When to move to the independent sector

[Twizbe]

For various reasons we've decided to go the private route for our kids for secondary.

Last night we were discussing when to make the move from state to private and we keep going round in circles. When is best to move?

Some context to this. We have 2 kids, one of each sex, 2 years apart.

They are currently year 1 and preschool. They attend a lovely, small, diverse, CoE state primary. It's a single form entry so despite being in London has a real family feel. Our eldest has thrived there and youngest is going the same way. The school expects a lot from the kids and does what it can to help them achieve their potential.

I don't see a need to move them before secondary. Partly due to logistics, partly due to cost and partly due to I don't know what a larger private school would give them that this school doesn't. The majority of the private schools here are straight through schools so in comparison to their current school, they're huge.

DH wants to do the 'state till 8' thing and move them sooner. From what he's said, he's worried about 1 particular friend of our eldest that he fears could turn into a bad influence. I think that as they get older this friendship will cool as they don't really have a lot in common.

I had this slight dilemma and am going to stick it out until year 6 before moving. Firstly because it gives us more time to save to pay for the fees and secondly, with a summer born, I felt like 7 plus entry was actually going to be more stressful than 11 plus. There are not many places at 7 plus at all for the schools I’m interested in eg at one school 8 places at 7 plus versus 75 at 11. Now granted there will be more applying at 11 but the odds still feel better (hopefully!) but I didn’t want to be preparing a 6 year old for tests.

Y6 at primary is great fun for the kids. I’m glad mine experienced it. However, moving to an academic indie at 11 was quite tough . Not so much for the work, though there was a lot of catching up, but the culture. So different from state primary. However, maybe that’s the same for everyone moving schools at 11.in a sense you could avoid that by moving In y 5 or 6. It’s swings and roundabouts tho. I loved year 6 of primary too, finally the oldest, lots of fun, swagger swagger etc!

I moved my eldest at yr 6 due to concerns around her passing the 11+ as she is dyslexic (we're London too). I'm moving my youngest for Yr 7 as I'm fairly confident she will be ok with the 11+ process and I would like her to finish primary school where she is and enjoy all the fun of yr 6 with her friends.

I would say give it a few years before you make any decisions and enjoy the local primary school experience