KS2 - Wait for state primary place or go private?

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Hello everyone, I will try to keep this as brief as possible but would genuinely like any advice on our predicament.

I have a 7yr DS, currently in year 2. We moved areas in Sept 2018 and therefore started year 2 in a new school. We live in a nice area, however, our 4 closest primary schools were all full in his year; he was placed in a primary school about 3 miles away. His school is OK, it's in quite a deprived area so has a few issues, however, our biggest concern is that the academic results in yr 6 are consistently very poor. On top of all the above we are very near a Grammar school area, lots of children around here take the 11+

We are on the waiting list for our 3 closest schools - we are number 1 in the list for 2 of them; number 3 on the list for the other. In a couple of weeks time we will find out which school DS2 will go to. We should get into our 1st choice, where DS1 is no.1 on the waiting list.

We have decided that we will move DS1 to a private school if he doesn't get into a local school (our preference is that we get both boys into local school). The question is when to move him? Apparently quite a few children move to private school for KS2 to help them get into the local grammar schools, however, if a place becomes available we may have already signed up to private school. Annoyingly, the private schools go back earlier in September than the state schools in our area.

If a place in a state school becomes available over the summer holiday when will the people on the waiting list be told of the spare place?

Any advice or your experiences on this, would be appreciated.

If you can afford it then I think paying fees for a prep school is a good investment. The traditional model for lots of families is to go state for primary and then private for senior but if you do it the other way round, it’s much cheaper. On top of that, I think the benefits to children of going to a prep where they will get more opportunities in more areas at the age when they are a ‘sponge’ and nothing is yet fixed are arguably better than the other way around - particularly if you have a good local grammar that they might get into. However, for a prep school you will need to sign up and pay a deposit and you will lose that if you don’t take the place. I think, in your situation, you should go and see the local prep and figure out if you could see your child being happy there. Some prep schools are better than others, just as some state schools are better than others - and you can only really make the decision once you know what your choices are. It’s money worth spending if you can afford to do it and if you like the school. I’m not sure if that helps at all but good luck!

Yep private then Grammar would be the route I'd aim for in your situation.