Leaving prep schools for all through schools

[Penelopetu]

I work in a standalone prep and lots of pupils are leaving to go to all through independents so as to avoid any assessment in year 6 (even though these all through schools aren’t particularly hard to get in to for secondary…). I met with friends who work in preps in a different town recently and they were experiencing similar. I think the all through schools are also able to offer bigger bursaries/deals maybe?
With that and more and more senior schools wanting pupils at 11 not 13, I wonder how long standalone preps can survive. Have you noticed this trend in your area?

The switch to starting at 11 has been a trend growing for over 40 years, my local independent switched to 11+ entry in the early 80’s and many already had at least in the London area for day schools. Through schools are seen as easier by parents as they stay with the same friends, my friends put their dc in for nursery and leaving this summer after 8 levels!

Yes I’ve seen the switch to starting at 11 but I’ve never known as many leave in Year 4/5 for an all through before. It’s definitely easier for the parents and you can have all your kids at one school. I wonder what it means for schools like mine though. Lots of cost cutting already…

I think that the future of preps going to 13 is going to be very hard, catering mainly for those aiming for the boarding schools which have their only entry at 13. Otherwise I see preps doing what the Thomas' schools amongst others have done and open their own secondary school or expand the prep to cater for students up to 16.

Some will have been encouraged to go. Prep schools do that.

A few more will be leaving because too much sport and emphasis on sport.

Yeah, definitely. In London at least, the 11+ is brutal so people do everything they can to avoid it.

I can only hope this is one of the first steps in a whole overhaul of the education system that stops putting the unethical pressure on young children to be sized up, measured, ranked and judged from much too early an age.

I would say the overriding benefit of a through school is the ability to let the children grow up gently and unfurl their capabilities in their own time, rather than this dreadful pressure on developing to a timetable.

Year 6 is very young to be told you have “failed” to be accepted to a school your friends have all been accepted to. Yet that is the upshot of the current prep system.

I think some people are just getting turned off by that. I think the prep system worked when there was less pressure on the senior school places; but with the world becoming more global, plenty of parents are unable to send their Dc to their old senior school because the crowds applying are so much greater. In this environment I think more through schools can only be a good thing.

I definitely think this is happening….I’m someone who did this with both mine! It wasn’t the plan originally, but starting to understand the hamster wheel of the 11+, and also how I felt it’s more possible entering at lower years to play it down and say just go and do some writing (although appreciate many parents go full pelt at the 7+) than it is at 11+ as kids are so much more aware.

DC is y5 at a London prep. Of her year I know one child who left after y3 for an all through and one leaving at the end of y5. I think there may be one more who took the 10+ for a different school (not all through but with a y6) who is going there. Otherwise, everyone (60+ kids) is staying.

There is a demographic bulge right now making the 11+ super competitive, the peak was centred on the birth year of 2011/2012 but it’s still affecting the next couple of 11+ years. In a few years however this will have calmed down as the birth rate has dropped a lot since then.

Actually the real challenge for prep schools is struggling to fill their lower years. State till 8 will become more popular with VAT and as I’ve said there are just fewer children anyway at those ages.

I’d expect it to continue - there’s a perception that scholarships will be favoured to retain current pupils into secondary sections which all helps in the financial climate

One of my DDs goes to an all through independent (though she joined at year 7). They have just announced that they will be adding an extra year 6 class. I think it will be popular for prep kids and state kids. I wish my DD hadn't done SATs, year 6 in a state school can be dull and miserable. So year 6 entry sounds ideal.

We intentionally chose an all-through for our middle three when we needed to find a school during prep years. Traditional preps really build their name on where they can get students into for secondary and we just didn't want that to be a main focus of their last few years of primary. We're perfectly willing to do 11+ or 13+ prep at various levels of intensity for each if that's the right path for them, but we didn't want that to be an expectation and didn't want a school that was too focused on what it could list on its leavers' destinations page. Between GCSEs and A levels/IB they have years of preparation for standardized exams ahead of them and I'm not jumping to shell out ridiculous amounts of money mostly to add more focus on that.

The ISC (Independent Schools Council) has been saying for years that traditional small independent preps are not going to survive. There has been a lot of consolidation in the prep sector. I have heard the head of one very successful large independent prep say that critical size for a viable prep school is now 450-500 pupils (from 3-13). Another way for schools to reach critical size is through integrating prep and secondary and creating 3-18 schools: this is a very significant trend in Private Equity/education investor owned school groups. A 3-18 school needs at least 800 pupils to reach critical size. The multiples for sale for independent schools look very different for small and larger establishments.

Yes, we have a child in the bulge years and actuallyleft London where the transfer system was just insane and in my view an unethical pressure to put on a child. We moved to an area with selective education (NI) but it is much more reasonable as most children take two tests at the same time and schools pick off the back of those marks.

My child was very, very high up the percentiles so it wasn’t that I am against academic challenge, just the brutality of having to do maybe 5 or 6 ferocious school tests and then maybe get none (all because of the bulge birth year) is something I wouldn’t risk inflicting on his psyche. (And then pay £33k a year per child off the back of that. That’s almost enough for a full ride at a top us college or a massive house deposit).