Moving for Y3

[Allthehummus]

Today 15:50 Allthehummus

I wonder if anyone is / has been in the same position as us & could give advice.

DD is just coming to the end of y1 in an ofsted rated “good” primary school . She is happy and doing well. However recently we have been toying with the idea of sitting her for the local private girls school for y3 entrance as a few things about her school are worrying me.

1. High staff turnover / job shares
2. One of a class of 30 with high SEN/EAL & very limited TA support - lots of TAs cut due to funding this year .
3. Very few after school clubs / lunchtime clubs on offer
4. In the recent ofsted interim report it was picked up that the more able children are not pushed . This was previously mentioned in the full ofsted they last had .
5. Behaviour in the infants where she is is generally good. However the junior behaviour is not & several parents with children I know in Y5/6 are worried about behaviour .

BUT dd is very happy , on the top table for English and middling for maths , she has a lovely group of friends and enjoys the lessons and although I don’t think she is necessarily pushed enough do I really want that at 7?!

The private school is well thought of locally and is a GDST school . Heaps of extra curricular activities and specialised teaching. DD is very keen learner & so interested in history / science / art ahd i feel she will get more exposure to these subjects there . Our original plan was to tutor and try to get her in at 11 but we are now thinking do we try for y3.

It’s a big financial commitment but we can manage it & could still afford the odd holiday / school trip / pay into pension . I am terrible for frittering money away but feel this would “force” us to be stricter as on paper we can afford it and that this is worth spending the money on . I’m finding it harder & harder to arrange extra curricular activities out of school for her now I’m back at work PT and have a younger DD too (who we would also plan to go in Y3) whereas here she could do much more at school . DD1 is fairly confident & makes friends easily so I’d like to think she would settle fairly well especially as the school had several
Join going into year 3 BUT my biggest concern is if she’s happy where she is and doing well why am I rocking the boat . Journey wise they are both about a 10 minute car drive so not much in that .

If youve got this far thank you for reading & any thoughts or if anyone has been in a similar situation and decided to make the move or not ?

Your DD could just as likely behave poorly in year 6 of a private school as a state school.

Having had experience of both, I'd say beware of putting private on a pedestal because children are children and there's no knowing who they'll be mixing with in any setting.

If she's happy, leave her where she is and send her private for secondary.

Lack of lunchtime clubs isn't really an issue. Not if you're sending her to other clubs and activities in the evenings.

Being happy and having friends is invaluable.

Our DS did KS1 in local village school and then moved to an indie. Initially we thought possibly move after yr 6. However he would have missed out learning languages and latin earlier, learning a different sport that they competed interschool etc so that if he had joined later he would, despite being a bright boy and quite active , had been in lower sets and not made teams as a novice. We are glad we moved him then, and then again to a different more academic school after yr8. He is about to go into yr 13.

The only cautionary advice I would give is that we were comfortably in a position to afford it and had a separate account with at least 2 years' school fees in for emergency use if some unforeseen event.took place. If you will struggle to send both DC is it worth it? It might be better to.put the money away and send them post yr6.

GDST schools are generally quite to very very academic. If she's an able girl (and a GDST material), then it might not be that easy to get her in at 11 from a school that evidently doesn't do a good job for high ability children. You'll need to do a lot at home/extra tuition to make sure she's up to scratch especially if only on a middling Maths table (in what sounds like a pretty average school).
I think it might be worth moving her that she can benefit academically + have more fun and develop other interests through clubs.
If you're worried a bit about finances, you could also explore other state schools. If there are some more academic + have clubs, she could move there. Spaces sometimes become available if a child moves out of area.

Oh, and have you looked on here?

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk

Progress scores and % of children attaining 'higher level' will be a good indication of provision for able pupils (Ofsted only see a handful of lessons to base their judgement on).

Argh just checked on the site recommended by JoJo & the scores for her current primary on that are really not good at all. Argh.

Does anyone know how reliable PIRA & PUMA tests are ?

As with the reliability of any online test with automated marking - they save teachers time but also have their limitations. You can't test very successfully anything that requires a complex written answer as the computer wouldn't be able to mark it. It's less relevant in Y1 but more so when they're older.