My D has been denied an automatic transition from junior to senior

Have the school left you in a position where your daughter will be without a year 7 school place now? If so, I'd be furious and would be trying to get some come back from the school. Of course they're within their rights to ask your daughter to leave as she doesn't meet their standards for senior school, but surely there has to be a process in place to prevent this situation??

[quote bird77]@Peanutgurgle thank you.The headteacher apologized to me but she does not want to change the outcome.My D finished Year 5 making good progress being on national average.We were not told initially by the school that they want all the students to be significantly above national average.[/quote]
So many things here.

When you say she cannot go on to the senior school, is that in y7 or y9? Most schools consider 13+ as the Senior school.

Are you in London or somewhere you can say, so people can come up with suggestions? I presume it's co-ed?

You say your DS is devastated, is that her being embarrassed or she really liked the school? Was the school keeping you up to date with her progress, they seem to have made their conclusions quickly. Did she come in from state or a prep? If state, she may just have adjustment issues, if prep, can you take her back there till the 13+ stage.

If she is in yr 6, they did leave it till late and should advise you where to go from here. It's just too late now to apply for 11+, results are coming out soon (though for non selective, she has options). For 13+ she should still have time for day schools.

I would not want to keep her at this school. Good luck for you and your DD.

x

That is really shabby behaviour by the school.

While they are perfectly within their rights to make transfer to the senior school conditional on achieving a certain academic standard, common decency would dictate that they should have communicated this decision to you at the end of Year 5, so that you had a chance to consider alternative options for Year 7 in plenty of time.

Telling you at this point in Year 6, when state secondary school application deadlines are long past and most private senior schools are in the final stages of their admissions process and about to make offers, is incredibly cavalier.

@bird77, in your shoes I would consider applying to co-ed prep schools which finish in Year 8. Many co-ed preps lose most of their girls at the end of Year 6 and so have spaces for new joiners. A good prep will help you explore other options for senior school - there are still schools which run 13+ admissions in Year 7 or Year 8.

Another option would be to wait until the dust has settled from 11+ offers and then contact schools you think might be a good fit to see whether they have any unfilled places or if your DD could be assessed as a late applicant.

Difficult though it is at the moment, I suspect in the long run your current school has done you a favour - your DD is better off out of there if this is the way they treat pupils in need of some extra support.

I think it is the timing which is the real issue. As it is now too late for assessments at alternative senior schools unless they make an exception - will current head assist in negotiating this? Presumably any offer of a transfer place depended on the standard of the external candidates but you should have been advised earlier if she was borderline. Is she even waitlisted?

I think it is the timing which is the real issue. As it is now too late for assessments at other senior schools unless they make an exception - will current head assist in negotiating this? Presumably any offer of a transfer place depended on the standard of the external candidates but you should have been advised earlier if she was borderline. Is she even waitlisted?

[quote bird77]@Peanutgurgle thank you.The headteacher apologized to me but she does not want to change the outcome.My D finished Year 5 making good progress being on national average.We were not told initially by the school that they want all the students to be significantly above national average.[/quote]
God what an absolutely dreadful situation to put you in. I'd be furious and insist they find your DD somewhere else now your options have been narrowed considerably

The problem is that lots of kids are tutored to get in but then the tutoring stops and they really struggle to keep up. At my dcs school children are asked to leave fairly regularly if they can’t keep up. Ds2 struggles a bit because he has some specific learning disabilities and it’s so tough on him being towards the bottom in everything. If he was at a non selective school it would have been way better for his confidence levels because there would have been a greater spread of abilities. With hindsight it wasn’t the best choice for him but he’s been there since age 4 (now doing GCSEs). If the school say it’s the wrong environment for her it probably is and so the best thing to do is just focus efforts on finding a new school.

So, your daughter was bright enough to get in and has since dipped?
I'd be asking serious questions of the teaching and support she's had so far, especially since you've been paying for it.

This really annoys me about private schools - they claim to get outstanding results but no wonder when they only retain the ones who are pretty much guaranteed to get good results! 🙄

Your poor daughter. It sounds like a horrible place and you're probs best out of it.

