Private schools: is it time now to move DC back to local primary and cristalise our losses or keep investing into DC’s place at private school

[alison123345]

We have a DC in a private school and we struggle with fees even in good years. Now our income is under threat (definitely no bonuses, benefits are cut, possible redundancies if things continue like this for longer). Our savings are about a year worth of school fees, we can deep into them and continue paying potentially. But not sure it’s really worth it.

The school gave 10% discount to all parents for the current term. Their remote learning has been really poor, no new learning just testing/revision of what was learned earlier. If the same or similar approach continues next academic year (i.e. partly remote learning, no or very restricted music, art, sports, science lessons) it will be a waste of money for us. With all the restrictions children can’t really use the facilities of private schools and these schools then not any better than public ones. And what if having spent all our savings on school fees now we will find ourselves around next Easter with no money even for food if the uk economy really struggles and will have no options but to withdraw DC just later once we really run out of money.

Having spoken to the school bursary we were told to give notice (the school can wave one term fee that we contractually have to pay if giving notice now).

The school is very popular with up to 10 kids per place sitting entrance exams. If withdrawing our DC now we are risking the place. But at the same time the school has been really unhelpful and we could end up giving them our last money and will then have to withdraw DC any way.

What are your thoughts on how we can logically approach this? It probably depends on how long the crisis goes on for. If we talk about schools back to normal in November (which is very doubtful), then it’s not really worth the hassle. But what if schools are not back to normal (in terms of social distancing, remote learning, use of facilities) for another year or so, then it would probably make sense to cut losses now and not waste any more money and in a year time see what happens.

@flourandeggs as usual it depends on your local schools. No statement is true for all of the uk, as there are shit and excellent schools in both sectors (however, getting into an excellent one at year 3/4 is going to be a challenge, again depending on area).
Local state schools for us: approximately 30% of kids reach national expectations in maths and english. These are usually the kids with tutoring. for the last 3 years, none have scored “above expectations”/greater depth whatever it is called.
Local private schools: “meeting expectations “ is the minimum outcome, except for significant SENDs.
Plus the private school kids had 2 foreign languages, and exam technique preparation.

@myself2020 is that anecdotal or could you point me to the school's data and also the data re tutoring?

@flourandeggs KS2 SATS results are publicly available, so very easy to look up. SATs are not great, but I doubt all 70 odd % kids not reaching expected level year after yeas just had a bad day.
Most private schools have leavers destinations available.
And if you are active in any youth organisation, you will know quite well who gets tutoring 3-4 nights a week, and who gets into which school.
So, the (horrendous) SATs results are definitely a fact. The rest hearsay.

@Myself2020 where did you get the information about 1-1.5 years behind? Is that anecdotal too or based on some data that you could share?

Which area is the prep that has confirmed all years will return ft in sep? Anyone else’s prep saying the same?

@resskiestonight it's a country prep with boarding. I doubt the rammed London preps on small sites will be able to do the same.

Ours also has confirmed that they have enough space and teachers for bubbles of 10-14 children, for the whole school. we are just outside outer London

I’d ring round the LA / local schools before you do anything else. See which have space and if you’d be happy sending them there.

@reefedsail

Our prep has just given a guarantee that they will be open full time for all pupils in September whereas state schools may well not be (who knows).

If you need to work full time you may want to factor this scenario in.

Is your prep open for all years now? If not, why?

What do you expect the school to do if the government continues to impose restrictions in the autumn and its insurers decline to cover them if they go against government guidelines?

How would I know @user149799568?

The current restrictions limit class sizes to bubbles of 15, they do not say anything about how many bubbles there can be or the overall number of pupils who can be in so I expect it will be within guidance, unless more restrictions have had to be reimposed by then.

I'm grateful and relieved that my DS is likely (not certain) to be back in school full time in September, for his sake and mine. Nonetheless it is not lost on me that if pupils in Independent schools are able to have this and state school pupils are left on part time, it will be an outrage.

Our school (3-18) is saying that it hopes to have all year groups back in September but subject to government guidelines. Surely that is all anyone can say at this stage.

reefedsail I'm just pointing out that your prep's "guarantee" is worth about as much as the electronic paper they gave it on.

To give you options would apply for a state school place, bearing in mind that depending on supply/ demand in your area you probably won’t get a place at your preferred / nearest primary schools.

What was your plan for secondary? Has that now changed too?

OP I think your answer lies in your secondary choices/options.

If you have a good secondary comp then you can definitely move to state primary now.
If you are aiming for grammar - then regardless of school - most of the prep for 11+ happens in tutor lessons. So you can move to state now.
If you are aiming for private secondary then you need to consider statistics of the specific school you are aiming for & whether this is achievable from state. Most indies do take state primary pupils but these may well be the smartest/fastest ones only. So private primary (esp if it goes to 18) may be an easier route. However school fees for secondary may need you to move to state for few years to save up.

It looks like the odds are in favour of state, but best you think through secondary & then act quickly.

@user149799568 as of now schools can decide for themselves how to expand provision- so they can go ahead.