Small local independent or state boarding?

I have had bad personal experience with a very small independent school. Class sizes can be too small to support properly functioning friendships, quality of teaching is wildly variable and financial position definitely precarious. And sport hopeless.

Have you considered the local day school and tutors if dc struggles?
If you’re looking at £15k (?) a year for state boarding or local mini private that’s a huge amount of money that could be used in other ways.

My dd state boarded for 6th form, she chose it. I wouldn't recommend it earlier unless your dc is really on board. It wasn't as nurturing as a full boarding school either as it's set up for those living remotely. Do check out if it suits your dc pastorally rather than just exams

This has suddenly occurred to me but are you applying this year, as in, you child will be starting secondary in September 2024?

I just want to clear this up because the deadline is getting very very close. I don’t know about you, but we are on half term this week and I can’t see how you will have time to arrange a visit, view the school and boarding house and make the right decision as to whether to apply for a day place or a boarding place by 31st October. That would be my big concern at the moment in time if I was in your position.

Regardless of your financial situation and the results of other schools, you MUST have an application in by the deadline otherwise I can guarantee, based on what you have said, you have absolutely no chance of a day place at the state boarding school or the other half decent school you mention and you will end up with one of the schools you are trying so hard to avoid.

If you are applying this year I would honestly just apply for the day place, take the time over the next few months to really think about boarding and if you don’t get a place then, if boarding is the right thing for your child, apply for boarding ASAP in march.

I would be using my last few days before the deadline wisely, especially as you have your sights set on what seems to be unachievable, both for the day place and for the other school you have mentioned. You need to make sure your child has a place somewhere next year. As you have discounted the private school you need look into all the schools which have even a slight chance of making the list, pick the least worst option and make sure that is on your list.

If it’s next year, then I’ll stop panicking that you’ve left it so late but please please please please make sure you have some sort of application in by 31st.

As well as the financial viability of the independent school, the limited range of GCSE option choices would put me off.

State boarding feels like it could offer a broader and more stable education. This obviously depends on how you feel about boarding school, weekly boarding etc.

Or could you move house?

Have you asked your child how their feel about boarding?
Can you move?
Hire tutors to bring them up to scratch?

That private school sounds very precarious financially, and I'd worry with that few kids, there could be cliques and mean kids, but that's not such an issue in a big school with more kids. I'd never even consider boarding school, unless some exceptional circumstance, why bother having kids to send them away. I'd just go state school but spend money on private tutoring and extra curricular activities.

A private school with so few students sounds like it could have financial woes very quickly. I would stay clear of that.

I would echo what a couple of others have said: viability of a small private school, especially if labour get in and enforce their private school tax (apologies, I am not too sure what they are calling it but they are going to hike fees up) and concerns over boarding at such a young age.

Personally I wouldn’t pay for private unless it was all-singing all-dancing amazing results, oxbridge offerer, multiple languages, sports and music. If it’s only offering what, or in your case less, than a local or other school can offer, I wouldn’t touch it.

Boarding can work, but your child needs to WANT to board. It won’t work otherwise. I feel like boarding is someone that is more suited to 6th formers, or the earliest 14 year olds.

You also mention that you could apply for a day place at the state boarding school - why don’t you do that? You might not get a place, but it is worth a try? Can you apply for a boarding place later on, in say Y10, if you don’t get a day place and have to go local? Alternatively mix and match? Independent for Y7-Y9 then the state boarding for Y10+ to get the GCSE variety you are clearly after?

Can you pick the best of the local schools? A negative P8 and low results isn’t the end of the world. That is how ALL children in that year achieved. It is not a guarantee of the results your child will achieve. Dig deeper. How did the high, middle, low achievers do?

I’ve said this a few days ago on another post, but I feel it is also relevant to you - local school with targeted private tuition. It sounds as if you can afford tuition if/when it will be needed so perhaps consider? You will be saving, what? 2 hours a day if you don’t choose the private school and don’t send your child on a long journey. That’s 2 hours that could be used for targeted private tuition.

