Indy through-schools, nursery to Main school question

[MrsDThaskala]

Hi all, can I ask for your experiences.

Lots of independent schools are through schools. If your child was/is at the nursery, did you carry on to Main school or leave? And what made you come to that decision?

Our kids (2xDd and DS)have stayed in at their all-through since nursery (they are at different schools). The school knows them well and they liked nursery, so it made sense. I’d only move at Reception if there was a serious issue.

My daughter is only in the nursery at present (age 2) but we are so impressed with their style, ethos and facilities that we fully intend she will go all the way through with them, assuming they will have her and that she continues to be happy and thrive there.

I thought all my DC would go all the way through from N but as it happens we decided the prep school (in this case Y4 onwards) wasn't right for our DC 3 so we moved them after the end of Y3 to another prep for 5yrs before they go to senior school. It's not ideal logistically but sometimes a school just isn't the best fit even though it was great for the others. From this experience I'd say it can work but as each child is different be prepared to be flexible and review as necessary. For any number of reasons but in this case the pace of learning & physical environment just wasn't the best for DC3!

We chose a prep that went from 2-13, seemed great when dd1 was aged 2, fast forward 6 years we moved to a different prep, likely only for 3 years until she moves to senior school. What we were looking for a 2 year old was not the same thing we found we needed by yr 4. I think you have to be flexible.

Thank you. Can I ask, if they could, what things could they do to help keep you in the school? What things worked well?

For us we had really expected the pace of learning, structure and independence to pick up going into the prep years, but with new children joining the school for yr 3 it was just a bit of a slow year with all of the focus on getting new starters up to speed. I think we were just expecting a bit more at that point and it wasn’t forthcoming. This is a prep school with a nursery though not an all through school.

Not my kids but I went through all all-through school.

Key things were:

Primary and secondary quite separate so you really felt like you were moving through the school and had leadership options at multiple stages.

School increased in size further on (i.e. prep smaller than upper school) - this isn't necessary if you have a big primary but you probably don't want the same 20-30 kids for 13+ years.

All stages of the school were equally good. Some have amazing primary departments and less great secondary or vice versa.

New activities and clubs for older children.

Milestones in the school which everyone looked forward to.

Clean slate approach each year - obviously learning plans etc continued year on year but a couple of incidents of poor behaviour didn't hang over you for your whole school career. You don't want to be labelled as naughty in year 2 and be unable to shake that in year 12!

No other equivalent options - there weren't any other day schools with similar academic results in the region. Pupils who left were either moving, financially couldn't continue, or went to boarding schools elsewhere.