Can we justify sixth form fees over a Tiffin Boys offer?

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Help! DD has received an offer from Tiffin Boys into their sixth form. She’d prefer to stay at her current school which she loves and is local to us. But it’s fee-paying. Can I justify the massive cost for two more years? Even with a scholarship it’s close to £28k/year

No

If she loves it and want to stay then I think, let her stay (if you can afford it). Tiffin is a great school, but not if she's unhappy and doesn't want to be there.

No. She is happy and settled where she is and os obviously doing well.

I’d involve her in the decision, let her weigh up the options and that some of the fee money can go to uni costs etc

Well what does £28k a year mean to you? What other parts of your lifestyle would you have to compromise to afford the fees?

Most people couldn’t justify the cost irrespective of the other good offer, so won’t be good arbiters of this one.

Aa

At dh’s scool( a v good grammar) students who joined the school for 6th form had significantly
lower levels of achievement at a level than the ones who had been there throughout, despite excellent GCSEs.
new teachers etc and many ithe4 factors affected this

How would this work then for an area with schools which don't have sixth forms and everyone has to leave school to take their A levels? Just curious as Hills Road & Peter Symonds don't seem to have entire year groups of under achievers.

At mine, this kids normally did ok because they'd come from a class of 30 and earned the grades to get there. The ones who were used to the high level of personalised support of a class of 15 at private school struggled with the expectations at state school and didn't do well. I don't know if private school kids were made higher offers to get in to balance.

@HewasH2O in that case all students would be in the same situation if starting together in a new sixth form, and I’m sure teaching style etc would reflect the variety of intake. Joining an existing group ( 6th form) is very different where behaviours, expectations , relationships etc are established.

That's awful if the school didn't adapt for different approaches, starting points & those joining then.

Personally I wouldn't move a child who is happy and has nice friends and teachers. Unless the finances are really tough.

If she wants to stay put, I’d let her unless you really can’t afford sixth form

Of course you should move her, a place is like a golden ticket. Does she have any other friends going? Congrats to your dd.

Why did you apply? Perhaps you should revisit those to help you decide.

Tiffin Boys is one of the best schools in the country. Tell her she can have one year of fees as a house deposit when she’s older instead 😂

I don’t know, can you?! You’ve given us absolutely no information on your financial scenario. Do you mean morally justify it? If the latter, I’m sure you can find a justification.

I depends entirely what your finances are like. If its not a stretch to pay the fees and paying for two more years doesn't mean that she, and others in the family are really having to cut back on things that would be move beneficial to them than private school is for her, then keeping her somewhere she knows and loves is more than enough to justify keeping her there. If you are struggling to pay bills, feed yourselves, keep the house basically organised and repaired etc, and even more if you aren't able to afford things for your other children that they would really benefit from, then no you can't justify the cost and your daughter and you are really lucky she's got of offer from somewhere else so nice.

Thank you. We are able to pay but it means kids taking out loans for uni. Without the fees we could pay uni fees. So we’re lucky we’re not forced - but it would be nice to help them out with their loans. She’s our middle child and we had the eldest in private 11-18 but it was much cheaper when he began!

oh that's a tricky one. I would say if keeping her there means multiple kids taking out loans for uni, and moving her means her and siblings being able to do uni without loans, it would be fairer to move her.

I would also say though being a TA in a college where most local schools (including my 13 year old son's) don't have 6th forms and do feed into my college, or the one other in the city, means I'm kind of saying lucky kid should be grateful she's had a private education up to now and suck it up and do what most people do, but if from her school the norm is to stay on to sixth form there, staying would be normal and not special or privileged to her.

Without the fees we could pay uni fees.

Its a no brainer for me in that case.

Tiffin all the way

Hello, I don’t know if this helps but my son moved from private to tiffin a few years ago. He did fine, we found the support for uni applications very lacking. He applied for medicine and we had to do all research and practice ourselves. Which subjects is she doing?
the school is excellent at STEM especially Maths but IMHO less good at humanities and languages.
feel free to message me.

Learning to do it all himself is good practice for university.

@FillTheGoldenCupWithRoses- surely the school should be supporting with careers advice? That kind of attitude really lets schools off the hook IMhO.

the medical school process is particularly rigorous and involves in-depth interviews and a very hard pre-med exams. Given that schools like to show off about the kids who get onto these courses it’s not too much to ask for some support along the way.