DD boards at her prep school. She is coming to the end of year 7 and about to enter her final year there. Next year should be common entrance year for her senior school. She needs to board as we are mobile with the army and we claim CEA against the fees. Without CEA we could not afford the fees. Even with CEA we have a limited budget as my husband is not an officer.
One problem though - she is not registered with any senior school.
We have trawled numerous schools. Bored ourselves to tears with endless open day visits etc etc and not found one school that we actually like. We find somewhere academically suitable (languages is where DD excels) but then the boarding is abysmal. Why do so many senior schools have old spinster maids running their boarding houses? Who on earth thinks a little old maid will be able to relate properly to 14/15yo girls??
That aside, we find amazing boarding facilities and lovely house staff,only to find the academics are not upto much or the language department is quite lacking or there is something that just does not sit right about the rest of the school.
We have found one school that ticks our boxes. We really like it, although I have not had the same "This is the one" feeling I had when we found her prep school. We like it enough, so we are/were about to register her (having visited 4 times and recently spoken to the registrar who confirms its not too late yet).
However, we are the only family out of the 45 in her current year sending her onto this school. This is not a problem in itself. DD has been used to moving as the sole new girl before starting boarding and the prep school system means she has not expected to move on with current school friends. The problem seems to be other peoples opinions. Now usually I could not give a shit what other people think, but several parents have shown their dismay when they have asked where DD is going and we have said. Then last Friday after a school concert one mum told me that she knew of a few girls that had gone there from the prep school and most had left within a year due to "not liking it". Another mum, piped up that we should consider other options but did not specify why.
I asked the head of her current prep school if he was aware of problems and he did then say there had been an incident with 2 girls. 2 different years, both left within a year due to not settling in. Both had full boarded (like DD) at prep school.
So now I am in a quandry. We really like this school. Have had it in mind for 4 years at least and visited alot. The senior school had a new head 3 years ago and the boarding side has grown tremendously, so much so a new boarding house is being built to accommodate the amount of new boarders.
I am so stressed out by this. I dont know where else we even like to bother going for a 2nd look. The fees are a factor as well because even with CEA with a limited budget, so alot of schools we cannot even look at. I have emailed one or 2 more expensive schools to ask whether we would be allowed to apply for a burasry intop of the HM Forces remission they offer but the answer has been quite negative. Not a definate NO but a kind of well the CEA is a massive amount, along with our 15/20%, and I doubt we could offer you any more.
Just dont know what to do. I am sick to the back teeth of looking at schools and to be quite honest, I think I have most UK senior boarding school prospectuses here, as I think over the last few years we have looked at several in loads of different areas. I just dont know what to do. DD should be registered somewhere by now and obviously most exclusive schools will now have closed their books for registration (we are not interested in any of these though).
Aaarrrgggghhh!!! please someone wave a magic wand and help us out!!! Anyone else still not chosen the next school or still not 100% happy with their choice this late in the game?