private primary then onto state secondary?

[daffyd]

Hello , I know there are plenty of threads on mn reagrding private schooling but heres another to add to mix! My daughter would be due to start school next Septemeber and we are debating whether to go private as we would like her to go to the local grammar school and I know private schools-some not all- do good preparation for the 11+ exams. Has anyone experience of going private for primary but then sending them onto state secondary-not grammar?We definitely cannot at this stage anticipate affording private secondary school education , but I feel a good grounding to set her up for grammar school entry may be useful.also I like the idea of small class sizes.Not having been mainly educated in thsi country apart from private school a-levels its confusing.The problem is its difficult to know whats best unless retrospectively.Our local state primary is good so not worried if for whatever reason we cannot go private.Please help me!!

Go and look at the schools and decide from your personal impressions. Do ask about 11+ if you are in an 11+ area. I would also definitely apply for the state school as well as any private.
You could always save your money and use it for extra tuition as and when necessary.

Several children at my DCs Comprehensive were educated privately until 11. (But it is a very good comp.)

Thanks mummytime, I have got appoitnments to visit the private schools to get a feel and have already applied to our local state school-keeping all options open! Good to know however the switch does happen!

I know people who have done this (quite a long time ago though) with varying results. I think it depends on the type of schools - moving from an exclusive upper-class private primary to a tough inner-city comprehensive, for example, would be much harder than going from a more middle-class type of primary to a small town secondary school with a mix of pupils with families in different income brackets.

The main problem my friends encountered was to do with their accents. Speaking in plummy Queens English doesn't always go down well in a state secondary, although this obviously isn't necessarily going to happen in every private primary!!

Several children at DD's super selective grammar school went to private primaries. DD (who went to a state primary) says there isn't much difference discernible between the ones who came from private schools and the ones who came from state schools however all her close friends came from state schools.

Another girl from DD's primary school has a friendship group which does include some of the formerly private school children and according to her mum there can be tensions but these are to do with, essentially, rather conspicuous (and somewhat flaunted) wealth, not the schools they went to in former years. My not so darling nieces went to state and then private primaries before going to grammar schools in Bucks and apparently that was the norm - the vast majority of the girls in their school were there to 'guarantee' 11+ passes (and they did all get in). That's certainly why my nieces were moved there when they were struggling at their state primary.

To sum up - it seems to happen a lot. And it seems to work OK.

thanks very much thetasigmamum. We live in a "posh" area anyway so all accents, even at state schools are posh! I think my own accent wouldnt pass muster ! Not worried as I definitely would keep my child down to earth and we are definitley not rich enough to flaunt our wealth!We live close to bucks- henley- but dont fall into the bucks area for grammar school. Kendrick girls is our local, though we would consider moving closer to bucks nearer the time if we feel required.
All very reassuring advice though and making me feel more confident about our decision.

Yes that could be a problem, but i can only plan for what is currently available and if that is the case she will go into the local state comp with a good grounding for discipline , study and hopefully with lots of experience in extra curricular activities such as music, drama. We might even know by that time what kind of things she is actually interested in!Being academic myself you naturally want your child to do well academically but I know its not the be all and end all and as she gets older and more independent we can see where her natural talents and interests lie and alter course accordingly.

We live on the Bucks border and my kids, after starting out in state primary moved to private in years 3 & 4.
DS1 has just started at a good state comp in yr 7 and is doing fine so far, I was worried about the transition but even though only 1 girl from the old school has moved with him he's settling in OK.
From our private prep school the leavers split equally into thirds, ie 1/3 to Bucks grammars, 1/3 private and 1/3 to the better local comprehensives.
The school does prepare for the 11+ whereas the state primaries are not allowed to, so like it or not you will be at a disadvantage if you don't have a tutor / private education. We didn't want to put them through all that stress/long bus journey if successful so decided it wasn't for us, but we were lucky in that we had a reasonable chance of getting a good comprehensive.

My sister has done this partly because it's all the could afford and partly because there is a very good comprehensive near them. My eldest niece is now doing A'levels there and it has worked well.

Good to know one more mum.If there are local good secondary comps and grammar I feels we'll be okay.Though I think BUcks area has better selection. Smallwhite cat i think the 11+ exam has lots of non-verbal reasoning which is not naturally studied in teh curriculum and either a tutor has to do it with child(or yourself0 or somewhere like the private schools which help them in eyar 6 as the private secondaries also require an 11+ pass for admissions.
Thanks, very informative and making it easier to decide!

We are Bucks/Berks borders and none of the local prep schools tutor for 11+. The one ds is at hopes that the dcs will go on to the linked senior school and the other co-ed one encourages dcs to stay to 13 and do CE.

Private primaries appear to come in two varieties. There are long-standing schools half as old as time itself, which are essentially prep schools leading up to common entrance that have moved with the times. They offer a high-quality education and do, indeed, optimise for state grammar if that's your thing (and 7 years' primary is cheaper than 7 years' secondary).

The other is newer schools that pander to parents who worry about primary schools based on too much reading of the daily mail, that offer a fairly sketchy education with the sole benefit that you can't catch poor (although you can catch petty snobbery). We had one of those a few hundred yards from home, opposite a high-achieving CofE school with

I hate all that 'my school's better than yours' rubbish. It seems to me it goes both ways, lots of people loved to tell me how fantastic their state primary was once they found out our kids were in private.
That's great for them but our state primary was rubbish and we weren't in catchment for any good ones.
Out of interest our prep school is a modern one which gave (in my opinion) a good standard of education, as well as extra-curricular activities and preparation for entrance exams if that's what you wanted.
IME private preps with their own senior school are less keen on prepping for the 11+, for obvious reasons..