Hi Flowertop, just realised the mistake - sorry
We moved dd2 because she was being intermittently bullied at the school she was at. The school also failed completely to engage her in education (she is very bright, but can be very lazy). This meant that she was moving from a school that she didn't like anyway, and so was very keen to move to the new one. The whole experience has been completely positive. She has changed from a miserable girl who did no work to a happy, hard-working child who enjoys coming top on the subjects she is good at (maths and science) but will also work hard at the subjects she dislikes in order to 'not let the teacher down'.
I was a bit concerned about the social side tbh - for me not dd2 . We live in a wealthy area anyway, but I've never been much good at the 'personal grooming' thing, as long as I'm clean that's good enough. At dd2's school there are a lot of footballers wives (literally) and I did wonder whether that may cause any difficulties(do you detect a bit of reverse snobbery here ). I'm happy to say that the mums are all fab as well as the children. Most of them are a very welcoming bunch, and there is a good mix of those who refused to consider any option other than independant, and those who considered (and tried) other options before deciding on this one. I also think there are possible fewer instances of the children showing off here than at the previous state primary, partly because the school absolutely wouldn't tolerate it. I have to say that prior to moving dd2 I was always slightly prejudiced against private school and I have now completely changed my view.
DD1 was given the option to change school at the same time as dd1 (she was in y5 then) but she refused as she was very happy at the school she was at. She is a fairly bright, very hard-working compliant (usually) child and so is very easy to teach. Up until Easter (so 1 term after we moved dd2) she was adamant she was going to the local high school. However after seeing some of the differences between the schools she has decided she would like to go to independant school next year (y7) (there goes my new car). We are looking at selective schools for her, and have narrowed it down to 3, all with different pros/cons and different academic expectations. She has been tutored since May, to get her used to the style of the tests and questions etc. Now we've got to bite our nails and see if she gets offered a place at any of the ones she wants to go to.
Sorry this is a long post, can talk far too much about my dds . Any other questions, please ask and I'll try and make the responses shorter.