Admissions for private primaries soaring

[Clusterduck]

Every school I’ve contacted has a record number of applications - including my DS’s junior school which is quite competitive and even the non-selective other ones. This is at 7+ and above level. Is anyone else finding this? The feedback I’m getting is that demand has soared since lockdown.

I've seen exactly the opposite, though I'm only interested in reception places: my son's current school is advertising vacancies left and right. Another school which we considered gave offers to everyone at the 4+ assesment and then proceeded to give offers to kids who didn't even go to the assesment. This is in central London.

Wow @psychopompos thanks for the update. Perhaps people are trying to save money/batten down the hatches with the cost of living crisis? Or perhaps central London has a more international community and they’re still recovering from the impact of Brexit etc?

It could be a very localised thing... ate you in an area attracting people relocating from London? Or a local Primary of two giving poor support/teaching?

My DDs Prep school (in the SE) has also seen a boom in admissions since Covid. A lot was down to families moving out of London during the past two years and relocating to the town where our school is located. It’s a popular commuter town.

Im guessing this will be very location dependant though.

SW London here: quite a few neighbours's and nursery children were moved to nurseries attached to schools to guarantee a place in reception this year or next year. Fulham Prep is opening a new nursery in September 2022 with the offer of guaranteed reception place. Majority of private primaries we visited felt overcrowded. Schools expanding, getting new buildings and increasing the number of places in reception.

We are in south London (zone 2/3) so not many moving in!

Two preps here one Surrey one Berks - both full to the max with waiting lists . Crazy.

My DD's private school in Essex has seen an increase in applications since lockdown. We applied to transfer her there just after the second school lockdown ended but due to high demand we had to go on a wait list and she finally got offered a place for the start of Y9 when the head decided to increase class sizes from 14 to 16.

We have also seen an influx of people moving here from London so maybe that's it. Our reason was mainly that she was being bullied at the state school but other factors related to yeh pandemic influenced us too.

We are a popular state primary and since Brexit and Covid our numbers have dropped significantly. We always lost children to private and those who have moved out of London to Surrey etc but this has increased quite dramatically.

Covid has really made people consider how they work and use their money so they are not waiting for private secondary moves but seem to be going earlier.

@stayingaliveisawayoflife This seems to echo my experience too. I think everyone is desperate to avoid the 11+. I am so glad my DS had several years at our local school (which is good in some parts but inconsistent in others) but fear we now can’t get DD in anywhere. She actually made progress during lockdown as I could help direct her! But that progress has gone backwards since she’s been back in the classroom.

We were just advised register our one year old for pre prep by this autumn (she’ll just be two) to guarantee a place.

Our local state primary school is hugely under subscribed and has only recently managed to go from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’. Whenever you walk past the children are in the park trashing it while the parents ignore them and there has been children threatened with knives so it probably isn’t surprising that the local prep schools are difficult to get a space at.

Our school is full with a huge waiting list. Sept 2020 was their busiest year. Many parents ethically didn't want to send their children to private school, but threw ethics out of the window when state was so appalling during lockdown.

If you join in year 5 (entrance exam and interview), you don't have to pass the 11+ to get in to the senior school as it's an automatic place. It goes from a 3 form to 5 form in y5 and 6.

There has been a bit of an exodus from my dd's (state) primary to private school. There are now only 23 kids in the year 5-6 class!
I'm not really sure what's driving it, most parents are fairly well off so I think there have always been a few who would move to private towards the end of primary (its much easier to get in to the local private school if starting earlier than year 7) but I'm sure there are more than usual this year.
Not sire what I'm missing really, it's a lovely primary school with no major issues as far as I can tell.

We moved our two DC to a private primary after lockdown. Main reason was witnessing how bored they were during the online classes - no differentiated learning or barely. And this is despite the state primary they were attending being rated Outstanding.

Some really interesting experiences here. I wonder if the cost of living crisis will bite and we will see a reverse? Not all parents are on dual income, six figure salaries and more than one child in primary is super expensive.

@hazelnutlatte Those class numbers are actually more generous than some prep schools in London! Plus many state primary classes have the bonus of TAs which private schools generally don’t have so you have a higher adult to child ratio sometimes.

I think it’s a mix of Covid, being told how far behind state schools kids are than their private counterparts (there was a Teacher Tapp survey which showed this) and looking at who runs this country - the government, business, the arts, sport.

looking at who runs this country - the government, business, the arts, sport.

I guess there might be some people who look at Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg and think that's something to aspire to. Difficult to imagine, but perhaps they exist.

A local prep school here in Berks has recently gone from boys only to co-ed so I assumed not enough demand/boys. I’d consider it for my DC though as their wraparound care and holiday provision is extensive vs practically nonexistent at the local state primaries.

@CorpseReviver Keir Starmer’s school was a super selective grammar in his day. It’s now an independent… Jeremy Corbyn went to prep. You don’t have to aspire to be like any of them but it is easy to take one look at who has power and want some of that. The arts has become ever more dominated by private school kids. Tales of Oxbridge slamming the doors shut don’t seem to have scared off parents. I suspect the removal of charity status and the accompanying 30% hike in fees will break many though.

@Clusterduck I'm well aware that Jeremy Corbyn comes from a super-privileged background (and couldn't even scrape a few adequate A-levels from it). I'm not sure that really changes the point I was making, to be honest.

But yes, if your priority is to ensure that your children get an unfair advantage in life due to who they know and how much their parents were willing to pay, and not based on their own merits, then private school might be appealing.

I agree it’s unfair @CorpseReviver as is life in general. I know this as I was a refugee kid who came from nothing and never set foot in a private school as a child.

Not sure if buying or renting in a great state catchment is any fairer if you’re elbowing out a child whose parents don’t have the means to go private.

I’ve found it’s actually parents from immigrant and non-white backgrounds like us who are more attracted to private schools than the white middle classes (some of whom tend to live in good catchment areas and have a misplaced sense of moral superiority because they don’t have to stoop to pay for their cultural privilege).

Not saying this is you by the way.

Def the case here. DS is year1. His year has 15 kids, the year above is 11. Year below 18, next reception cohort (I.e. starting in September) has been agreed at 20 and they've sort of closed applications. They'd need 6 applicants (with deposit & upfront fees) and they split in to 2 classes.

I do wonder if we'll see a reverse next year with cost of living rise. Thankfully exDH &I have discussed contingencies which would make it unlikely we'd be able to afford fees.

Yeah, ours isn't that kind of private school.

We've had the same experience with DD2 post-covid - she did fine during lockdown but she's made barely any progress in the past year since she's been back. I'm really concerned actually, I think her teachers have been concentrating on the children who did fall behind (which is understandable with stretched resources) and extra-curricular provision has fallen off a cliff.

I'd move her to the private sector if we could afford it.

Its tiresome how debates involving private school always skew off to advantage and fairness. Of course they give your children advantage, and of course it isn't fair.
Why is this even being discussed? The OP was talking about rise in applicants, not the existential crisis of capitalism....👼

I understand why private schools have become a more attractive option since covid - the provision offered by private schools during lockdown was far superior to most state schools, many kids in state schools (including my own) are behind where they otherwise would have been, and state schools are not really doing much to help kids catch up. I don't blame the schools, they are doing what they can bit with no additional funding they are of course going to concentrate on only the worst affected pupils.
However I don't understand why more people can suddenly find the money for private school. If you had loads of money in the first place then wouldn't your kids already be in private? We are comfortable financially but school fees for our 2 dc would only be possible if we remortgaged the house! With the cost of living going up and interest rates rising surely that is not a sensible option for most people.