Leaving private school for state 6th form - experiences?

Yes and you are on most of those too

In the OP’s case, the school has decided to target the poorest pupils they have-which they obviously consider the most disposable. Morally bankrupt. And you are now derailing her thread. Go and start your own.

To get back to the thread for OP and having a Year 11 this year and been through the application process, for us it involved a website called Applicaa primarily and it has made things easier applying in one place. Whilst you can apply to as many as you want, you cannot now accept more than 1 post results I think, which is a good thing!
Although some of the top boys grammars are still trying to dominate the other schools by insisting on results alone when the others have made some conditional offers. State schools also compete very heavily with each other for the best candidates. So if anyone thought state schools are anti private school parents, you could not be more wrong. Most of them are strapped for cash and would love high achieving kids in who get good results and supportive parents (whether time or money!)

Because the whole reason she posted this is the effect of VAT.......

You don't care about the impact VAT is having on state schools?

I don't love the way public schools operate, I love the way our local independent operates but we can't afford it now. They have cut bursaries by 50% so that's 50% fewer kids from lower income families getting a place.

This isn’t about you and your children it’s about the OP and you’re trying to take over her thread.

I don’t really care tbh. If people don’t like the way many private schools operate they don’t have to get involved with the private system.

If there aren’t now sufficient SEND schools in the state sector blame Ruth Kelly for shutting them down. I opposed that at the time.

We urgently need more specialist SEND state schools for which there is no money or apparently political inclination; and we also need more cheap private schools of the kind you see in Australia where nearly 40% of students are in the private system. But it’s not up to me.

I would look at Peter Symonds boarding? They are the biggest 6th form in the UK so have great facilities and huge extra curricular program.

@Mirabai - even the top public schools with the biggest endowment funds are having to go into their endowments to help existing parents pay the VAT. So there will be less bursaries there too, unless the parents dig deep. But frankly knowing these kind of schools where the demographic is 20% financially assisted, 10-20 staff children and only 60-70% full fee paying rich people you can easily see how they too will be impacted.
Do not be surprised if the top public schools have to bring back substantial scholarships for middle class parents as well, rather than just bursaries.

Keyboard warriors 😆 don't worry I would say it to her face however this is an online forum so it sort of requires a keyboard to be able to express a pov

OP states VAT is the reason therefore fair to bring it up.
Aggressive probably yes at this point because at end of day the people who suffer are children. Plus 0 extra money for state schools so what is the point of it? To wreak damage for literally nothing, for shits and giggles? Appears so at this stage.

No it’s not. We’ve just got a couple of aggressive keyboard warriors trying to hijack OP’s thread for their own agenda.

Except they can't because many are trying to do exactly this and funding there are 0 places for them in state especially if their child is SEND.
You are taking your very limited and narrow experience and extrapolating across the whole sector without any understanding of that sector

@CurlewKate - you should not be supportive of VAT, because any money taken out of education hurts everyone.
Our state primary has had their swim week cancelled by the local private schools now. They have to rent it out for cash instead to a summer camp type place when in the past they let the early July period when they break up go for free to local state schools to make up their mandatory swimming obligations.

Grammar schools are also completely underfunded and strapped for cash having to beg parents to contribute. The whole of Education including uni is a complete and unforgivable shambles and Labour 100% is to blame for not prioritising investment in our young.

VAT is the whole reason OP is in this situation therefore it is entirely appropriate to discuss it, especially as she's apparently ignoring why the school are making cuts

@twistyizzy The ones I have been involved with are famous and wealthy.

If parents don’t like it they can send their kids to state school.

Sorry @WomensRightsRenegadeThere goes your thread. I hope you find a solution.

Well, that's great. OP should be very grateful to you @CurlewKate .

And she might continue hating those private school bubbles who supported her son for several years.

"Morally questionable" when UK is now only country in the world to tax education 🤔 I think you've aimed that statement at the wrong people! We are now ideologically behind Nigeria as they've just reversed the taxation on school fees.

“Btw - my DC aren't in private. They secured the place in one of top three public schools. Went to grammar instead. Precisely because of VAT.”

@nearlylovemyusername - sounds like you did the right thing if they are going to be assessing all scholarships and bursaries annually! Who wants that kind of stress! It is ridiculous. Sometimes kids just have an off teen year. Nobody can kick you out of grammar until at least Sixth Form (barring severe disciplinary issues).

Yes, I am supportive of VAT. That doesn’t mean that I am not willing to try to help people like the OP finding a new school for her son. And incidentally, a school that completely bins off one of the very few full-bursary pupils whatever the circumstances is morally questionable, to say the least.

Of course the elite schools have "very, very wealthy parents who can more than afford to donate if they wish to" BUT many of the other 99% of independent schools don't and the court identified this in the verdict. 25% of parents using independent schools are from lower income households.

Dropping a bursary for a student in Year 10, going into Year 11 is pretty bad though! It is literally the only year when the parent is trapped.
A lot of private schools have staff discounts of 50 plus percent sometimes up to 100 per cent. The staff on the 50% discounts are also being screwed by VAT on their 50% and I reckon a lot of private schools will aim to retain staff above bursary students. And the OP is OK to be peeved. Not about Sixth Form transition, but about Year 11. That is bang out of order!

A ton of kids in London private schools who are on bursaries or big scholarships (excepting the staff discounts) are also the kids who would have gotten into the best grammars or aptitude comps at 11 plus. So they are perfectly entitled to be really annoyed. Perhaps the annoyance should be at both the schools and Labour though.

@nearlylovemyusername

Some secondaries may have parental donation campaigns, I’m simply saying the ones I have been involved with (top tier) have not.

Either way, they have very, very wealthy parents who can more than afford to donate if they wish to.

The OP actually flagged the impact of the VAT increase in her first post.

But console yourself with the fact that a poor kid won’t be polluting the private school bubble for much longer.

This shows the entire attitude. Happy to take but hate the givers if the gift is not as big as wanted. People like this always vote Labour. Or now Reform.

Btw - my DC aren't in private. They secured the place in one of top three public schools. Went to grammar instead. Precisely because of VAT.