Move to private at 7+, hows it going?

[Classicallover]

We moved DC from state to private school ( Prep) for Y3 , DC started last month.

How are other parents finding it?

For us its been a bit of a struggle moving from a uniform at the state primary that was basically cheap and cheerful Asda stuff to a very fussy one that DC has taken a while to adapt to.

The Prep has academic after school clubs as well as sports and the usual DC was used to from state primary, this has been a bit of shock for DC also.

The huge jump in homework has been hard, but from speaking to parents at old state school, Y2 to Y3 is always a bit of a jump, but its given DC an even more rosy view of the school left behind!

Socially DC has made new friends , no trouble 'fitting in' and we suspected this or we would have never moved schools. DC has always been very outgoing and confident child, but does seem a bit sad whenever we pass old school, (which was 5 mins walk from us)😢

Bumping for you

we moved a child for y2. For him its been amazing but the cost of uniform is something I think the schools themselves should soul search on.,,

Moved our eldest for year one because we moved from a different country where the state provision was excellent. He is thriving and loves the variety of lessons and different teachers. The homework has come as a bit of a shock!

Yes, we did find out about second hand uniform sales, but couldn't get hold of anything before first day, and a hefty bill.

Its been a bit of a battle getting a new habit of all the extra work compared to Y2, previous school had a bit of work on google classroom and no consequences if you didn't do it, so its been hard getting DC onside.

Watching with interest, we gave up a private place as got a better state school than expected with the thinking we can always switch at 7+. But when they're already talking about things they'll do in years X and the pride they have in their school I can see it would be hard to swap unless we had actual issues.

I'm glad they've settled and made friends, thats the most important thing. The first term always feels tiring so I'm sure they'll adjust to the homework etc soon

We haven't moved to prep for year 3, but DS recently moved to a state junior school. It has been quite a big transition. DD found it hard a few years ago too. For them the pace of learning is much faster, so they are expected to do lots more in a day, although they don't get much homework. For example in year 2, they would spend a week planning and working towards a piece of writing e.g. planning the setting, characters etc. Now they do this work in 2 days. For a while DS was saying 'at MY school...' referring to the infants, and still classing the juniors as DD's school. I hope your DS continues to settle well.

We moved DC part way through autumn term of year 5 and 3 from state to private. The uniform was hard to get us to especially the p.e. kit, learning how to tie a tie and the strict winter / summer uniform terms.

Their private school is not selective however there was a jump in homework for DS in year 3 from occasionally 10 spellings a week to homework every night which is due in the next day. I was expecting a battle but because it is consistent and a timetable of when he gets each subject he got into the routine quickly.

We talked to them about what they preferred at the new school and reminded them of these when it got hard. For DS it was being challenged in Maths and having others at the same level. For DD in year 5 it was the lack of distruptions and no longer the consistent talk about Sats. They both preferred the smaller classes and the individual attention they got as a result.

This is great advice, there are lots of things they like about the new school.

They are getting used to the new regime of homework, I'm glad your children have got into the groove of it all, you worry if you've made the right choice and its not cheap!

Ours was at an infants that would have involved moving to a new site for Junior, so I expect a lot of change would have been there wherever we went!

I do think schools (infants) could use Y2 as more a transition , maybe build up in summer term to what's coming, ours certainly didn't. I hope your DS enjoys their new junior school!

Thanks!

A lot of advice we got was save for senior school, but its so much more expensive than prep and we have our hopes on a great single sex state school near to us with great results , plus we weren't happy with the local junior school. This half term has been very tiring!!

Glad you got your top choice school!

I have to ask that if the teaching in private sector is so good, why do they need to load so much homework on kids?

For us it wasn't that the teaching was any better it was:

• the access to specialist teachers (Spanish, drama and music)
• the smaller classes
• the ability to go at the children's pace not the curriculum

2 of the teachers from the state school had moved to the private school a few years before.

I think the increase in homework is because parents want to be involved in their DCs education and it is an easy way to do this. My DCs school is also about giving the children more responsibility than the state school did and this is one way to do it. Also if the DC have had homework at primary school it is not a shock at secondary.