To consider moving to private school because my 6 year old is doing ‘okay’?

226 replies

naturalstressor · 22/10/2026 17:22

‘OK’ sort of sums it up. He’s ’in the middle, but towards the lower end of it.’ He’s getting a bit of extra support with phonics, maths is ‘OK’ and behaviour is good.

I do feel like he’s slumping behind a bit and keen to support him but I really am doing everything I can at home.

I am considering whether to move him to private school. It would be a huge financial burden but I really want to help him. I feel like he is underachieving but isn’t weak enough to warrant a lot of extra input.

OP posts:

Pingsung · 28/10/2026 15:21

naturalstressor · 28/10/2026 07:06

I will offer some advice to anyone in a similar position and strongly recommend you don’t go private.

We are currently caught up in a nightmare of a system where we can’t find any private consultants to treat ds but we are bottom of the pile for the NHS because we misguidedly went private in the first instance thinking it would be quicker (ha.)

I can’t see DS’s ear issues being sorted out any time soon. But in the meantime phonics are an issue. If we come across an unfamiliar word (terrific was one the other day) he sounds out the sounds correctly but then doesn’t know the word, but then gets it immediately if I do it even if I’ve said exactly what he did, no idea why.

Sounding a word is hard. You have to recognise the letter ,remember the sound ,say it and then do the same with the next letter. If your short term memory is not yet well developed you've forgotten the first sounds by the time you get to the end. When an adult does it you can hear it all at once and know the word.
Try sounding the first two letters and then blending them and then go on through the word in chunks. Sometimes this helps.

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