Year 7 places , have I left it too late to consider independent

[Rudi44]

Hi, we live in South Bristol and have applied to schools that are all over subscribed and not in local catchment e.g. In BANES. I know that kids from our primary school have got into our choices in previous years but I am starting to wonder if we should have as a back up applied to an independent school in case we end up getting none of our 3 (and in reality I would only be happy with our top two). A fee paying school is not my preferred route for a few reasons including the fees which will be a stretch for us but I wasn't keen on any of the local schools that we would be likely to be allocated. My question is, have we left it far too late to do this now? Thanks so much

Tbh I would have thought so. Most independent schoolstudy have the entrance exams about now... I would get on the Internet and check their admissions pages.

It probably depends which school. The ones that are seriously competitive to get into (e.g. BGS, QEH) do exams in January and send out acceptance/rejection letters around now. They are always full for year 7, so you would have no chance.

Official application timetables are roughly the same for the others, but a few of them might possibly have spaces - you would have to phone around and ask.

Which end of Bristol are you, and how far are you prepared to travel? Somewhere like the Downs School at Wraxall, which is a prep school, so goes from age 4-13, will almost certainly have places as a lot of children leave to start year 7 elsewhere, but of course that would leave you needing another school in a couple of years' time.

Thanks for the replies, that's what we thought. Will check out some individual schools and in the mean time keep fingers and toes crossed for March 1st

I would recommend contacting some local independent schools and see if they would be open to late applications.
Some families do turn down offers for independent places if they obtain their first preference state school, so sometimes places do become available in March.

I don't think you have left it too late no. For the schools with exam assessments you may have but for non selective schools such as the Downs as previously mentioned or Torwood house you may not have. Clifton high seem to always have places.
There are probably no more than 10 fee paying primary schools you would need to call and check. You should be able to get a pretty good view quit quickly of where has space. Good luck.