I think this is not great from the school - if they admitted your daughter in Year 5 it should have been relatively clear what standard she would progress to by the end of Year 6 -i think it's much more common for this to happen with children admitted at 4+ who wouldn't cope in the senior school. They made a mistake admitting her in that case, although I also find that in year admissions are sometimes students below the expected standard - they are not really put through the same process as rigorously and if the school has an in year place they might need money.

I also agree with others that if the school is selective and she's not meeting expected standard, it's best to send her elsewhere. In a selective school (any, grammar or indy) bumping along at the bottom is not good for anyone's self esteem. Sorry that you're in what sounds like a stressful situation.

I don’t understand why you think this is unfair, you were warned this could happen, if your daughter was performing well enough they would give her a place, they wouldn’t turn down an excellent student for no reason. Do you think just because you’re paying your daughter should to go the school even if she’s not meeting their requirements?

It is unfair. But surely you can find another non-selective school for your child?

The reason private schools get such outstanding results isn't just due to the higher standard of teaching but that the children who would have got lower grades, haven't been admitted in the first place.

This - will bells on. Pretty much my entire year got top grades across the board.

Were we all taught by outstanding teachers ? No. Not at all. Some of the teachers were actually pretty shocking.

The reason we all did well was because we were all bright. That's it. We'd have all got A's in a state school! However, we didn't have to deal with work being differentiated, kids kicking off in class, or other distractions.

I actually would go so far as to say that the standard of teaching is actually lower in a private school than a state school. You don't even need to be a qualified teacher to teach in private.

I would hope she's still in year 5. To tell someone that their child is no longer welcome at their school in year 6 after admissions have closed would be bizarre and cruel.

I'd be furious, not devastated, in thar scenario.

Usually a few children each year are told that they won’t be able to progress to the senior school at our local gdst school. Hopefully she is still in year 5 and you have time to look for a more suitable school for her, whether than be private or state.

Don't go where your dc isn't wanted but ask them what schools they suggest for your dd. Is she still year 5?

This is exactly the reason why you can’t compare state and private schools. People think they are paying for a better education when I’m fact the private schools just weed out any students that might bring down thier results. If state schools kicked out any student that wouldn’t get a high enough grade they would also look amazing!

the school said they could not guarantee automatic transition to the senior

Since they told you this you are not in a good position to object now. Whether they should ever have offered her a place (gaining two years school fees and filling that difficult upper primary slot before trading her in for a more academic child at second level) is another matter.

Anyway it really doesn't sound like a great place for her, so I would be looking at her strengths and where she would be happy and successful for the next 7 years. Onwards and upwards.

Will your daughter actually manage the coursework if she got into senior level at this school? Will she be happy there, or constantly struggling to keep up? You've said you don't think it is particularly the right place for her, so why struggle for it? If you think your daughter can manage the academic requirements of this school, but she had a bad year with distractions or whatever that brought her grades down, then get her tutors to bring her up to the level she needs to be at. But if tutoring isn't really going to make that much of a difference because her academic ability just isn't as high as this school requires, accept it and find a better fit for her. There's no shame in this.

You put her in this situation and were warned. So you knew this was a possibility. I don't even know why you are questioning it, it's clearly not going to be a good environment for your daughter going forwards and she needs to go elsewhere.

Not all Private schools are selective but it sounds like this one is
It happened to a family member- they were told that they just didn’t feel young x was “Y school material”. As they had a younger child there too they really didn’t want to change schools (plus the school has some snob value apparently) they tutored the feck out of the poor kid and he WAS allowed to stay. Poor kid is miserable and knackered now in Y7.
If the school doesn’t suit your child find another one that does

this sounds like an awful school, I know ppl say it was in the terms but since they assessed her not too long ago, it sounds like they just filled the place to get your fees knowing already they would "replace" her with a more academic child in the 11+. I would not fight for a place. Find a nicer place that values your daughter for who she is and supports her to become the best she can be. Many private schools are just awful, it's all about the money. You will be lucky to leave such a place.

If you were told that automatic transmission to the senior school wasn't guaranteed, then the school has fulfilled its obligation. It might be a worse outcome if your daughter couldn't perform at the expected level in the senior school. You would be better finding a school more suited to her abilities. One of my relatives is at a top academic school and their sibling at a very nurturing, far less academic school but both are thriving. It's all about choosing the right school for the right child, bearing in mind their academic capabilities and their interests.