To be considering private school because its cheaper than moving?

[Minicooper]

Dd1 is in Y1 at infant school. The Dd2 will almost certainly start there this Sept. There is no attached junior school and although our closest junior school is only 0.4miles away, we wouldn't have got in for the last 3 years. The next closest junior schools are a good couple of miles and I wouldn't be able to do both drop offs. There is a private school 2 mins walk away from the infant school, and we are considering sending dd1 there for Y3-6 as it would be cheaper than moving into the catchment area of a good primary. Secondary schools are great where we are, so we'd be paying for 4 years max. If she gets our closest school, this is all academic (literally!) but if not, AIBU to consider private for the interim?

Bit confused by your OP. Is your sole reason for wanting to go the private school to make drop offs easier? It sounds a very expensive way to go about it! If you are in the position of needing to go to the further junior school there will be other parents in the same position and you can share - one does infants one day, while the other does juniors then swap. Where I live the infants and juniors are 1.5 miles apart, doing it this way is absolutely the norm.

Greenfolder - not teaching at the moment, but would if the right job came up. And it would be cheaper as it would cost us a minimum of £150,000 to move to another 3 bed house near a primary school, so much more money. If we stay put, we benefit from the rising market anyway....

Good question, redsky I agree its an expensive way to tackle two school runs - a childminder would be much cheaper! But I suppose I object to having to pay childcare because the council have given me an unworkable situation. At least if I'm paying fees I'm getting something extra for my money rather losing the chance to drop my child off and paying for the privilege, IYKWIM. Might not sound logical, but I suppose we'll make a decision once we know what we've been given.

There is a junior school that do reciprocal drop offs with dd's infant school, but we are too far away, so won't get it. Unless we get our closest school, I won't know any parents at the 3 or 4 schools further away. I took a friends' dd to school for her for 2 years because of this, but won't necessarily know anyone who can do the same for me....

wouldn't a breakfast club be cheaper yet?

We've used state & private & moved from private to state without any problems at all. In the last few months. Similar reasons to you - we used private for primary school, needed the extras it had (wrap around childcare) but state for secondary. DS2 moved in September & took about 2 minutes to settle in. Ds3 will move when he transitions to secondary.

No problems with friendship groups (them or us) within private or state sector.

Yanbu. We are in a similar situation. It is more economical for us to pay private nursery and school fees than it is to pay the stamp duty and moving costs to move into the "right" catchment area for the only two good state schools in our area. There is still no guarantee of a place in the stat school once we move. DS is only 10 months but is enrolled for nursery and reception start in 2017. We aren't particularly wealthy but are comfortable and both work hard. We will sacrifice a holiday each year etc for school fees but that is worth is knowing our child will have an excellent education.

Not sure your calculations are as full as they should be. You say it's only 4 years of fees, so I presume you are intending sending DD2 to whatever state school she gets into? I think that might cause some resentment in years to come and would presumably be just as awkward drop off wise.

If you're intending sending both of them then that's 8 years of fees to pay, which I'm guessing will be somewhere in the ~£70k-120k. Given that, most likely, a more expensive house you move to will retain or increase value at a greater rate than your current one, from a pure end sum financial perspective, you are probably better off moving. (Of course housing values are volatile)

But I don't think that's the way to look at it. I think it's a matter of thinking about how you have the best life for your family. It sounds as though you really like this private school and the local secondary schools after and you can afford it. I think that is a better reason for staying where you are.

Pixie - breakfast club would be great, but the school doesn't have one!

Boom Boom, yes, I think we'd have to send dd2 as well - as you say, I'd be concerned that there might be resentment in future years if we did different things for them. So £70,000 is probably more like it. But we're in the South East, so silly house prices - even just stamp duty would run into ££££££. There are arguments both ways.... Oh, so hard to know what to do!!!!

Your plan sounds okay to me, but it sounds as if its not just because you didn't get the Junior school you'd like, but because you prefer the private school anyway ......all fine of course, but be clear about your own motivations. There are solutions available for 2 drop offs, which would be much cheaper, which you don't sound interested in, suggesting you rally want the private school.

Despite what a poster upthread said about your child not being able to break into friendship groups, nor you to the mummy circle...I would say rubbish, or the school she is involved in is to be avoided if it is like that.
Year 3 is a natural end/start point in private and state schools and I would be amazed if your child was the only newbie. As children move from the pre prep to the prep in Year 3 they begin a new phase of their schooling, even if staying on, so there is something new for everyone, not just new children.
Re moving back to state, I would find out how many at the Prep go state in secondary. If it is usually no one, bei g the only one could be a it hard on your child and you might feel disappointed to be doing it to, having experienced private...but these feelings are surmountable. Most children in Year 7 state schools don't spend much time talking about where they went before but live in the moment. Again, they are all new which helps. Unless a child kept going on about her previous private school being better than everyone else's, I really can't see there would be an issue.
When calculating the cost, have you allowed for 5% fee increases every year as well as the cost of paying for 2. You need to do this to make a fair comparison to the cost of moving.