Leaving private school for state 6th form - experiences?

Bollocks. It's the reverse. The famous public schools like Eton et al have endowment but they make up 1% of independent schools.
At the majority of independent schools, the bursaries/scholarshipf come out of surplus from fees that other parents pay. That's why they are not-for-profit organisations, any surplus is reinvested to meet charitable aims.

You've always been a staunch supporter of VAT policy and argued that causalities like OP are worth it.

Please don't pretend to be empathetic here.

Just to point out that if OP's son is successful in securing a place in a great state six form (and competition will be fierce this year), then down the line another kid from poorer background will be pushed out.

This is exactly what you supported @CurlewKate

than you haven't seen much. A lot of secondaries have very heavy donation campaign for parents to support bursaries. Yes, alumni are amongst benefactors, but those "wealthy foundations" are supported by parents. Tope tier schools in particular are very aggressive in encouraging parents to set up direct debits for their bursary funds.

And OP is still talking about "no conceivable reason".
The reason is so obvious.

There are plenty of threads you can take this to. This one is about the OP’s current situation.

It isn't explicable though, it's called "cutting their cloth" like government told the schools to do. This is what it looks like ie reducing/ending bursaries. It was always going impact lower income families the most, the court acknowledged this in the verdict.

How is your bursary paid for? from donations by other parents I suspect? or by charging those full paying parents a bit extra to support you?

I have never seen bursaries paid by donation from other parents or school fees. Many private schools have wealthy foundations which fund the bursaries, additionally they call on ex alumni, institutions and fundraising events.

If you approached it from something like "it was great to have a full subsidy for several years but they can't do this anymore and I have an issue" my view would be different. But no, it's greedy bustards don't want to give me 30k pa anymore, only 15k and nothing's changed for them. It's a very typical attitude.

To add to some posts above - please bear in mind that Harris Westminster mentioned here is heavily supported by Westminster school. Harris openly put private school pupils to the very bottom of their list of candidates. Oh irony.

And my point stands - if you voted this government than you should've planned for this outcome.

The other point to note is that you can apply to as many Sixth Forms as you want to! So the whole of London is your oyster. The superselective grammars for boys (some mixed) in an around London go on score mainly, but how they score differs. So one will do 8 or 9 GCSEs and just add up the points and for that one you will want all 9s, another prioritises Maths then English score etc. You have to just work out their exact admissions criteria and apply to a range within commuting distance. Thousands and thousands of children across London do this every year! A lot of girls grammars further out take boys in the Sixth Form too and it can be a more gentle atmosphere.

DD has friends from high level orchestras moving state due to VAT. There are a lot of them this year so nothing to worry about. They are all very musical and very academic so they can take their pick, like your son.

Outer London. Sixth forms, DC travels for Kings Maths School and Harris Westminster where it is selective and free. Check travel schedule because it not mins of travel time but options to get there by train, tube, bus which makes it viable.

There are plenty of threads about VAT-shall we keep this one relevant to the OP’s situation?

Thank you for this reply - nothing has changed except a 2pc pay rise last year!

Didn't you notice that little VAT change? you know, tens of thousands of parents have to move their kids from private to state because of it. And other tens of thousands won't even attempt to start private anymore. Did your school pass full VAT on? if not, how do you think they manage? How is your bursary paid for? from donations by other parents I suspect? or by charging those full paying parents a bit extra to support you? are you surprised they are finding this too much now?

Just out of curiosity - whom did you vote for last year?

There is a spectrum of how universities look at the private/state education of applicants.

In the most publicised examples usually picked up by the newspapers, they report on the split for A levels only ie at point of application - these are the % that Oxbridge report for example. Possibly universities are influenced by the positive/negative PR around the publication of these specific figures and therefore these are the figures that would influence their offer strategy.

When it comes to making contextualised offers or ranking applicants on GCSE results then they may apply a weighting to the applicants results relative to the typical performance of the school they attended for GCSEs (there are various formulas for this!), as well as other economic criteria. This won’t just mean private versus state but highly selective schools with high results versus comprehensives with a broad intake.

