Private primary school (London)?

[FryingPam]

Is a private primary school worth it? I know this is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question and the general answer is ‘if you can afford it then do it’. Our situation is that we’d seriously have to stretch our finances to pay £120k (that’s what it costs here, London) for 4 years of primary school and I couldn’t say for sure that we’d then be able to continue paying for a private secondary school. Would it be better to use a public primary school and save up for later? Will it be easier to progress from a private primary school to a good private secondary school than from a public primary school?

You could put them in prep and aim for some selective state schools or grammar schools. Or stay on state school but you’ve have to tutor for a good chance at the 11+ exams for your child to get into a good Independant secondary school.
no right or wrong answer, it’s up to you ag the end of the day.
You have to think of your child will comply with the preparation for the 11+.

We put oldest in prep school and he’s just competed his 11+. Now going to start an outstanding state primary but he had to do a London borough test to get it.

our second child is state primary and we will get tutors for her and try for private school secondary

for us, it wasn't worth it based on the local private preps nearby. It wasn't just the schools, but more the lifestyle that went with it (our nearest "good" one is about 30 minutes in the car at rush hour, which for us was a deal breaker), and the local private prep is too small for us (only 12 in a class) but we agreed from the outset of sending them to the local state primary to:

a) pay for tutoring from reception onwards
b) do as many clubs as we possibly could outside of school
c) ourselves dedicate the time to supporting our kids (we do at least an hour of reading a day, plus various CGP workbook exercises over the week)

We probably spend about £100 per child per week for all the above, so significantly cheaper than private for a 'private education', plus the primary school they go to has very good facilities too, so massive playing field, lots of after school clubs etc.

My eldest is year 6 and to be honest most of her friends have done the same path, but now at secondary are going in different directions (some state grammar, some private, some local with 'top up' tutoring)

It depends on what the state primaries and secondaries are like in your area. However, as a generalisation, if budget is an issue I would personally go for state primary, and get a tutor to help your child prep for the 11+. Going private for primary with the hope of securing a grammar school place is a risky business, especially in London where competition is particularly fierce.

Lots of children go to private secondaries from state primary. We did this and DD is extremely happy in her secondary school.

Thanks all. As someone who didn’t grew up in the UK, it’s all quite new to me. DS is only 20 months, but I’m trying to prepare.

Our dds go to a prep school in London and we're very happy with it. The dcs are working at 1-2 years ahead of a typical state primary across the school years, so logically it will be a bit easier to prepare for 11+ from the prep than a state primary where you have to catch up, especially if you just do a year or two of tutoring. Socially, it's also less isolating to go through it as a cohort where all your friends are discussing different senior indies, than being the only person in a state primary having to do this extra prep while your friends just go to the local comp. As a parent you also get lots of tips from the parents of dcs who have gone through it, and many parents have gone through the private school system too (I was state educated myself so it was new to me). The prep head is also invaluable for making suggestions of suitable schools (not just academically suitable but pastorally and peer group), writing references and making calls to senior school heads.

We wouldn't have wanted dds to do lots of extra tutoring and workbooks outside of school, as they already work hard during the school day and have always had lots of homework. As a family we value play time for the dcs and lots of cultural experiences, so it's nice to have the academic side done in school while we can enjoy lots of trips out and fun extracurriculars for the dds. They get most of their extracurriculars done in school (including before school and lunchtime), which is good as it's with existing schoolfriends, and more convenient to not have to travel to do it, for the dcs and for the parents.

OP you say 4 years of primary. Primary is 7 years - ages 4 to 11. You might mean the 7+ which is last 4 years of primary and often referred to as “prep school”.

As a general rule of I had to pick only one of private primary or private secondary I would pick secondary. But that depends on exactly where you would be and the relative quality of the schools. I’ve had one child in state primary then private secondary school and another in state until 7 then private prep/secondary.

95% of people I know are choosing state primary rather than private (who could afford it if they wanted to).

If your local primary is good, it’s not worth the money, is the general consensus.

At now £30k a year, it is very difficult to justify vs a decent state primary.

A very high percentage of children from our primary go to private schools - it’s not unusual to go from state primary to private secondary.

@FryingPam

In which part of London would you be looking for a school, OP?

@mariokart2026 an hour a day reading…per child?! What does that look like?

It takes me 10 mins to do my reception child’s school reading book with her and then she probably has 15 mins of bedtime stories. We read with my 8yo (we take turns with the book - currently reading the hobbit) probably also for 20 mins. Just can’t imagine stretching that out to 1 hour each with everything else they do but perhaps I’ve misunderstood.

We do about 10 minutes per child in the morning (usually whilst I do their hair or cook breakfast etc) and then in the evening we do at least 45 minutes of reading with them. They sometimes do independent reading too, after school and on the weekend. It's just built into our routine.