How full is your private school?

[imperativeviv]

Just that really. Our prep always makes out to new parents that you won't be able to get a place if you don't sign up immediately when it's never actually been full. I'm wondering if secondary are the same.

I am concerned about the added 20% vat on school fees as that will push us into the bracket of really not being being able to afford fees with more than 1 dc, so I'm wondering if to aim for my dc to go to the local grammar and then worst case make the big sacrifices sell a kidney to switch back to independent if it doesn't work out. I'm hoping it's a similar story amongst secondary schools that this will be easily possible for us and places will be available as I'm getting the same 'pressure' talk when I speak to admissions at some of the secondary schools but no real way of telling what the reality is.

Full, 5 or so applicants per place.

Not really full at all around here, particularly those which are not very academically selective.

There’s random places that come up in secondaries from what I can see when I look online. Then there’s a few that always have places as they are terrible.

@androidnotapple do place come up throughout the school years or does everyone stay? That's terrifying 5 to 1!

I’d aim for grammar and use tutors to top up in the weaker subjects.

Why don’t you try phoning up to enquire about some imaginary children potentially moving in to the area in older age groups and see what they say? Might give you some idea.

Schools are never going to advertise that they’re not full, it’s not good business. Fwiw, I think the 20% increase will make a lot of people nervous and wouldn’t be surprised at schools having more spaces than usual over the next few years.

5 to 10 sit for each occasional place, they come up most years

Mostly full around here, we did manage to move DD in year 8 to a different one, but of the others she was on a waiting list for, she took a year or two for a place to come up. Younger one was waiting listed for his and snuck into the least desirable. No chance for two others even though he passed the assessment.

About 10 on the waiting list for DD’s year 6 class. Her school opens up another 18 spaces for Year 7. They had an open day a couple of weeks ago, and 90 families viewed the school.

It’s worth checking with your school what they plan to do with the 20%. DD’s school is planning to absorb it as much as possible, and pass on as little to the parents as they can.

@modgepodge that's what I'm thinking, perhaps the 20% will put others off. Good idea about phoning up. Our prep has seen so many dc coming and going there is always a space available in every year. I have noticed a lot of the selective schools have exams quite early for year 9 intake so that would possibly get in the way of taking a grammar place and leaving current prep instead of simply staying at prep through to year 8.

I work in a private school in Surrey. We have spaces in every year. We’re not academically selective or famous or anything. There’s three private schools in our village. I just think it’s reached saturation point.

I teach in a South West independent school and we are pretty much full. The odd space in some year groups but other years have waiting lists.

interesting. perhaps I will have to accept one or the other then.

Very full, almost 400 Sat the entrance exams for ours last year for 30 places.

Pretty full for secondary. Not so much in prep.

Always a bit of movement though and numbers go up over the time.

Primary not full at all, secondary almost full.

The 20% on fees won't happen.

And even if it does it's years away and a different government will be in place.

@00100001 labour have confirmed they will add 20% vat to fees immediately once they're in which would be 2025. This would affect my family, one of my dc is in year 6 now so entering year 9 in 2026 and of course my younger dc fees would also go up as well which would be difficult for us to magic up extra fees.

LOL as if they will actually do that, and actually succeed.
Do you think they'll actually win the election and not face YEARS of pushback for the decision? All the specialist schools, small schools, education providers will push back. And there'll be exemptions because nobody really means the little school down the way that's providing education to 60 disabled children or the school teaching adults to retrain in something.

Also it will raise an estimated £1.6bn, which is only 1% of what the government are spending on schools anyway. So what with the VAT claims back from private schools and the mere drop in the ocean raised by imposing VAT, it will make no difference ... Except putting more pressure on state schools to provide places for the minority of kids pushed out of independent schools, because the fees won't go up by 20% for parents.

So, £1.6bn in VAT - VAT rebates + additional pupils to find places for = nothing extra going into state schools.

It's a headline that labour knows will make them popular among some voters, but in reality means nothing.

we applied for ioe for DS which had 7 applications per palce. sadly he ended up in the waiting list and didn't get in.

A couple of really poor privates locally have places

Around here Y9 is ridiculously full, 8 and 7 also pretty big.

Non selective through school - SE. Really varies through school (with no apparent rhyme or reason). There are years with waiting lists and years with small classes that have several spaces.

Other schools in the area, secondaries tend to have less places than primary, but there would probably be somewhere you could find a place.

But the secondaries with the least places are the grammar schools. Far easier to start in grammar and move to independent, then other way round.

The reality is if you start in grammar and not working out, you probably aren’t going to be in a mad panic. You can probably go on a few wait lists for a few terms. If you start in the independent sector, money problems get worse and you need to move, you’ll probably need to leave asap and that may mean you are given any place in the state sector which has a space.

So I wouldn’t panic about hypothetical spaces in independent schools in the future. Aim for grammar (without sounding harsh your kids (or not all of them) may get in in any event). Consider your state options as well as possible independents (round here most people apply for a mix, because no guarantee).

Waiting list for every year for ours.

Full, but there's a very clear pecking order of private schools in our area, so I would expect our DD1's school to be the last one to have spaces.

It might make it easier to get DD2 into one of our preferred schools.

Private schools in grammar school areas seem to be quite different to the ones in comprehensive areas. I would have sent DD1 to grammar school if that was an option for us. I'd have been in a quandary about DD2.

we are not in a grammar area
Our Prep (4-13) is full. It is moderately selective and quite sought after.
The academic senior schools are also full, usually waiting lists. There are two smaller slightly less academic girls schools who do usually seem to have places and one coed a bit of a drive outside the city which is similar.