My son has an accepted offer from an academic London day school at 11+ (think Latymer, City of London, Highgate type) with no clear 13+ entry/leavers. He also somewhat unexpectedly received an offer from Eton for 13+ in the recent round for 2028 entry. His current private primary school only runs to Y6.
My dilemma is, should I send him to the accepted day school, and then look to take the common entrance privately, or try to find (very last minute) a 11-13 prep school?
I completely appreciate this is a very unconventional route, and I’ve seen a previous poster coming under a lot of pressure from posters. I can only say that no one going into the London system can know how their child will perform for their exams, or what will suit their child when they are 11/13/older. There is no intention on my side to ‘take a spot’ from another deserving candidate!
The reason we wanted to try for Eton is that I thought it would be a good academic fit - my son loves lots of different things that are offered. Separately, he has cousins who attended and loved the school. The reason we aren’t so keen on taking a 11-13 prep place is that I don’t really want him to go to a tiny school for 2 years working toward an exam, nor are we keen for him to board now, rather than in two years. I am much more of the mind set that you can only make sure your child is at the right place for them at the time.
One solution of course is for my child to stay at the day school, but they loved the admissions process at Eton, and while they were slightly hesitant about boarding, I can easily see how in two years this might be different (ie, already very independent academically and socially, loves to go on camps with school/clubs).
May I ask if anyone here has experience of moving from Day to Boarding, and how that worked? Also, if any current Eton parents are aware of their children’s friend who might have taken this route?
thank you!