Sorry another Priv.Ed. thread. Where do I start?

I'd second what SandStorm said. Both schools we viewed at personal appointments with the head. I'm doing the same with the scholarship school we are considering. I've been to a couple of open days and you get a very different impression indeed - to my mind everything seemed to be 'for show'. Far better to visit a school during a normal day and see what feeling you get.

One of the preps we visited on an open day was my absolute favourite (knew friends with children there and lots of my friends with same age children were planning to send theirs there). Loved the open day. I went back a few months later for a personal tour with the head and hated it. The head was fab at putting on a show at the open day (I was very impressed) but one to one was dreadful. He didn't engage with ds at all (ds is one of those children who likes asking questions and the head ignored him for the entire two hours). It was also noticeable how the staff and pupils didn't engage with the head either (or ds).

Contrast the school we chose - the head answered ds's questions, the staff were friendly and the pupils weren't afraid to great the head.

Before you get too far down the tutor/nontutor road can I suggest you get an appointment for a personal tour of the school and a meeting with the head separate to the open day?

I wondered. Ds will probably audition for a choral scholarship next year. The school said that no preparation is required. The music teacher at ds's current school laughed when I told her this and said that everyone who auditions has had singing lessons!

Good luck Foofffy I think by year 4 they are old enough to know what they want to do and all you can do is support him.

I was looking at a couple of local schools on the Internet last night, preps but both feeders for major public schools. They made a big deal of how they really don't expect candidates to prepare for the entrance exam as it is about potential rather than what they know. Not sure how true that is in reality.

It's not disposable income!

"So I would say that a bit of practice would be important for confidence and familiarity with the questions, but it could be done at home."

That is what we did. No tutoring, but familiarisation with the type of questions I thought DD might get. Her school is a very highly regarded state primary school and performs exceptionally well in the KS2 SATS - last year they were in the top 100 primary schools in England. DD gets tests every week in class for English and maths and said that the entrance exam was easier than the class tests.

"Apparently you are eligible for the full bursary if your income is less than £18,346. If this includes tax credits then we won't be eligible by a whisker."

Wow, that's pretty low. The school we looked at had an income level of less than £40k to be eligible - and this is oop North.

I do understand that many parents go down the road of extra tution for entrance exams, but if he's on track to gain Level 5's he may not need the extra tution and could do just as well with you working with him doing practise papers. I did this with DS - we worked on the Bond and Letts papers (Maths/English/NVR)from Smiths and did timed tests up to the date of the entrance exam, sometimes 2 or 3 a day as we got closer to the exam date. We did slightly more work on the NVR as this an area that isn't covered at his school.

He is at a state primary (year 6), and not the best one in our area by a long stretch. He passed the exam for an independent - luckily he has also been awarded a full bursary. I was told that he had done well and his marks were in the top 5% and this along with my circumstances helped with the bursary, although it does state on the school website that even if parents meet all the criteria for a bursary they won't necessarily receive one - so we must have been super lucky.

However, I don't know if this particular school links the scholarship and bursary awards as the info on the website is a bit lacking.

FS - You can only do your best for your DS and help him as much as you can - all parents have different views on outside tutoring and only you know if your DS will benefit from additional tution.

FoofffyShmoofffer you say you get full bursary if your income is less than £18,346. There is usually then a sliding scale so if you miss that by a whisker (as you say) you may still be eligible for say 95% or whatever. Some schools publish these figures and others don't. Also you need to find out exactly what is meant by income. Is it gross income or some schools make allowances for eg mortgage interest, tax & national insurance etc etc.

If this is a school that you think would suit your ds then I suggest going for it but make sure your ds understands that it isn't a certainty (lots of kids don't get through the test), and when you get the results & figures you can then be in a position to do the sums. Don't forget that there are a lot of 'extras' that are not usually covered by the bursary such as uniform, trips, etc. Some schools also charge for examination entries.

Go and see the bursars of the schools you fancy.

Be frank about your situation.

They will tell you exactly what's what. Most schools have differng policies. DS's school only offer bursaries to children already within the school who have fallen on hard times. Scholarships are for 10-15% of fees and are for music, sport and academics individually.
DD's school offers various bursaries, including one for the whole fees, offered to the girl who the bursar feels will 'most benefit.'
There are also various scholarships worth 10-50% of fees including academic, sport, music, drama and an all rounder one.

It seems to me there is no point start the whole malarky of prepping for tests etc if you won't get the funding you need. Horses and carts etc.

Who needs that kind of stress?

The promise of bursaries that will be reviewed every year is a tenuous one. I personally wouldn't put my eggs into that basket as MN is full of stories about kids who get in on a tiny bursary and the parents can't take it up. Cue gutted kids..

Exam technique is pretty much common sense and working to time limits. Things like always read the question carefully so you are sure you understand what it's asking, keep an eye on the clock and move on to the next question if one is taking too long, aim to leave 5 minutes + at the end to check your answers.

It depends on the school and what is expected Vs what your son's experience in education has been. If the school tests in VR and NVR and your son has no experience of these papers, then why would you not prepare him for these papers - possibly though not inevitably with the help of outisde tuition? If the school advises on the entrance levels expected and you are confident he has all the tools to be able to pass the test without outside help, then great. If not, use a tutor.

When my dd was in the same position, there were gaps in her knowledge Vs what was listed in the guidance notes of what she would be tested on. She just hadn't yet learned what was required. So we used a tutor, for about 6-8 sessions to fill in that gap. I would have been setting her up for failure if she'd walked in not having been prepared for everything the school required.

It's encouraging to hear about children getting in from state schools without tutoring I must say. Round here (SW London again) it seems that everyone, even kids who have been at private prep schools all their lives, get extra tutoring - which makes me feel it's a very uneven playing field for state school kids trying for the same schools.

Interesting to know that there are schools that don't link bursaries for new pupils to scholarships. I know scholarship amount has gone down and that the reduction has been added to bursaries. The school we are looking at offers a scholarship of 50% with the possibility of a bursary topping this up to 100%.

MollieO, sorry to disagree with you but schools are offering more and more bursaries and fewer scholarships. In my experience it isn't necessary to be of scholarship level in order to secure a bursary, but it depends on the schools. The charities commission reports have brought about these changes.

I would suggest that you check with the school about the availability and scale of bursaries. I have seen schools insist on income below £15K to other schools still giving bursaries when income is over £50! Although there is never any guarantee that you will actually get a bursary until all the forms are in and the sums done. It will always be reviewed every year too. DD got a bursary (50% the first year) but is definitely not scholarship level.

It is certainly helpful to have an idea of the types of tests likely to be done, as while they he will be used to maths tests he probably wont have come across the other types of tests. But I see no need or benefit in expensive tutors.

DD was disappointed, but we only had backword about the bursary just before the exam. I gave her the option not to sit it, but she wanted to do it to prove to herself that she could do it. We only looked at verbal reasoning papers so that she could get used to the questions, but she never had any tutoring.

After the exam she said that it was easier than the KS2 practice SATS tests she has in class.