North London. Low income, bright 7 year old… advice please!

[mummyuptheriver]

For background…
My husband and I are well educated but work in charity sector in London and care for our high needs SEN child too, who is at specialist school. There is zero cash around. Household income circa £45k. We don’t own any property or have investments.

Our younger son is 7 (yr 2) and naturally bright and a fast learner. As parents we both went to state schools outside of London in areas where all the state schools are comprehensive.

I really have no knowledge of grammar schools or independent schools with bursarys.

Would anyone be able to advise about what we should be doing to give him good opportunities at secondary? Is a 100% bursary unrealistic these days? There are no grandparents to pay fees. What about state grammar schools? I have friends with children at QE boys who say it’s tantamount to child abuse and I worry it wouldn’t be a well rounded childhood. Is that true?

Any advice to a very green parent welcome!

I really recommend reading the Good Schools Guide - quite a good insight and not very expensive for one month’s subscription. Good luck

Look at Latymer- less brutal and popular with N London parents as well as further suburbs. Needs tutoring from y5 but you could probably do it mostly yourself. Otherwise just support your younger ds with lots of talking and opportunities- no reason most state secondaries won't give him what he needs if he continues keen to learn. Find out what secondaries you are likely to be eligible for (local council should have list) and look into their results and local opinion.

On 45K household with no assets, you'd get pretty much all fees paid (In a private school like Westminster) BUT its a small number who are offered full fees bursaries. More likely you'll be offered a big discount and this assumes your DS aces the entrance and does well at interview. For this to happen will mean some tutoring from yourselves, which is more than do-able, lots of advice on that here on MN.

A better idea is to aim for a streamed state school, a semi selective state school where bright children are encouraged and well looked after. You could also think about moving out of London where everything is cheaper , I know someone who works in your sector who left London for the North and is buying a property, much better off. Working in the charity sector doesn't tie you to London after all.

Bottom line my siblings between us have Oxbridge degrees, PhD's and great careers from really ordinary comps, we just had well educated and highly involved and motivated parents, but ones who were very poo ( Mother worked in social care, dad in art world, both never earned a lot of money and did the job for love.

If your DC have caring, smart parents, they're already ahead of most and will do well in any London school.

Private schools are so expensive and full bursaries so rare and Grammar schools so oversubscribed, there are no senior schools in London without parents just like you - educated, with bright children, so don't believe your DS has to be 'saved' from anything. At the same time no harm in trying out for private with bursary and grammar, just manage your DS expectations and ensure you do everything to give him a good chance of success at entrance and interview.

Lots of bright children in state schools. Your child won't be the only one.

A 100% bursery is rare and future isn'tstraight ahead with all this talk about VAT in private education.

I really wouldn't bet on this - with the imminent VAT on privates a lot of schools will stop bursaries completely. They will support current students with available funds and then become totally exclusive for the families who can pay incl foreigners.

Aim for grammar OP with full understanding that a lot of middle class families who could afford privates till now are switching to grammars as well and using those funds which were planned for PS fees for tutoring to pass entrance exams so competition will be hard.

Don't forget to vote Labour

London schools are generally pretty good and there will be lots of other clever kids. One of mine is at a big requires improvement comprehensive and even there there a couple of kids go to Oxbridge every year. I am not saying you are doing this, but don't make the mistake of thinking that the white kids with the educated middle class parents are always the cleverest, that's just not true.

Similar situation here. Mine are in state schools as cannot afford private.

There are some really excellent comps in London. The grammars are so selective that there are some extremely bright children who don't get in. In view of falling birth rates catchments for some of those schools (in including some which are in N London) should increase.

Private schools will still offer full bursaries but they will mostly be for quite a small number of children. One exception to that is City of London where a higher proportion of pupils are in financial aid.

I'd look at many privates that offer bursaries, just be aware that it's quite competitive (one school gave me the numbers - they had 150 bursary applications for 6 bursary places last year so far more competition than for full fee places). Latymer Upper and Westminster and City do have more funds but then are also highly competitive in terms of academic entry standards so I would also look at Highgate / UCS.

Definitely worth trying but as others said make sure to have a state backup plan. Maybe Latymer (the grammar) is a bit nicer than QE (no personal experience here, just based on selectivity).

Most London comprehensives have way above average results at GCSE so don't discount them at all.

its true but many comprehensive schools which are generally perceived as good in north London are located in middle-class leafy areas with expensive housing so they tend to have very much of a middle-class crowd that gives plenty of extra support to their offspring (e.g., tutoring etc.) hence those schools have good results. So OP its totally ok to stay in the comprehenisve system providing you can supplement the teaching
OP if you indicate which schools are in your catchment people can advise ? as other posters suggested id try the grammars and North London private schools (highgate and city have a decent bursary scheme in place), but you do need a lot of extra prep for 11+ entry and even then you will be competing with a lot of other bursary applicants. Id certainly don't discard the comprehensive schools from the consideration.