Do you think private schools are losing pupils due to Covid?

[MarieFromStTropez]

A couple of girls from DD's class have very suddenly been offered places at the local heavily-subscribed private girls' school starting in January. Even though the parents put their DD's names down years ago, they could not guarantee them a place until Year 5 (they are currently in Year 2). Then out of the blue both girls were offered places.

I am wondering if it is because of Covid and maybe parents are taking their DC out of private school due to financial concerns. Has anybody else noticed this?

There have been lots of people leaving...and lots joining.
Some are preparing for what is ahead, hence the changes.

I think it depends on where you are in the country I would imagine indies in the north who are already struggling financially will close.

I’m in London and here it’s the other way round. More people trying to get in to the private schools as they assume (rightly or wrongly) that there would be better provision for learning in the event of another lock down. We were also told in the 11+ talk from our head, that competition will be more fierce this year for that reason

@After8itsgrownuptime That's really interesting.

Bit of both. People in financial difficulties due to Covid are removing their DC. Others are disappointed by the lack of online schooling over lockdown and have put theirs into private.

Round here I've seen the indies posting lessons with small classes and science experiments.

That's tempting to parents of children in large classes who have been told there will be no experiments in class.

If mine were not in year 10 then I might consider this.

Fingers crossed. In my utopia they all turn into state schools (like William Hulme in Manchester but less selective).

I had to take mine out due to financial reasons pre covid but as the years keep closing for 2 weeks at a time I feel I am not paying and the state school they have joined has provided pretty much the same online learning as the previous private school...

As others have said, in London the private school waiting lists have gotten longer as people panic and assume private schools might close less due to smaller classes and (in some cases) more space to socially distanced. Or if they close that their home learning provision may be better.

I’m a school Governor at a large London state primary school and we have lost 16% of our pupils since Covid either due to transferring to the private sector, home schooling out of fear or moving to the countryside.

Mine are at a private school. Some have left, mostly overseas students. Lots have joined for the continuity of lessons in lockdown. I don't think that movement will continue now though as our local state school is now prepped for online lessons if they need them, We are in an area with low cases and neither school has had to send year groups home yet.

Some have left if they were overseas students but most are staying and it’s more popular than ever. Our local schools provided nothing absolutely nothing for lockdown where as the independent schools have full video lesson from the school. The gap between provision between bad state and good state got wider as did the gap between Independent and state. The independents here had full teaching timetables from week 1 of lock down from video. Etc

@Toontown

Fingers crossed. In my utopia they all turn into state schools (like William Hulme in Manchester but less selective).

@Toontown

Ah my kindred spirit

From what I understand (my kids are in a prep), nobody has left yet but fewer children than usual joined after September..... I
Imagine people don’t want to take up places while there is so much uncertainty. Probably financial implications have not filtered through yet. I expect there will be departures in March

My school (state secondary) has just had 3 pupils transfer to us from a local private school. All of them had to move because their parents businesses have suffered due to covid.

So yes, some private schools are losing pupils due to covid.

We were considering relocating to London and were offered places for all our children at two of the three independents we approached and one place at the third. Lots of international pupils have gone home on account of both covid and Brexit.

I work in a private school with a decent percentage of boarders from mainly UK and also overseas. Our numbers have stayed pretty much the same so far but whether this remains the case for Sept 2021will be interesting.

The prep my ds is at has had loads of intake, about 6 children joined his (small for the school) year.

The senior private for DD is absolutely full every place taken. Boarding and day, very small overseas intake though to the boarding.

I see that both these thinga are a result of covid.

We have seen two students leave, places were immediately filled and waiting list is still extremely long. I think the very good prep and public schools will be fine, the not so good ones may well go to the wall in the next five years.

DS1 had 5 children join year 6 and DS2 (year 3) had 3 children join, all from state schools. No one has left as yet.
Boarding schools may have seen a drop in overseas students?
A private school near us has had lots of interest from families moving out of London.

@40PlusTTC

As others have said, in London the private school waiting lists have gotten longer as people panic and assume private schools might close less due to smaller classes and (in some cases) more space to socially distanced. Or if they close that their home learning provision may be better.

I’m a school Governor at a large London state primary school and we have lost 16% of our pupils since Covid either due to transferring to the private sector, home schooling out of fear or moving to the countryside.

I have 3 DC at a large London primary and 2-3 children have left in each of their classes for those exact reasons (actually, I don't know about homeschooling out of fear, but definitely move to countryside and private sector).

We have had several children leave our rural primary for private - all have siblings left at state schools but they were children who needed extra SENCO support during lockdown that wasn't forthcoming from primary. I have heard from friends that the local prep now has a bigger class size than at the primary and that parents are complaining a bit about this, the SENCO lead is drowning in work and stressed, and that the proportion of SENCO children is very high in several classes. Our primary did very run- of-the-mill home learning which was fine if as a parent you had time to create other learning opportunities, but for those with SENCO issues it was really difficult and I think a few parents panicked and decided they couldn't do another lock down with children with additional needs. Our local Secondary is bulging - I suspect there were parents who didn't take up private places due to worries, and their lockdown learning was very very good and they have already sent out details about what happens for lockdown 2 and it looks inspirational, so that will have quelled the worries of any of those wobbling about if they can cope with homeschool again. I have a child with SEN at our State Secondary and they were amazing during lockdown, they had a special area in Teams where they could gain support at any time from the department and extra tailored work set for them. Couldn't fault it (and would have paid for it!) I was very glad she had left the local primary by lockdown as they were rubbish with their SEN prior to lockdown.

My DS is at a private school, Yr1.

One of the reasons we sent him to a private school is because we could not get him in to the local outstanding school.

Interestingly, there have been quite a few new joiners to DS's school this year (which is unusual as they usually only take in at Reception and Y3) but only a couple have left due to relocation- it has annoyed a few parents because there are now 20 to a class when in previous years there have been between 15 and 18. Most of the new joiners have come from a particular school where I hear the parents were very unhappy with the online provision.

We are waiting to move schools til next summer as we rather be at the current school in case there are further lockdowns over winter.
During lockdown our year 5 prep school had 3 -4 hours of school work per day compared to primary school counterparts who had 1 hour per day.
I work full-time so I don't have time to whip up 'extension activities'

There has been an exodus from one prep to another near us due to dissatisfaction with lockdown provision.