Calling all mums who send their children to top private prep schools what do they teach compared to state school and more advice needed!

[Beige1]

Hi

Please can you tell me what do they exactly teach children in top private preps compared to state schools? My DS is 3 years old and wondering weather it's worth scrimping and saving to send him to a private prep

On the other hand, is it better to send to good state school and just try to teach at home/ get a private tutor. If so what do I have to make sure I teach him

Ultimately, I would like to try and get him into a grammar school.

Really clueless about all this.

Thanks

No, sorry, age 7. in response to previous comment from kilmuir about starting Latin at age 5...

School day starts at 8:40 for YR-Y2 and 8:30 for the rest, though there is breakfast club at 7:45 for those who need it.

Moonbells I was asking what time their day finishes, but realise you were talking about ages 7 - 8 .

Sorry for the confusion!

Confusion reigns! ;) Hometimes are graduated so YR goes at 3.15 and Y8 at 4:15. Days aren't horribly long, though they do have wraparound care to 6pm for hassled working parents. I'm sure they can be longer at other schools though!

Little while ago a DC from one of my sons class left to go to a local well regarded prep. When I bumped into the mum after the move nd asked how it was the reply was fantastic. He does sport every day and he isn.t bottom of the class in the new school. So the kids at this school weren't years ahead. Sometimes parents at preps do get skewed perspectives. On holiday met mum who,s DD was at well regarded London prep. Said her DD struggled a bit. Not free reader in year 3 but this wasn't a problem as no one in state was a free reader in year 3 and her DD was still ahead of state school kids. I am afraid I couldn't help but point out that my vs was free reader in year 1 and the range was year 1_3 at his school. The reply was in my area they aren't free readers till year 6. Her local primary had a very high number of new immigrants who were largely from war torn areas.. so this gave the skewed perspective.
There are good and bad schools in both sectors and the catchment of kids varies too

I switched my ds to a preprep to enable him to get better preparation for the 7+, it worked really well and I think he wouldn't have been the same if he had stayed at his very good state school. Less pupils per class and more teacher focus.
This particular preprep was very driven academically but that is not the case of all private primaries.
Have a look at London School Maze, there is a post there about this topic.

www.londonschoolmaze.com

Mary21

Or maybe her prep used a reading scheme that went all the way up to level 16 (or 18 if it's Collins Big Cat) which are levelled for year 6 (NC level 5)?

Many state schools (and maybe private schools, not sure) stop at level 11 (lime) so free readers at these schools are working at a much lower level than free readers that have finished level 16 or 18.

Is that really the case, tired?

Unless you know what the state school free readers are actually reading, how can you be sure that the standard is not equal to level 16/18 of the reading scheme?

(Unless level 16/18 incorporates War & Peace, or Shakespeare or suchlike, of course!)

Yes, sometimes parents at preps get a skewed view the same as sometimes parents at state schools get a skewed view.

Sometimes however, it is actually just a really good school!!

My dd starts school at 8.40am and finishes at 3.30pm.

Chauffeur are you a parent in TW1? Your school sounds just like ours! I would agree, there are some wonderful private prep/pre prep schools but there are some not so good ones too. With any school you need to speak to current parents and look around with your eyes open. Whether you decide pay for the school or not only you know your DC and whether the school is a fit for them...

Misfitless.

Once a child get's to around band 9, or gold, it is more difficult to tell no matter what book a child is reading because a child may have great decoding skills and poor comprehension skills (it is around band 9 that the higher level skills start coming into play).

The important part is how they are reading it, what they are able to extract from it - the competence of their higher level comprehension skills. It is possible for a child with relatively poorer decoding skills to achieve a higher NC level than a child with relatively better decoding skills if that child has better higher level comprehension skills.

The only way to be sure of where one child sits in comparison to another in a different school is to compare NC levels, and soon even this won't be possible as schools will each be able to develop their own methods for assessing progress, which whilst they may match locally, if local schools band together or they follow guidance from their LEA, this is less likely to apply across county boarders.

It may well be that the DD that Mary21 referred, due to struggling, was still below band 11 in year 3, however I thought it was worth mentioning that there could be another explanation for this too.

I imagine War and Peace, Shakespeare and the like are definately beyond bands 16 or 18 as Shakespeare is studied from KS3 (I think)!