Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has had experience of not getting into their local primary schools and having to go down the private route for primary, and whether you are considering local secondary schools or private secondary beyond that, and if you have started private primary and went state secondary, how did the transition work? My husband went private for primary school but then went back into the state system as his dad was made redundant. He didn't have a great experience and doesn't want it repeated with our kids. He did well despite it. We would struggle to put 2 kids through private all the way through, and given we have so many good primaries and secondaries on our doorstep (we probably have a better chance of getting into a very good local secondary than primaries), I'm not sure the financial commitment is worth it, especially if we were to find ourselves in the situation where we could no longer afford it. We are applying for reception at the moment.
The other challenge for me is the whole after school thing as I work 3 days a week in London and I'm not clear on what the offer is in the state sector, whereas in the private sector it is all arranged on site. The advantage of going to a local school would mean I could reduce my working hours or go freelance to accommodate school drop off and collection, whereas going private would likely mean a return to full time working - I'm in my 40s and not likely to progress much more (nor have the desire to) careerwise so frankly I would rather have the time with my kids rather than be at work full time.
Would value thought/opinions/advice.