It would be madness to apply for the 7+, wouldn't it?

[hibbledobble]

Reasons it wouldn't be a good idea:

1. We couldn't afford the fee by ourselves, and I'm not sure how much grandparents would be willing to contribute
2. There aren't any private schools near us,so travelling would be required
3. Dd is settled at her school, and has lots of friends

Reasons I secretly want to put her forward:

1. Her school doesn't stretch her: she often complains of being bored as the work is too easy
2. The school she goes to is in a very rough area, and while the behaviour is excellent at school, I do worry about peer influences. She has already picked up certain things I'm not happy about.
3. I was privately educated and feel that I am depriving her of the same opportunity.

Please talk sense to me!

Yes madness.

Firstly - Simply you don't have the money
Secondly all your assets would be analysed re:bursary
Thirdly you can't rely on GPs
Finally .... I think you just have a hang up over your own education

There aren't even any bursaries available at primary level. If there was I'm sure we would qualify, whatever scrutiny there was.

Your point about dd being settled and having friends would be the decider for me if I were you.

If she's bright and not being stretched build some extension work into her schedule.

Mathswhizz is fantastic for developing maths ability. Khan Academy is a really good free resource.

Bursars would check you've practically remortgaged your house.

You've asked grandparents

Used all your savings

If you don't have the money then just quit while you're a head.

Read to her, take her to the park and museums.

Maybe get a tutor?

Thank you super

She takes the initiative to do workbooks herself at home. My concern about doing extension work at home is that it will just increase the gap between her and her peers, and mean that she is increasingly bored at school.

I understand what you're saying but I wouldn't hold her back.

I would ask for a meeting in school and explain how dd feels and ask how they plan to challenge her and what you can do to support this at home.

Save up some money and reevaluate for secondary. It is not worth the stress if you can't pay the fees comfortably.

I agree with the others. Focus on what difference you really can make to your daughter’s education, rather than aiming for something unrealistic.

Although it’s in a rough area, if behaviour at school is well managed, you can help your daughter to recognise that some language/behaviours picked up from school are not appropriate.

In terms of encouraging her at home, workbooks are all well and good if she enjoys them, but try to stretch sideways rather than up (so as not to create more boredom in class). So encourage her to take up a musical instrument, learn a foreign language. I also agree with others that you should keep up dialogue with the school: they need to be providing for her.

Stretch sideways don't do the same as school. Read poetry, do science experiments, discuss etymology, teach another language, write stories together, discuss the news, a musical instrument?

Whereabouts are you? Some schools do offer bursaries at 7+

What do school say when you raise your concerns?

We are already doing loads of enrichment activities (over 6 hours a week). She loves them all, but it doesn't change that school work is boring for her and she isn't stretched.

I've spoken to her class teacher and the reply is that extension work is sometimes set, but the emphasis is on deeper understanding, eg her explaining how to solve maths problems to a less able child. Personally I'm not happy with this but I don't know what more I can do.

We are in North london.

growing we are already doing all of that, on her own terms. I let dd take the initiative. She loves reading and writing, and also doing maths. She does music, learning a foreign language, lots of sports.

She does get a lot out of school, but not the academic side.

I think it might be a little bit better in KS2, apart from maths.
For maths, my ds was 4+ years ahead end of ks1, and still is. At home, he is doing yr7/8 work easily while in yr4.
But I never hear him complain about boredom at school. He has his own strategy to make easy work more interesting/challenging.
I am not happy about it, but cannot afford private, so what can we do?
But if you are lucky, school would try to accommodate her needs,so worth talking to the teacher.

Like your dd, he does lots of extras at home and I wouldn't stop him going further with maths, but do try to steer him towards side ways rather than just going forward, using sites like nrich, wildmaths and aops.
I think kids these days are lucky, they can find lots of interesting resources on the internet.

Thanks for the website suggestions.

I have put her on waiting lists for other state schools with a higher ability intake as a half way house. We may never get a place at these though, at least not for years.

How confident is she? I encourage my DD to finish the set work reasonably quickly and then ask the teacher whether there's any more work she can be doing, or can she help someone else, or should she read in the corner?

Basically, I'm encouraging her to be self-motivated - and effectively make herself a 'problem' to the teacher, albeit a polite one!

Every day on the way home from school, I ask her whether she ran out of work today. I spoke to the teacher a couple of times earlier in the year when DD said they kept doing 'next steps' and she kept having none, but now, DD makes it so obvious that the teacher kind-of has to provide something most of the time.

It doesn't escape the risk that the work is easy, but it reduces incidence of her being used as a free TA (yes, yes, I know it benefits the bright ones to explain things to other children, but not too much!).

Maybe things will improve next academic year when she gets a new teacher? Some teachers are just really dull and it could be this causing her boredom.

My own dc had some years where they found the teacher really inspiring and interesting and other years much less so when they were bored.

gin She is very confident. That's an excellent idea.

qg that's an interesting perspective. I don't yet know who her teacher will be next year. She says she likes her teacher, but they are quite strict and serious. I don't think being strict is a bad thing.

All good suggestions, I would also contact a number of N London 7+ schools and see if bursaries are available

www.londonpreprep.com/2012/04/london-prep-school-scholarships/ There maybe something helpful here