In addition, universities may discriminate between state/private for special open days, summer schools, master classes, competitions, work experience or other outreach activities such as mentoring or admissions test courses. This discrimination may mean only state school applicants can apply or there may be more granular eligibility criteria such as free school meals or social deprivation measures, or your example of being 100% state school educated.

Jazz Junior Conservatoire is what you want. The individual instrument reachers are usually jazz specialists (rather than ‘classical players who teach a bit of jazz’) and it will be full of ‘his people’. Students tend to join a bit later than on the classical course, so being that bit older to start shouldn’t be an issue.

Paper grades will matter a LOT less than audition - some jazzers never do grades at all - and in London you have a choice so can apply to several (they do slightly adjust entry to get a reasonably balanced list of instruments).

I expect there will be regional-type big bands as well as the national ones, so again he should look at those.

In music, yes, it is fun to get the glory of being the ‘top’ players in the ‘top’ school bands, but for progression you actually want to join the best band that will take you, in which you can be ‘the worst player but learning from the best’. Thus may be just what he needs.

Tonnmeister is definitely a music tech course, for those aiming for that world. Good, highly competitive, totally accessible from a state school (a younger friend of my musician son has been accepted) but very narrow in scope and intent.

The Royal Academy of Music offer jazz outreach opportunities for London state school pupils - you have to be recommended by your teacher. I know this because my son attended ‘jazz club’ over several Saturdays last year. Might be worth investigating depending on where your son ends up attending.

i mention this with trepidation because some posters on this thread have seemingly convinced themselves that state school pupils are taking opportunities from private school pupils, whereas in fact the only reason RAM does outreach (and universities give contextual offers) is an attempt in some small way to rebalance the massive advantage of private school pupils …

There are excellent County Youth Jazz ensembles. Research those. I’m in a county just outside of London and DS spent a very happy couple of years in it before heading off to Uni where he’s now in the Big Band (and studying engineering).

You could put in a subject access request. They can create a huge amount of work for an organisation but, if you limited it to, for example, the last 12 months and to the topic of the bursary, it shouldn’t be too much hassle and could give you some answers.
As others have said, the world of music is a broad and busy one and he might enjoy some different challenges and opportunities. I think that, for a Sixth Former, participating in adult ensembles can be really useful experience before heading off to Uni.

Someone else saying explore the junior music colleges. I was a maths and physics and music person. I went to Junior Guildhall until I was about 16. It was great! I gave it up in favour of studying for my A-levels but I wish I'd chosen to stay at JG and not do music A-Level as I think I would have got loads more out of two more years at the saturday music school than I did out of A-level music. If he's into performance and ensembles, he's not going to get any more of that from doing the A-Level... Guildhall was great for jazz in my day (admitedly a long time ago).

I absolutely get how gutting this is for him OP. I would have been devasated to leave my school at this stage as the music department was absolutely the centre of my life. I was involved in everything, was the 1st in my instrument in the orchestra and most of my friends were musicians too. It's not about the leaving private, per se, is it? It's about leaving this environment in which he's thrived and in which he plays a central role. It's hard.

Tonmeister is such a specific course... I was interested in it too (because it seemed like an 'ideal' way to combine my interests). After a chat with the course convener I realised that it really is for people who have a burning desire to be sound engineers (which I didn't). That's what they look for.

Yeah that’s what they say. But on the ground the students I have seen who moved to state for 6th form had noticeably more offers. Others are reporting the same on here and in r/l.

Nope, either the same or worse.

Surrey must have this problem all the time - if it comes to it I would email them and ask for advice / if he can submit an additional statement.

Loads of jazz opportunities around London for young people btw - NYJO and NYJC for instance. Plus Guildhall and RAM have junior jazz departments iirc. Getting out of school and meeting new players and teachers will do wonders for his jazz development.

@WomensRightsRenegadeLangton Boys in Canterbury has excellent music and STEM. But probably too far….

Maybe they got better predicted A level grades?