Move back to state primary after disappointing private in 1-2 terms

[herdream1]

My DD changed school from state to private last Sep, beginning of year 4, because of continuous issue of teachers leaving and poor management. She is getting settled in the new private school quite well, making friends. But to my surprise, teaching, especially in maths, has turned out not as good as expected. DD feels it is too easy and she was more challenged in the old school! The private school has good reputation of happy, all round education, which was why I choose over the more academic school. Now I wonder if DD needed a more academic school.

DD says she does not hate the new school, but would prefer the old state school, where teaching was better. Did I make a mistake? Am I wasting 3k per term fee? Should I move her back to the old school, as DD wants?? She does not want to move to another new school, which I can understand.

What would you do in my situation??? Many thanks for any thoughts.

Hi Laura0806, how long your DD stayed at the private school and which year? Did she settled back to her previous state school quickly with no problem? Thank you.

Hi Laura0806, may I ask how long your DD stayed with the private school and which year? Did she find it easy to move back to her previous state primary or with some awkwardness? Thank you.

She was at private school for 5 terms and back in state primary by term 3 of year 2. No awkwardness to be honest and shes quite shy, she settled back in well. The only awkwardness was felt by me to be honest having to explain myself! I have 3 other children aswell who I didn't move as they didn't have the same issues as her. I feel I completely wasted a lot of money which we don't really have . I don't think all privates are like this but I think there are a fair few that are. Maybe the head will change things for your dd but in mine they just plodded along saying it was at thre right level for her. Well it was at the same level as most of the rest of the class and seeing as she has now been assessed as having a reading age and spelling age 4 years above her chronological age, it isn't likely but despite their small numbers they didn't pick up on this. I think state school teachers are under a lot more obligation to assess and differentiate and private schools have much their own agenda, which can be very good but can also be very poor . feel free to pm any questions and good luck with your decision

I think you probably need to stick with it. Moving a child in the first place is a big decision. I think when you do that, you need to then be prepared to stay with it for continuity sake (unless there is a serious prob) and accept nowhere is perfect. Moving again would be a big disruption.
It is easy to feel there is always somewhere better. Listening to school gate gossip can particularly make you feel like that I think. There might be somewhere better, but you have made a decision to be where you are, based on careful consideration of the information available at the time. Do speak to the Head again, but try to see the positives and remember why you went there I. The first place and what you didn't like about the old one. Try not to look for better alternatives....you will always think you have found one, but constantly looking doesnt help.
Best of luck.

You absolutely cannot expect a private school to be able to get all its pupils into a selective secondary. There are some children in private prep schools who really struggle so they will always need a non selective senior school.

It is also perfectly possible to have a useless teacher teaching 14 children if the lessons are not built on prior learning and differentiated. This is critical and can be a poor feature in prep schools who have a fairly ordinary academic profile. Obviously the 10 better children are n the top set of only 2 sets. This sounds like a variety of attainment to me so it could well be that the teacher is not taking prior attainment into account. This is bad practice and not good enough.