Are more of you planning to move your DC from private to state for 6th form now?

I agree. There are good state schools and bad state school, as there are good private schools and bad private schools.

Unfortunately, a lot of parents with DC in private schools mistakenly think that state schools = poor education.

DD was state educated. Achieved a raft of As and A*s at GCSE and As at A level, then a first class STEM degree from an RG university. As did a lot of her peers from her school.

@combinationpadlock - I'm sorry, but that's simply not true IMO. It's not just my own and (fairly) wide-ranging friends' experience of teaching standards in different sectors informing my view here, but let's think about the different environments for a moment - teachers at private schools tend to be better paid, work with better resources, have less challenging classes (smaller, possibly academically selective), less admin and longer holidays. If you are an absolute expert in your academic subject and want to teach, what are you going to opt for?

Of course, there are brilliant teachers in state schools and crappy ones in private schools - but there is (unfortunately) some truth in 'you get what you pay for.' It's unfair, and I don't want to cause a pile on of people defending state school teachers - but I am friends with a lot of teachers in both private and state schools and they have said this themselves. Of course there exceptions, but to say 'teaching is better in state schools' is totally naive.

What years are they currently in? I can’t work out how this makes sense, the fees won’t come in this Sept so if the eldest is currently Y10 they should be able to complete Y11?

I've a lot of experience of both, and know many teachers in both. It is often the same teachers, but a lot fewer teachers in indie schools have qualifications and experience. And the standards are just a lot lower

for example, lots of indie schools only teach iGCSEs, not proper GCSEs, and so on

@Dontmesswithmyhead I’m not deluded. It’s based on real offers made by Bristol to ex private school kids. They absolutely knew where they sat their GCSE’s, but the sixth form was on a short list of targeted secondaries to increase access to historically disadvantaged schools - which trumped all else and they had lower offers than their mates at the old private school. Some posters here have found the Bristol access pages I’m referring to and can understand the point I’m making. I’m not saying it’s all universities or all courses or all state schools. Just the current situation for the state school nearest to us and one of the many reasons we’re considering moving DD. The school could well be off the access list next year if Bristol wises up to the ruse and/or they might start weighing where GCSEs were sat, like Durham does.

Why do you think that? Is it just something you’ve heard.
90% of teachers my three have had at independent schools have been far better than their state counterparts.
We keep trying state and it’s always far far worse than the indie options..

Bit difficult to explain away why they have GCSEs recorded on the LRS along with their A levels, though.

You’re deluded if you think they don’t look at the course of education, not just A Levels.

but teaching at private is often below the standard of teaching at state

The teaching at my child’s supposedly outstanding 6th form ranged from poor to good (however, the good teacher was constantly off sick!)

Teaching at our 2 private schools is uniformly excellent.
We’re sticking with the private, but if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it…

I think you need to remember to apply to several (as back up schools), hopefully get some conditional offers then wait like the rest of us for results day. Accept the conditional for one on the understanding that you may have to wait several days to enrol and current students and academy trust students do get priority on results day. Make sure you then reject the other conditional places as other students will want to take them up. You then have a week to organise yourself for the first day of college

Yes, of course. In our case the state school didn't work well for dd. It was a mistake.

I suspect it depends on the individual schools (both state and private).

(And they've all done really well at university as well)

I moved one of mine to state 6th form a few years ago. Worst mistake we ever made. She would have done considerably better academically at the private school. Hey ho. I really think 6th form is when a good private education matters. For others we did state until year 9 then private for gcses and 6th form, which I'd totally recommend.

@Mouseykitty https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/news/state-school-pupils-do-better-at-university-cambridge-assessment-research-confirms/#:~:text=State%20school%20pupils%20do%20better%20at%20university%2C%20Cambridge%20Assessment%20research%20confirms,-05%20November%202015&text=Research%20by%20Cambridge%20Assessment%20%E2%80%93%20a,with%20similar%20A%20Level%20results.

@Biscuitsneeded - 'It's not a coincidence that state school students do better at university than private school students with the same entry grades.' - where are you getting that information?

DS1s best friend and his brother are now moving to state for year 10 and year 11 respectively. The VAT made what was a stretch unaffordable. I doubt they will be the only ones tbh.

This is true, they won't get spoon fed as much at state 6th form. But this is a guide thing as it will mean they are better prepared for university. It's not a coincidence that state school students do better at university than private school students with the same entry grades.

Contextual offers are only given to applicants from schools or colleges from which very few pupils go on to university. Those schools are in a minority in this context. Mrs P-J

We will trying to do this. Ds is going into year 11 in September, so GCSE year. We will start looking at 6th forms in Autumn. I'm worried there will be big competition for places though. There are 4 private senior schools in our town,and I suspect quite a few families will be looking to do the same thing. Obviously the state schools will (quite rightly) give their own pupils priority on 6th form places.

I would hold tight for now! It still needs to be approved. Sign the petitions on change.org

attending for GCSEs

Why not? Attending a school with low progression rates to higher education is one of the criteria isn’t it?

great start to your child's career - a fraud conviction, and yes, it does happen