End of yr4 assessment and private school

[legwarmers]

Hi - I'm posting here as well as another thread for teacher and parent views.
Ds end of yr report results are

Out of 13 areas
8 mastery ,
4 secure
1 developing. - writing

Overall
reading A good
Writing B - expected
Maths A -good.

We live in London. Just looking at the academics - do the children who go on to private schools from state schools (with bursaries) have all A's or mastery - he is very talented and all rounder - music, sport , attitude to learning etc . But we would be applying for bursaries and I don't know if his writing level will be a problem.

We will not be using tutors as I couldn't afford to sustain that. So it would be my help at home and I think I could get his writing up to secure. - but maybe not as secure as the other areas. IYSWIM.

Because of where we live Our realistic state school options are pretty dire and my heart breaks that he is likely to go there. I know it depends on the exam but in practice what are his chances? Thanks

The As and Bs are pretty meaningless. They reflect the individual schools assessment method not a national picture.

I have read somewhere on MN, that there are so many dc(especially boys) with exceptional maths ability, so the "writing" is the deal breaker.
And assume "good", "expected" isn't good enough, need to be better than others.
My ds is the same, exceeding in everything else but writing!

You need to investigate your potential schools and their bursary policies. Many expect those to whom they offer awards to bring something they want to the school, be that academic prowess, or talent in sport, music, drama, art. Or something else that isn't covered by the 'standard' awards.

You also need to work out how much assistance with the fees you would require, and have an early and frank conversation with the bursar. Don't hold back - you need a realistic idea of what could be offered, and bursary have these sorts of conversations all the time.

And it might be worth budgeting for some tutoring. An experienced tutor could help you decide which schools are the best fit, highlight issues which you could work on (in terms of what is required for private school transfer), and provide some coaching for exam technique.

You don't have to commit to long-term tutoring, so think about what help you might need and see how that can be covered.