Moving a happy child

[Allthehummus]

I wonder if anyone is / has been in the same position as us & could give advice.

DD is just coming to the end of y1 in an ofsted rated “good” primary school . She is happy and doing well. However recently we have been toying with the idea of sitting her for the local private girls school for y3 entrance as a few things about her school are worrying me.

1. High staff turnover / job shares
   
2. One of a class of 30 with high SEN/EAL & very limited TA support - lots of TAs cut due to funding this year .
   
3. Very few after school clubs / lunchtime clubs on offer
   
4. In the recent ofsted interim report it was picked up that the more able children are not pushed . This was previously mentioned in the full ofsted they last had .
   
5. Behaviour in the infants where she is is generally good. However the junior behaviour is not & several parents with children I know in Y5/6 are worried about behaviour .
   

BUT dd is very happy , on the top table for English and middling for maths , she has a lovely group of friends and enjoys the lessons and although I don’t think she is necessarily pushed enough do I really want that at 7?!

The private school is well thought of locally and is a GDST school . Heaps of extra curricular activities and specialised teaching. DD is very keen learner & so interested in history / science / art ahd i feel she will get more exposure to these subjects there . Our original plan was to tutor and try to get her in at 11 but we are now thinking do we try for y3.

It’s a big financial commitment but we can manage it & could still afford the odd holiday / school trip / pay into pension . I am terrible for frittering money away but feel this would “force” us to be stricter as on paper we can afford it and that this is worth spending the money on . I’m finding it harder & harder to arrange extra curricular activities out of school for her now I’m back at work PT and have a younger DD too (who we would also plan to go in Y3) whereas here she could do much more at school . DD1 is fairly confident & makes friends easily so I’d like to think she would settle fairly well especially as the school had several
Join going into year 3 BUT my biggest concern is if she’s happy where she is and doing well why am I rocking the boat . Journey wise they are both about a 10 minute car drive so not much in that .

If youve got this far thank you for reading & any thoughts or if anyone has been in a similar situation and decided to make the move or not ?

[Allthehummus]

Bump

[QueenMabby]

We were in a similar position. We had sent ds from our local state primary in year 4 to a local selective indie as he was drifting and struggling in large classes etc. However dd was flying in infants, had a lovely friendship group and was very happy. We decided to move her for yr3 anyway and although she was very sad to leave she settled into her new school quickly and loves it. It was obviously easier for her as her dbro was already at the school so she was familiar with it.
Good luck with your decision.

[dairymilkmonster]

I would do it if you can. Avoiding the stressful yr7 entry as school is likely to help internal candidates. We moved from state to private for totally different reasons, but DS (now end yr3) is having much more support than he would get in state school and the broadness and depth of curriculum is a stark contrast to my narrow national curriculum education.
I would not be remotely concerned re moving a happy child in this context. The preprep to prep change is a natural break point with lots of movement in/out of schools. E.g. My ds' class of 16 had 6 boys leave end yr2 and 6 new ones in yr3. If the school is not right for secondary you still have all options open.