Apologies, a almost direct copy and paste from the other day, with a few little tweaks for you, but:

Having DC who are tired and exhausted because of travelling to a better school can be counter productive to the overall aim. I would also say, in regards to the private school, this would be the case for long school days. I sent DC1 and DC2 to the better school. I wish I had chosen the closer secondary school and put the £400 a term per child we spent on bus fees into tuition at GCSE level. (Imagine a tuition fund of £6k per child - we wasted that on transport, I look back and think - why?!) Imagine what you could do in regards to targeted tuition if you saved only half of the private school or boarding fees.
I thought the further way school with better results would be worth it. In reality we spent a lot of money on transport, DC1 and DC2 were travelling for 2 hours a day, they were exhausted and didn’t do as well as they could have done. I think they did worse than if they had gone to the less well performing local school 30 minutes walk away. They would have been better more local, to be able to do after school activities, to have local friends and for us to put the money into tuition if they needed it.

In contrast DS3 (big age gap - happy little accident) has gone to local school, it’s still performing worse than the one the other 2 went to but DC3 is happier, not exhausted and doing better. DC3 school has poor results like your schools (25% 5+ English and maths, -0.7 progress). And yes, we are saving the £400 a term we would have spent on transport in case it is needed at GCSE level.

Its horses for courses and you need to do the best for your family circumstances and your DD, but I just wanted to highlight this for you so you can consider whether this is a route you want to go down.

I've taught in boarding schools, including as a houseparent.

I'd never recommend boarding. Ever.

I'd go for the state school as a Day student. Move closer if you can. Day pupils don't miss out on the good stuff but they do escape the toxic side. They're welcome to stay for extra curricular evening activities.

Independent schools can’t work miracles. If they are non selective, anyone can go, which will often include a lot of children who struggle as these children will not pass exams for selective independent schools. There are some children who just won’t achieve a 5 in English/maths at GCSE, whatever the school does. So I wouldn’t be too worried by the 88% figure.

the lack of extra curricular really doesn’t surprise me, in a small school with a small number of teachers they won’t be able to offer as much as big schools with lots of teachers. If every teacher runs one club, at the independent that might be 20 clubs a week, at a huge state school it could be hundreds! Plus some clubs won’t be viable with so few children (a rugby team needs 15 pupils of the same sex and age for example). Same with MFL, they probably only have 1/2 teachers so limited languages offering.

if your child is happy to board it sounds like the state boarding school is the best option, but that’s a big decision at 11. Do they have to do Monday-Friday or is there a flexi boarding offering? Say 1/2 nights per week?

State boarding has been great for us. Ignore the haters you will still see your child every weekend. Key thing is does your child want to board, it needs to be their decision.

Personally I would have concerns about the viability of such a small independent school, particularly given Labour’s plans to add VAT to school fees which is expected to lead to a reduction in pupil numbers. At the very least I would be scrutinising their accounts and asking the head or the bursar how they are planning for this.
I would focus on the state boarding option if I thought it would suit my child, otherwise I’d move nearer a more suitable school.

I would not send my child to a boarding school so I’d discount that and either move or go fur the local independent.

'It has 88% A*-C grades. This is total entries, not only English and maths. I can’t find the English and maths only results. I would have expected higher for a private school?'

Not if they accept anyone, which by the sound of it they do. And because they're independent, they don't have P8 scores published - so it's very difficult to compare with state schools.

I think it's easy to panic at negative progress 8 scores but, as a general rule, students from more disadvantaged backgrounds make less progress than their peers. A comprehensive school with a wide intake, perhaps situated near an area with deprivation, will struggle to generate a positive P8 score. I personally wouldn't be concerned about a school whose students came out with 0.3 of a GCSE grade below average IF I loved the feel of the school and felt my child could still thrive there. Have you looked round any of the schools or just looked at P8?

We had a terrible experience at a state boarding school but with very different requirements to you. What part of the country?

Do you live in Northumberland?

do you have the option to move house closer to a school you like?

what kind of school would suit your child? is he/she academically minded? is he/she independent enough to cope with boarding?