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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to move DD from her nice independent school where she has a scholarship because her brother didn't get offered one?

999 replies

middleschoolmuddle · 07/02/2015 23:23

We are not rich but nor are we poor. The school have offered us a 16% bursary for DS - it's not enough.

Would it be mean to move DD to a state school at this stage (Y9)? Has anyone done this?

I can't think straight, my mind is whirring so I'd love some perspective from those of you that have managed to use the local 'good' state schools and pass up the rather nice (best in County) independent one.

OP posts:
Chippednailvarnish · 08/02/2015 17:39

I've been laughing at this thread, can I be the first to bet that she'll be appearing in the DM with the compulsory Sad Face bemoaning how hard her life is!?!

There is no dilemma, if you had ALL of your childrens' best interests at heart you would simply increase your mortgage term and send them all private.

Get a job, pay your way and stop bloody moaning. that's assuming that this thread isn't total BS

Hakluyt · 08/02/2015 17:40

I do often wonder how an only child will feel when he asks his parents why he hasn't got any siblings, and is told "because we could only afford one lot of school fees"

DixieNormas · 08/02/2015 17:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheWordFactory · 08/02/2015 17:48

I guess it's the the same for DC brought up skinny but with siblings.

You think your parents did what they thought was best.

TheWordFactory · 08/02/2015 17:48

Skint...

rookiemere · 08/02/2015 17:49

I believe what MuttersDarkly posted waaay upthread is key here and I make no apologies for quoting it more or less in it's entirety:

The most overwhelmingly important factor in terms of outcome was not the schools we went to. It was the stage we were at when my parents' marriage collapsed. On the second day of my O levels to be precise.

My ears pricked up at the albeit small and innocuous sounding mentions of your husband. Might be something, might be nothing. But the two of you don't sound on the same page. And as a family appear to building huge time and debt pressures that generally don't do wonders for the glue that holds a couple together.

I'd take a long, hard look and assess the extent to which as pair the current situation might be wearing down, or has the potential to wear down the bonds between you in the future. Becuase a move as your daughter goes into year 10, while imperfect as a solution, is a million times better than leaving a pot to boil dry till it explodes off the hob in a year or two's time.

And you do sound under a horrendous amount of strain.

We all screw up. You might both have made wrong choices along the way. But the real measure of us is how we rectify those mistakes. So I think you both need to forgive yourselves and find way out of this that takes this awful, growing pressure off your family

It sounds like you both made a mistake a few years ago when you had the choice to send your DD to the almost as good free school. But that point in the road is done and gone and there's no point in blaming anyone for it.

Your DD sounds imminently mature - she's already reaching out to someone at the alternative school, I'm sure she'll survive no matter what decision is made.

But if you're taking her out, you need to do it now, not hope for the best and wait for later, and both you and your DH need to be on board with the decision for all DCs. Not in a dramatic crisis talks at midnight sort of way, but by sitting down once the DCs are in bed, with your finances and a calculator and working out what is possible and if you can, avoiding grand sweeping statements that seem to be solutions but will take a long time and money to come to fruition.

I do feel for you. We have one DS and we are able to send him to private school because a) fees are lower in Scotland and b) my parents help with the costs. We both work and have a good income, but we'd have had to sacrifice a lot to make it happen if we'd have been lucky enough to have 2 or more DCs. My BFs DD's go to state school and they seem perfectly happy there. It's not the be all and end all provided there is good parent support. although it must feel like it right now.

W0rldCrashing · 08/02/2015 17:54

Op, I think your head is a bit in the clouds but I COMPLETELY understand why. You're clearly an optimist! I'm in a similar situation. It's so hard to not reach for the best when you know it might, just might be possible isn't it.

I'd say do what you can to make it possible for your ds to go to the same school as your dd (her private school). Hunt for contract work, keep trying to get a permanent job, do what you can. It's clearly what you really want.

Hope it works out for you!

(You're clearly not in london but if you were I'd offer to take you to the pub for a brainstorm Smile)

middleschoolmuddle · 08/02/2015 17:55

SugarPlum, you are quite right, DD's cohort will have just started high school this years so she wouldn't be too out of sync if she was to join them later on this year, it's not as if they have all been together since Y7.

DD spent Y5 and 6 in a state middle school and underachieved. DS goes to a different middle school (couldn't get DD into this one as out of catchment) and after a rocky start last year seems to be doing much better. I'm not sure how much of that is down to the fact that he knew the school he hoped to go to would be looking at his report.

They both like to work in a selective environment, it is what it is.

OP posts:
middleschoolmuddle · 08/02/2015 17:58

WOrld, I could sure do with a drink :)

OP posts:
Cantdecideondinner · 08/02/2015 18:10

But surely a state school with proper setting is the same as working in a selective environment. The top set in a decent comprehensive will be working at a similar level to selective schools

TheWordFactory · 08/02/2015 18:11

OP can I ask why neither you nor your DH have maximised income to pay school fees?

It seems odd to me that he took a job paying less and you don't have a proper income?

Were you keeping your income low in the hope of bursaries?

