numbers of applications to London private school - why so many?

[LetsEscape]

This year's numbers of children applying at 11+ to independent London schools has gone through the roof. Has anyone got any theories?

It does seem very odd given the recession and job insecurities... I wonder if the availability of detailed information from Ofsted and league tables, etc., combined with quite a lot of bad press about standards in comps and academies, are driving the trend?

There was an incremental increase last year too. We were told at least 50% more on applications for the school we ended up with. And I know yesterday's exam for Sept 2012 was packed.

Is it the same at primary level? Or a case of people saving up to go at secondary? And is it London wide or spiking in
Certain areas ? I know that where I live the secondary provision is not so good so you get a spike in private education at 11.

Could it be because so many parents make multiple applications these days? I do know people who have entered their DC for at least 5 schools.

That's a good point sue - at least 3 if not more seems the norm.

It seems tough on the poor DC who have to sit so many different entrance exams.

Could it be people downshifting from boarding?

I think people have been downshifting from boarding for a couple of years now, and applications to London day schools have rocketed (both private and selective) as parents in that über-competitive environment spread their safety net a bit wider with more applications than they might have felt the need to do in less pressured years.

Hi all, first post! The reason the independent school intakes are so big is the army pays school fees for the children of it's personnel. I pay £8000 per term and 50% of the kids in the school are military families. I can't imagine how much the government spends on this. The original idea was to provide continuity of education to the children of personnel posted overseas, but it is widely abused. All you need to do, as far as i can work out is be posted overseas once, and sign your kids up for boarding and their fees are paid for the rest of their time at school until 18. That is at least £250,000 per child at many schools when admitted from nursery onwards. If you have 3 kids you would have to be on a salary of a minimum £200,000 a year to afford that. with pensions and decent salaries life in the forces is a world away from our reality.
As far as London schools are concerned, don't forget how rich London is in contrast to the rest of the country and how many wealthy foreign nationals want top british education for their kids. there are masses of Chinese and Russians in boarding schools

The military (not just Army) does not/not pay for education at day schools which do not have a boarding option; nor does it pay at all unless the serving person fulfils ever-stricter mobility criteria.

As the only school in central-ish London which offers full boarding is Dulwich College, it cannot be a factor in the increase in applications in London schools in general.

gusmum
i think forces familes and rich foreign families based in London probably do make up abpart of indie school applications but the question is why this year have applications skyrocketed?
One would expect applications to grammars to increase in a recession as people who might previously paid look for free options.
But it is odd in this financial climate to see more people applying to Fee paying schools.

There are only a handful of Grammars in London and they are all massively over subscribed. ;

oh, and Westminster boards as well, I think. But Forces families are not really any part of the equation in London because of the lack of boarding.

It's applications to day schools that are rocketing - I think that is because Londoners are not choosing to board.

gusmum: if you are aware of abuse of CEA, then you need to report it to CEAS. They both prosecute offenders and claw back the money. There is zero tolerance, and they will investigate if someone blows the whistle.

I also thought ceas was hard to get (and is for boarders) so not sure that makes up for it.

Is it some difference in how they keep figures as it doesn't make sense given economic circumstances . Also is it all day schools or just some? I would imagine that application rates for schools like Westminster etc (well know consistently high results) have always been very high.

Possibly people who would normally have picked their favourite school and swallowed the fees are now applying to several and seeing whether they can pick up a scholarship/bursary from any of them. If 10% of applicants are doing that it could account for the increase.

Interesting point dull- there certainly seem
To be more threads here asking about bursaries etc

CEA is indeed only available for boarders, aged 8 and over (so not from nursery), and only applies to just under 8,000 pupils in the UK anyway, around 11% of all boarders and just 2% of all private school pupils, so i think we can safely say that they are irrelevant in terms of this discussion....

It's interesting, as this story (here www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/28/private-schools-drop-pupils ) says that overall pupil numbers are down very slightly, as one might expect.

I suspect in London it's a combination of a couple of things; multiple applications (people perhaps doing state+ a couple of private, to keep options open) plus the general imperviousness of the central London economy. There are more than enough highly paid individuals in central London untouched by the downturn to sustain the private school sector there, unlike perhaps in many other areas of the UK.

I think it is because there was an increase in the birth rate around the millennium. We don't live in london, but in my DCs school which normally has 2 classes in each year group currently has 3 classes in years 7,6 and 5

Might it because fewer families are leaving London?

People are downgrading from boarding along with people still sitting for places as back up if they don't get their preferred state option.

I think it's because standards in London are so dreadfully low within the state sector. We sent our dd to what was the last bastion of excellence but a change in head and admissions procedures meant the school was declining very fast. We were lucky we could afford to transfer to the private sector but as schools like that one decline it leaves London families without state choices at secondary level. Unless more money is made available for unmanageable and disruptive children to get them out of the classroom then there really is no alternative. The system in London must be at all time low and it is heading to towards critical.

I've heard it was the boarding school downgrade as well. It would be interesting to know if boarding schools are experiencing lower levels of applications to back this theory up. Personally I find it odd that there could be such a noticeable increase just from the boarding school thing (although actually, what concrete evidence do people have that numbers are up?)

It all about money. London is the largest city in the UK with 12 million next Birmingham 1 million it is a global city one of a tiny handful of pre eminent cities in the world along with NY. It has some of the wealthiest people in the world living in some of the most expensive houses in the world and gradually even in this current recession the few remaining poor areas are still being gentrified by the middle classes. Here ends the geography lesson.
My DH works for many of the richest people/families in the world whilst Mr and Mrs Average may be struggling financially in this recession don't be under any illusions these people aren't (which is good news for my DH) wealthy people will pay to educate their children.

My DD's opinion (based on conversations at her private school) is that parents are worried about employment prospects in the long run for their kids, and that the private sector seems more successful in passing on life skills. Therefore, if they can afford it, they are going for it.

Not a scientific study, but very few are now opting for boarding schools from DSs prep in the wealthy borough of Richmond. DS is year 7 and of 29 boys there is only 1 going o board. This is partly because the school does extremely well in getting boys into the top London Indys, and also because there's a lot of concern about where boarding school fees are going.
We looked at boarding, £30k a year is bad enough but there were rumours at the time if making fees vatable, that puts it up to £36k. Add to that the rapid inflation of boarding school fees and we could potentially be up to £42k plus maybe VAT by the time he finishes. Fortunately he got his first choice School so we could forget about backups.
DD is at Surbiton juniors, historically they have always had places, but it is full to bursting now, with extra classes in 2 years to appease parents who demanded sibling places. I've no idea whats happening there, or where the money is coming from.
I'd be interested to hear from other girls schools in the area as I suspect they will tell a similar story.