Is there any long term advantage in going private primary onwards vs private secondary only?

[river1]

Hello,
Not wishing to have a state vs private debate here please as I know there are good/bad schools in each sector but would be very grateful for views from those who are going private already at primary or plan to at secondary (and particuarly those who have moved private mid primary)?

DD is in Yr1 at a 'good' small village school (with mixed year groups), is fairly happy there, but I think rather unispired. There is no major nightmare forcing me to move her but I feel pretty underwhelmed (best word for it) by the scope of the curriculum, facilities and general outlook. There are no other viable state options avail to us.

I was educated privately and if money was no object my daughter would be too. But it would involve sacrifice and some stress on jobs. My parents were not well off but they made the choices I suppose i would choose to make too.

I have little doubt that if I were to move DD to the private school locally that I like, she would leave further ahead and with more confidence and self assurance and exposure to a wider non sats based curriculum, with increased focus on art, music, drama, languages etc too.

My question is - will it make any difference to her in the long run if we make the move at Yr2 or if we wait til secondary? Would she be in the same place at 18 either way? May be impossible to answer I know but I would love to hear experiences and thoughts

ps there are no selective state schools near us so educating at prep school to aim for grammer is not an option.
thank you

If you are not sure when/if to move your child, I would talk to the senior school head. Because the grammar I talked about earlier actually likes (and takes about 7 boys a year) from DCs State primary, although a lot of its feeder school boys don't get in. I have talked to other heads, who have given quite interesting advise if you listen to what they are subtly saying (eg. for a private school I'd have tried if we hadn't had the great state school we have on our doorstep).

Sorry I haven't replied re my original post! And thanks for all the viewpoints. I really wasn't meaning to start another private vs state debate and maybe i didn't phrase things right. I know there are loads of excellent states at primary and secondary level that offer a much wider learning experience. For me it is about choosing between 2 specific schools - one being a 'good' but possibly limiting and not very inspiring village school with mixed years and the other being school that I think will provide a more enriching experience (and it happens to be private and cost money that isn't readily available). So what I meant is - in my area - if I could I would look to go private as we have access to adequate state schooling at both primary and secondary level, but nothing that is that brilliant.

There has been alot of talk about ethos and its a hard one isn't it. We think the ethos of the private school is good but we are not there and our daughter (whose confidence is very easily dented) could find the move tricky if we leave it too long. And I suppose my worry is that if we leave her where she is, she might have so much enthusiasm for learning in the long run.

sorry meant to say 'she might NOT have so much enthusiasm for learning in the long run'

Ok lets try and be a bit more specific and helpful.
Firstly does she say or appear unhappy or is it you thats unhappy? Is it a prep school your looking at or would your daughter stay till 18yrs old? How much of a sacrifice will it be? Can you afford senior school fees likely to be significantly more that prep fees? Do you have other children can you afford to pay for them?
On the basis that you cant change the school and Im assuming she's in a mixed class of yrs1/2 will it be better further up the school? Can you provide outside help/interests to make her life more interesting? Riding, music lessons language club, brownies etc. anything.
Have you looked at other private schools limiting yourself to one is not a good idea. Even if you look at ones you don't like the look of at least you will start to get a feel for how their organised and whats the norm. If its only a prep look at where their feeding into and at what age; 11yr or 13yrs e.g. are they primarily feeding into well know boarding schools at 13yrs do you want to go down that route? Some still focus on sats others don't, those preparing for CE will often have a narrow focus in the last year even the last two years. There may be more extra curricular activities but this is often done by having a longer day. At my DC's old prep day children stayed till 6 pm and regularly 8.30pm to participate in clubs and play rehearsals etc.
Can you move to another village school? Years ago my DS was at an uninspiring village school the one a couple of villages away had an outstanding reputation and was considered impossible to get into; parents paid millions for a house in this village and then set about murdering the competition for places! I rung up out the blue and they invited me to see it because they happened to have a place!? If you don't ask you wont know.
Finally preps schools don't guarantee confidence DS1 is now much more confident since he's left his prep and moved to the local comp.

My DC's prep school was fabulous and worth every penny, but there were a number of factors involved that made the experience so valuable.

Some f those factors are general and would probably apply to most families, but others were very specific to our family. We were very lucky that so many things seemed almost tailor made to suit us en famille.

Greenwing - a school where the average child who plays an instrument is grade 5 by year 7 is a very admirable feat indeed. Where are you?

greenwing- that sounds like the Chalet School!

All instrumentalists Grade 5 by Year 7?

Rugby First XI (sic) all keen Choral singers?

Large learning support unit?

Where is this Tir nanOg amongst schools?

Greenwing, I am very glad that your school does support children who have learning difficulties as that is how it should be.

In my area 'well regarded' prep schools 'manage out' any children with additional learning needs, because their aims are either a) to preserve their 100% pass rate into the linked secondary schools (and the entry is competitive) or b) to achieve the other 'raison d'etre' of private primaries locally - to get as many children as possible into local grammars.

Any child who would threaten either of these is quietly encouraged to leave.

On the other hand there are a smaller number of prep schools who specialise in spoecific learning difficulties (e.g. there is a school which specialises in dyslexia) BUT they are not the 'well regarded' prep schools and their overall academic standards are lower (even allowing for levels of SEN) than the local state schools.

Locally, therefore, there is no private primary or prep that combines high academic standards with any kind of support for learning difficulties. I am glad that such a thing does exist elsewhere.