Anyones child gone from State Primary to Independant Secondary?

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

Any issues?

Yes and yes.

ds's schools have also had children move from a state school to an independant. The workload comes as a shock to them, as does the amount of homework. Behaviour in class is also a problem, however, some of the children who have moved from other independant schools have very poor behaviour so it's not just those from state schools.
Ds's old head believed that state pupils behaved poorly in class because they did not get the right attention from the teachers (her opinion, not mine).

How about getting in? Any harder for those who have not attended Primary Indepedant?

Are you looking for a secondary?

Doh! Sorry.

ds's old school spend alot of time in the last year preparing the children for the entrance exam for the secondary schools, normally at the cost of lessons like Art and ICT. These children are very well prepared, which does give them an unfair advantage when it comes to scholarships. ds's current school, however, don't really care where the pupils are from. They all sit the same exam, if they get a high enough mark they are offered a place.

Yes my sons went on to Independent selective boys' day school from state primary. No issues.

They sat an exam but weren't coached. I felt it would be the wrong school for them if they needed coaching to get in.

Thank-you everyone. We have been thinking about things financially and are wondering as we have good but very small (one only has 2 classes) village state primary schools, if we should save the money up for secondary........just a bit worried they may struggle to get in, or feel it is massive etc etc

My DD1 moved from Y4 at state junior into Y5 independent in September.

She is doing really well and settled in brilliantly, but has found the expectations much higher (which is a good thing IMO) and the pace and pressure of work greater - longer school days, much more homework, her work has to be better presented and more thorough than she was used to.

No problems getting in but her school is not hugely selective - she had to sit a few tests and interview with the head but they seem to take children with varying abilities.

Sorry just reread the thread title - she hasn't gone into secondary but from junior to prep.

Doh. Ignore me.

hm, in the same situation, love their local village school, but worried they have no chance in getting into sec school. dc cousin had 3 hours a week extra tutoring and didn't get into preferred prim school (only in y2!).
Don't want to get into that (too busy with football, playing with friends etc) but on the other hand don't like the local sec state school.

Thats the issue I'm worried about thirdname........not sure what to do!

My dcs' school has entry points in y3 and y7 and does take children from state primaries. For the Y3 intake many of the children aren't tutored but have parents who have done some extra work with them at home, for y7 most are tutored as they are competing against children from prep schools whose whole purpose is to get children into selective schools for y7 and y9 entry,so tutoring really does just level the playing field.it is not a case of if they need to be tutored they won't cope with the work once they are there. However, the school (which is not hugely selective) will take children who are "uneven" eg really gifted at maths but below standard in English if they think they will be able to cope.
IMO size issues depend on the school - some indie secondaries are huge, some are much smaller.

Constantly cooking, thank you so much for making the point that not all indie schools have small classes. I know that the one I went to which sits in the top 10 each year has 4 or 5 classes of 30 in each secondary year and 2 classes of 25 in the prep school, hardly small, nurturing and individual.

dd1 went State to Indie @ secondary, dd2 had 2 yrs in prep before secondary transfer. Was a lot easier with dd2 as the school prepared them for the entrance exams but also gave a lot of feedback on which schools may suit the child.
DD1 was tutored from Easter in y5,entrance exam was Jan y6. I'm not sure if she would have got in if she hadn't been tutored as I think she would have panicked at the tests, but she is more than capable of the work now she is there. You could tutor at home, the Bond papers are always a good start.
Most indies around here will take school into account when selecting, so state school children aren't expected to score as highly on the entrance exams.

HTH

Both my DDs went from a good state primary school to Independent Senior school, as did quite a large number of their friends. They did a few practice papers beforehand, plus had about 2 months of weekly tuition sessions just to make sure they were comfortable. Both had the choice of 2 schools - one selective, one not. They are in Years 8 and 7, both doing well, and loving it.

It may depend on where you are, and the ethos of the school you're looking at. Have you gone along to one of the senior school open days, and asked them?

We will put DS into state infant school, but then are considering prep school rather than the state primary, but only because there seem to be much fewer options for boys at senior level than for girls, and the competition for places is likely to be much higher.

At our local primary almost all go onto indie secondaries without any seeming difficult getting in (everyone knows which are more or less selective and parens enter them for those they are likley to get into - each child probably tries for about 3-4 schools.) There is a grammar within about an hour's commute, so many take the test for that, and if they get it take it save the fees! If not, go to an indie. This grammar has been getting bad press recently and considering merging with a non-selective state secondary so that may change in future years. The local state secondaries are dire, so even those brave souls who go for them tend to be desperate to switch out after a couple of years and are scrabbling for an indie place at at that time. The big shock for them all is the amount of homework and the move from being spoonfed in the state school to being expected to be more self-motivating in the indies - but they do adjust pretty rapidly.

My dd went from state primary into indie at year 7. The school is not selective (although they do have an entrance test it's more an assessment to see what they can do).They have a good reputation for dealing with children who have dyslexia and other similar SN.

The only problems she has had is that the school is very small (one quarter the size of her very large junior school) and there are less choices for friends if they fall out.

Year 7 was quite tricky peergroup wise but her year group have really gelled now in year 8 she's very happy.

My eldest daughter moved from a maintained primary to an independent senior school. The ad nauseam Sats practice that she spent the year doing was adequate preparation along with a couple of NFER papers at home. She received an academic scholarship. She's making up for the opportunities she missed out on by not being in the prep dept.

My two younger daughters moved from the same primary to the prep and pre-prep dept of DD1's school. They find it quite intense with the new subjects, and moving to specialist teachers for some of their subjects - but love it.

With this experience and those of my boys moving from a traditional prep school to public school, I would say that it is the personality of the child that is going to dictate mostly how they adapt to the new school.

My son moved fromo state primary to prep in year six. He's in year seven now and is thriving. With the exception of French he had no problems adjusting to the work and the French was only an issue because we had to catch up with a class that had started when they were five. We had a lot of vocabulary to learn!

I think the core basics were well taught at the primary: most of the village schools round here are very good.

We are hoping to move our daughter, too, for year six. Our view is that we don't need them to go through SATS and by the time they get to year six they are ready to work on a broader curriculum than a village primary can offer. They also need more sport than is available.

Thanks everyone, great to hear that is is possible and not as hard as I had thought. Many thanks!