Unexpected · 08/02/2015 18:14

Cantdecideondinner ah yes, the work might be the same but there'd be no games of capture the castle on the green or lovely dinners with musical scholars serenading the children. It's all about the details.

JohnFarleysRuskin · 08/02/2015 18:15

I was wondering if you were expecting a large flow of cash - inheritance maybe - and that didn't happen? Your decisions - based on a 60 k salary - do seem extremely optimistic otherwise.

TheWordFactory · 08/02/2015 18:17

cantdecide a top set on a comp will still have a spread of ability.

DC at the top end of the top set will have very few like ability peers ( just how the ability curve spreads ).

To get a like ability environment with critical mass you need selection really.

middleschoolmuddle · 08/02/2015 18:17

I'm not sure Cant, the selective school has no catchment as such and so draws the best from a wide area. DS reckons that he and 2 other boys are quite ahead of the others in his top set at middle school. You wouldn't make a top set at a comp by just taking the top 3 from each of 5 middle schools. Half of the class (the other 15 in a class of 30) would be working at a lower level. The selective independent school top set would be just those 15 kids iykwim.

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Cantdecideondinner · 08/02/2015 18:19

Did your DH take a pay cut for a software role offering a mediocre salary but the promise of lots of share options and the declaration that they would float and that he would make his fortune? Therefore you were banking on that to cover the fees?

prettywhiteguitar · 08/02/2015 18:21

Just get a job, your shortfall could be covered by downsizing and you actually earning a salary.

We have two at prep currently and one on the way, my work pays for the fees, I did a long financial projection of fees and costs and what would be need to be earn to pay for them. I would never have gone down this route without ensuring we could pay for all of them to go and frankly you sound like you are flying by the seat of your pants. It's just ridiculous

prettywhiteguitar · 08/02/2015 18:22

Long term financial projection that should be

W0rldCrashing · 08/02/2015 18:23

As a pp has said - things have changed enormously over the last 20/30 years. When I was at school in the 80's and 90's most of my friends parents we're professionals - doctors, lawyers, teachers etc. School fees were affordable, if a stretch if there were 2 or 3 siblings.

I have a dc at a private school in london. We are poorer than most of the other parents in the class by about £5 squillion! Think £30 million houses. Yes, really. It's mind boggling.

My point is that I want my dc to have as good an education as I had. And it's really tough waking up to the reality that the private school fees goal posts have massively shifted. The preschool fees for my dc are the same as my secondary school boarding school fees 20 years ago!

Floggingmolly · 08/02/2015 18:26

Do your kids notice the difference, W0rld? I'd imagine that much disparity much be very very obvious.

TheWordFactory · 08/02/2015 18:27

Yes school fees have increased astronomically as have house prices.

The trad middle classes are priced out of the market for private school.

catkind · 08/02/2015 18:27

Haven't got time to read 13 pages but just wanted to share that I moved from private to state at that point in my school career and it was absolutely fine. Better in fact, for me, academically speaking.

It doesn't sound like you can really afford private schools. They're not the be all and end all of education. You won't be blighting your DD's school career if you decide on the side of moving. Kids move school all the time, don't feel guilty if that turns out to be the best option for you all as a family.

middleschoolmuddle · 08/02/2015 18:29

Word, no, we haven't been consciously keeping our income low. Maximising income is an interesting concept. We have maximised the equity in our property (and DH's job security) by relocating and extending our current house. I have tried to maintain a decent CV whilst being a SAHM. I have strong references from prestigious institutions and one of them involved a hefty commute. DH also has quite a commute when he goes into work. He earns quite well in his field and is an 'expert', it just isn't a field that pays well.

We are both from humble backgrounds so no inheritances coming our way. The little I got, some years ago now, was spent on enhancing our property (and a couple of nice family holidays).

We did prep DD for a music scholarship by offering her 2 instruments. My youngest could probably be a music scholar whereas the middle one is more for drama although he has an instrument and gave up another.

OP posts:
PlantCurtain · 08/02/2015 18:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Cantdecideondinner · 08/02/2015 18:34

I'm afraid your DS seems to have a very inflated sense of self if he believes that he's so far ahead of other children. You need to have a proper talk to the teachers at the state school to establish whether this is the case. I know for certain, as the teacher told me, that before the end of the first term of year 7 there were no children in the top set maths working below a 5A with almost all the class comfortable 6's and some 7's. There were no children below level 5B in literacy or science. Even French which they had only started that term all children were at least a level 4. There are 2 top sets so this is 1/3 of the year. This is a comprehensive albeit in an affluent area. I get that there are parents who want an entirely selective environment but if you can't afford it or your children doesn't get a place at a grammar then you don't have much choice.

I think you need to find out more. I should add that having gone to a highly selective private girls school I have no recollection at all of playing I capture the castle although we did play handstands in the playground. I also have no recollection at all of civilised lunchtimes, just of queuing up in the canteen getting slop on our plates and sucking jelly into Rubens and spitting it back into our cups - highly civilised before moving to lukewarm packed lunches in year 9.