Need to decide on school quick!!

[ChampsNCanape]

I have previously posted on MN about my son and what school he should go to for sixth form. Applications for all the schools in our area are closing soon and I still don't know where!!

We have 3 options - 2 private and 1 state - in my area. Boarding is probably out of the question. DS currently goes to a very good grammar school however it does not have a sixth form.

Option 1 is a private school in our town. It's decently well regarded and is the cheapest out of the 2 however it gets lower results than both other schools. However sporting facilities are excellent and so is their sixth form centre. £8.5K per term.

Option 2 is a private school in a nearby town. Very highly regarded and has amazing facilities all round. Quite a large school and the campus is very large. Co-curricular activities are the best by far. Good academically and very sporty. £11.5K perm.

Option 3 is a state sixth form. Academically it is excellent, I looked at average grades on the Gov.UK site and it actually gets the best grades out of the 3. However it has worse sporting facilities and although there are a decent selection of mandatory co-curriculars (though less options than option 1/2). DS is quite sporty so I worry that he might miss out on some sporting facilities?

Mostly 7s/8s, a 9 and a 6.

I teach in an independent school. We lose quite a few at sixth form because we have an excellent sixth form college in the next town, and because it's bigger, they also offer more options.

However, the pastoral care is completely incomparable. We give ours so much guidance and support with regards to UCAS applications, and Next Steps in general. We also have lovely small tutor groups and smaller teaching groups, and we're always squeezing in extra one-to-one tutorials. We're also always available on the phone for parents. We know our kids really well, and no one falls through the cracks.

We're also much more flexible with creating/tailoring experiences for individual students. So whilst the college has more subjects on offer, they can't accommodate Physics and Drama, for example, whereas we always make sure every student has the exact timetable they want (which can even include facilitating extra AS options even though this is not our "normal pathway").

Private school is never about paying "per grade". It's about paying for the right environment in which your child will fly into the next stage of their life (and I should also say that not every private school is this for every child).

@DeffoNeedANameChange ‘small tutor groups and smaller teaching groups’. Smaller than what?

@ChampsNCanape what subject is his predicted grade 6 in? For finance, further maths would be a very good idea.

We have max 14 in a teaching group, but usually 10-12. Our local college has up to 22 in a class I think?

And our tutor groups are usually about 12 (I don't know what the system is at the college). I'm in touch with all those parents at least once a fortnight.

It's not crucial. Lots of kids will do fine in either setting. But at my school, you're paying for more than just grades and sports.

So academically the state school is better. Taking the cheaper fees, it’ll be £51k plus inflation to send to the cheaper private and more for the other. Are the sports and other extracurricular activities worth that money? How is your Dc sorted for university fees, living costs, house deposit? If all those are already sorted then maybe it could be worth it. If not then maybe the money is better spend on those?

@DeffoNeedANameChange thanks for that. It’s interesting to hear your perspective.

Our ds2 is in a Welsh medium state school so we have no experience of private education. He’s had the same form tutor since year 7 who knows him (and us) well. We definitely don’t have your level of contact but he responds to our emails or phone calls on the same day if we have any queries or concerns. The head of sixth form also replies within 24 hours.

His teaching classes are all under 20 which is more than good enough at AS level imo.

We have the Seren Foundation in Wales to support high achievers in state schools and there’s already been visits to school from Oxford University and several Russel Group universities as well as apprenticeship opportunities and the Forces.

There are very few private schools to choose from around here and those that do exist are so small that they cannot offer things such as choirs and competitive sports teams which is a big gap imo. I honestly feel that an independent school would struggle massively to match what ds is experiencing in a Welsh medium state school with a very mixed catchment.

No one knows what your Sept 2025 fees will be, until the Oct budget the schools didn't know about the NI increase. Expect £11.5k to be just the start...

Yes Grammar in my area means academic and a generation ago would have been one of the few schools to have a sixth form/doing A levels.

Also your son is currently travelling 3 hours a day? That's brutal.

Yes it's really odd. I don't see the point.

@FatsiaJaponicaInTheGarden "Yes Grammar in my area means academic and a generation ago would have been one of the few schools to have a sixth form/doing A levels"

Depends how you measure a generation....

Option 3, surely by sixth form he has joined outside school teams in the sports he is active in, and £30k would be able to provide excellent coaching etc in any that he wants to develop in?

Is the sporting opportunity really worth £70k over two years, not counting inflation?

I’m not sure sports studies/PE are optimal for a top degree in finance.

As someone who attended a well-known boarding school with top academics and a strong focus on sports but not as heavy as most, I want to share my recent experience. Unless your child is aiming for a professional sports career, I would strongly advise against choosing a school primarily for its sporting reputation.
School sport, especially the competitive "we must win" culture, feels like a relic of the Victorian era that no longer serves students in the modern world. Once you leave school, no one cares about your first-team accolades. Many of my peers who were standout athletes are now working in regular office jobs. Looking back, the intense competitiveness often feels more about ego than long-term benefits.
The bigger concern is how some schools compromise academics in favour of sport—a short-sighted approach in today’s world. I know many people from other boarding schools who now regret their lack of academic focus. Poor grades and subpar university placements are catching up with them, especially in a job market where strong academics are more important than ever which is extremely competitive. Gone are the days when a firm handshake and mediocre grades could secure a top-tier career. IMO the schools which do it best are the ones that understand above all, academics must be strong, and the other opportunities are there for those really talented or who want to have fun, but they must do well academically (unless they are england level, even then, people who are olympians also work corporate jobs)
If you're deciding on a school, prioritise academics. If your child is passionate about a sport, they can always join a club or team outside of school. Opting for a school with stronger academics will also leave you with more resources to invest in things like personal training, should your child want to develop fitness skills that will serve them for life.
On that note, another common issue with sports-focused schools is the lack of education on practical fitness. Beyond the first teams, very few students are taught how to train effectively in a gym—arguably the most sustainable and accessible form of exercise after school.
In short, prioritise a school that offers the best academics, and let sport be a secondary consideration. The long-term benefits for your child’s career and overall life opportunities will far outweigh any short-term wins on the field.

No need to be specific obvs, but what sorry of year did you leave boarding school @easternenergizer? Like 2000s or 1990s or..
Your post is really interesting as I also attended a top tier boarding school and have a slightly different view so it would be great to compare- I am such a geek! Xx

2010s - feel free to PM

If he is academic and reasonably self-motivated, I’d discount option 1.

If he’s set on studying finance at uni, I wonder if he might rethink sports studies in favour of another subject which gives a stronger grounding.