point off or entirely correct for verbal reasoning.

Would you, as the GM would like, put them forward for scholarships at some of the local, also well regarded, independent schools? or, would you keep them in the state system so not bother or... as I'm tempted to do, would you put them forward for the exams just to see what happens and make the decision then.

The likely state secondary school is also good but known mostly for Arts not maths and science. The child is good at both and currently wants to do classics at university and would like to learn Latin, the independent has this as part of their core curriculum, the state school does not offer this as an option, both offer IB.

The child is very musical and could possibly go for a music scholarship as well as an academic scholarship. If no scholarship is forthcoming, then affordability would be a problem for the independent school. GM says she would pay, but frankly that is likely to include all sorts of attached strings so would be turned down politely.

I'm a bit torn.

[BottleOfJameson]

I would probably put them in for the exam and see what they're offered. Have you actually looked in to how much the fees would be reduced by a scholarship as some aren't very generous. If the DC isn't stressed by exams there's no harm in putting them forward.

[RedSkyAtNight]

I wouldn't put a child forward to do the exams (with accompanying stress no matter how much you down play it) unless I was sure they would be attending the school if they got in. Do you want your child to get excited about the prospect of school only to be disappointed?

Have you even been the independent (or the state) school? I think she need to think about this carefully. If you do like the independent school then what are the realistic chances of DD getting in? What are the realistic chances of getting a scholarship and would it cover enough?