Following on from the How do you afford private education thread... Is there any real value in moving DD from state primary to private primary as a pre-cursor to private secondary ?

[itsmeNDP]

Sorry for the long title. The other thread got me thinking.

Basically DD is currently in a state primary and is very happy there. DH and I plan to privately educate DD at secondary level but full from 4y-18y private education is not financially do-able for us. We felt that state primary then private secondary would be more beneficial than the other way around, IYSWIM.

In an ideal world I'd like to transfer DD from her state primary to the private primary attached to our desired secondary, possibly for years 5 & 6. In the hope that it will make the transition to secondary easier and that she will have made friends that will move up to the secondary with. Obviously this will mean an additional 2 years of fees (yikes). Would it be a mistake to move her at secondary level and not before ? Also moving her at secondary level and not before will mean that she has to sit and entrance exam, if she comes up from the primary she will be automatically allocated a place.

It is a long time until we have to make this decision for real but I am interested in your opinions on when to make the move.

Main advantage, if you are thinking of private secondary, is to move her in the final year of primary (for Y6/PP4 start) if you can get her in as they can then prepare her properly for the entrance exams for secondary. Will she definitely not have to do the exam if in the primary - most of the private schools round here still expect the children to do and pass the exams to have a definite place int he school at secondary age.

I don't think the firends bit is as important. There will alsways be other new children going into the secondary as well, so your DDw ill not be on her own being new anyway.

Hi NDP

I was sent to private school at age 9 (Year 5 in modern terms). I made friends that I moved up to the attached secondary school with, but some left at the end of Primary and went elsewhere and others started at Secondary level anyway. By the time I left I had different friends than I started with at age 9 (one friend from aged 9 is a mutual friend of ours, she left before we got to secondary).

So I suppose what I'm saying is, ime, it doesn't make much difference. It might be worth doing some research into how many children move directly from the Primary to the Secondary school, and how many new starters there are at Secondary level. Will other children from your dd's school be privately educated from age 11 too? I suppose it's too early to say really.

thanks for those thoughts

There may well be a small number of children from DD's class/year who move up to private secondary. Like you say, it's hard to say.

Hula, the website says this "Please note
Girls attending [school name] will gain automatic entry to the Senior School at age 10+ (Year 6) and will not be required to undertake formal entrance assessments for the Senior School at the end of Year 5."

That is good then, and might be a good reason to move earlier if you wish to avoid the entrance exam.

NDP- forgive me if I'm barking up the wrong tree but are you thinking AO? Will the merger change the policy anyway?

Mind you, all this my well be academic (no pun intended) as the school we are considering is merging with one of the boys private schools, in fact it is the one DH attended so admittance criteria may well change.

I have to say though, the idea of putting DD through an 11+ type entrance exam fills me with horror. The pressure on her

Yes, ML. How did you know that ?! lol at our x posts

Are you local-ish to me then, marialuisa ?

Grew up round there and my friend teaches at AO so recognised the no 11+ bit! Also have weirdy memory and remeber you posting your location years ago as it was salient.

lol

We have some children who come into the school in Y5 (specifically to prepare for 11 plus) NDP and they all seem to settle fine.
Given your dd has an automatic entry into the senior school you hope she'll attend anyway, I'd go for this option in your position.
She also has the chance to familiarise herself with the whole school and its settings and routine before she also has to adjust to secondary curriculum etc

that seems like a good idea, marina.

My DS moved from state primary to private prep school at year 5 age (because we moved house then) and is now in year 7. I'm very glad he was already settled in the school and got automatic entry to year 7, as when he started year 5 he had quite a steep learning curve to come up to the required standards of organisation, presentation of work etc, and I think another 2 years would have made it that much more difficult for him.

When I moved from state primary to private secondary myself I found the new environment and standards required intimidating, and I think that's even more the case these days. So I would move her sooner rather than later, since that's an option for you.

We sent both DD to private secondary from 13 yrs. State primary was brilliant and if we'd had the option of keeping them at state (we weren't in the catchment area for the better school) we would have done.

I think it was in one of the well known papers last year that you need to save £400 minimum a month, from the date they are born, to cover private school fees from 4 - 18 years. That's without Uni

yikes !