Moving from State to Private - Yr6 or Yr7. Which is best ?

[NomDePlume]

It has always been the plan for DD to be privately educated at secondary level, primary was not such an issue as we are happy with the state provision in our area.

I'm wondering if it would be more beneficial to move DD ready for yr6 so she has a full school year in the private system before moving up to the senior school.

She's a confident girl, fairly average in the academic stakes and I'm a little concerned that the academic leap from state primary to private secondary is going to be a little too much for her, hence wondering if joining at yr6 is a better plan.

My only concern is that yr6 is a SATs year and the disruption to that may cancel out any perceived benefits of moving her a yr early. In truth, it is probably better to move her for 2 school years pre senior school but we are not in a position to move her for yr5.

She is about to start yr4 so we have time to get the more focused planning in place, I'm just trying to get an idea of what might be the best course of action.

Any thoughts ?

I should say that in order to prepare for the anticipated academic leap (as well as to help her to develop her skills in general and to make the transition easier on her) DD is about to embark on additional KS2 maths help at home once a week with a private tutor.

OK so assuming this is a school that goes straight through ie she will not be moving again at the end of Year 6?

The main advantage of moving at the end of Year 5 - so starting at Year 6 - is to avoid the rush of entrants at the end of Year 6 going into Year 7 as a result of 11+ or equivalent entrance exams. She will have to do some kind of assessment or exam but may be the only one or one of a handful rather than potentially one of hundreds going for a few places (assume curremt pupils dont have to take entrance exam for Senior school?) We did this recently for DD for this reason as we knew she would not probably get in if she was in competition with others.

However if you wait to do 11+ she won't be the only new girl and there won't be issues breaking into friendships groups - but this may not be an issue for your DD depending on her personality (it certainly wasn't for our gragarious DD)

If you feel she needs a tutor to "make the leap" then please think hard about whether this means she will constantly struggle at the prospective school. Far better in my view to go to a "lesser" school and be happy than flounder in a more academically high falutin' place (and that is my personal experience from a million years ago )

Good Luck!

Well, she will be moving physically to another building but the prep and senior schools are part of the same overall establishment, so she would be moving up with the children in her year group.

my friend moved 2 of her ds in year 5 (one Summer term, other I think Autumn) and has felt they had an advantage over Year 7 joiners. She may still have to sit their internal 11+, possibly as early as the Autumn term of year 6, but they should n't accept her anyway unless she'd pass it easily. Does the new school even do SATs ?

Thanks for your detailed reply willali.

Re the academic side, it's a difficult call really as DD is currently in an enormous primary (600+ pupils) with large class sizes of around 30 pupils supported by 1 teacher and 1 p/t t/a. She is eager to learn and, like I say, is averagely intelligent but I do wonder if she could do better in smaller class sizes, if more 1to1 time with teaching staff would be beneficial to her. She had additional help with numeracy at school not so long ago in small groups and came on in leaps and bounds, which is what makes me wonder. Numeracy is her only area of weakness.

To be honest, this is my main reason for wanting to choose the independent route for her as our local comp is Ofsted oustanding but is oversubscribed with very large class sizes. DH was privately educated at secondary level so he wants it because it's what he did, but would agree that class sizes are an issue.

Good point, I don't think they do do SATS

I would suggest moving her for Y5 to make up for any academic issues if she is only average. Also the last two years at state school are coaching for exams whereas she will be learning more at the inde. I doubt she will want to leave for Y6 as it would be er final year at her state school so I would move her for Y5 for academic reasons.

It's fine to move her in Year 6 if she is going on to Y7 in the same school.

If it is an all-through school, then the private Year 6 is unlikely to be concerned with prepping for entrance exams for senior schools, and you'd miss out on spending a whole year practising for SATs in the state school.

The one downside is that you might have to fork out for special junior school uniform that you only get one year's use of.

The private school may have a full class for Year 6, but it is pretty easy to predict this from their current numbers.

Given the choice based on our experience I would defnitely go for the Y6 move, both to avoid sats which are just like an endless sausage machine, and also the scrum & panic of the search for Y7 places.
DS1 moved for Y6, and had a seamless move into Y7 - very happy. School has now changed policy so DS2 has to wait till Y7.
(Hence my thread regarding boarding schools in France - we are considering moving DS2 to make the most of his 'spare' year... )

We moved DS for year 6. He has flourished. But we did take a lot of time making sure that the school was right for him.

Thank you all so much for your input, it is very much appreciated. I think we're pretty much decided on the Yr6 option.

ShakesPear, like I say, I'd love to move her Yr5 (next school yr - she's about to go into Yr4 in Sept) but financially it's highly unlikely to be feasible, whereas we know it will be doable at Yr6. Yr6 is, realistically speaking, the earliest we can do it.

DH and I are going to have a look around the no1 choice school (and a couple of others) toward the end of yr4, so that we have time to make a decision and get her registered etc.

Thanks again

I would not wait that loing to register your daughter - if the school is anything like the ones near us (Surrey) people register waaaaaay in advance - I know one (albeit senior) school is now "full" for the next 3 years!!

If you move her in yr 6 she will have a year to adjust to the private sector before the big intake in yr 7. Studying styles are different between state and private. My son is at a private school and we had the choice of moving him to his new school in yr 7 or 9 (boys move later than girls generally) and were told by the school we are moving him to that the yr 7 entrance is more for the state schools to give the children chance to adapt.

Thankyou both.

There is an open day in October, perhaps DH and I had better get ourselves into gear on it and go and have a look around with a view to getting her name down asap if the school is right.