Elevenplus vs Eton

[Danimirj]

Hello my name is Jana, we have one son in second term of Y5 at CofE Primary School in windswept Lincolnshire.

He is not happy there. He is an unusual, intelligent child. He is alert but shy, and small for his age.

We have a Plan A [Eleven plus] and Plan B [move county] for our os, but as thread title says their may be Plan C

I will hand over to my husband who can express himself more easier than I can

Hello, I'm an the other half of the above^^

Our son can speak and write two different languages, English and Serbian, can tell you how a nuclear reactor works, and how it differs from a nuclear bomb, can tell you the difference between a petrol engine and jet engine, and the difference between a hybrid car and an electric car.

He will be ten in at the end of this month. (Feb '15)

About twelve months ago, in desperation, we contacted a number of private school about our son's future.

The one we expected to hear the least from, has been the most welcoming and approachable of all: Eton College.

Since May '14 we have been in contact with a warm but businesslike lady called Francesca, the Access Adviser at that school. We were invited to visit the school in November 2014. We were very impressed with the interest they took in us and our son. Our son came away feeling much more confident about himself, but

However, the range of potential options they can offer seems bewildering to us.

As parents we have zero experience of private education, much less boarding private education.

We would prefer os were happy, popular and settled rather than academically pressurized, but he is just coasting at the moment.

Your thought opinions and personal experiences would be most helpful, if you are willing to share them.

If you decide to investigate prep school possibilities I am sure E will be happy to guide you in the right direction. Believe me - prep schools want boys who are likely to successfully proceed there. There are, admittedly only a few with the funds to offer really helpful bursaries - but it is far from impossible

Have done a bit of research. This prepWitham Hall sends boys to Eton after CE, and is in same county. Headmaster [Charles Welch] is friend of outgoing Eton HM and wants to help.

Can't do a great deal at the moment.

DS thought it was great, DW loved it to, as did I.

But any boy who goes there will undoubtably be in possession of very determined and optimistic parents. Are you those parents?

Quite possibly not. Life has taken its toll on us. I have clinical depression, DW has a variant of PTSD (unsurprising coming from Bosna i Hercegovina, even after twenty years) . I have sick parents, too. Not the ideal people to bring a child into the world, but we have and I believe we've done a pretty good job thus far.

Any help is better than none.

This must seem quite horrifically confusing to anyone who hasn't been through any of it

Believe me, it does.

The important thing is whether the prep school you mention a) can provide a sufficient bursary and b) has a consistent, recent record of sending boys to E.

I do not mention parental determination and optimism for want of anything else to talk about. The entire process of applying (particularly if seeking a bursary or hoping for a scholarship) can be taxing, exhausting, intrusive... Read any of the current threads for London private school admissions - and quadruple it. There would be no point in beginning this process if you dislike being questioned, do not care for being under pressure or are ambivalent about the possible outcomes.

Also you would need to consider what might happen if you took up any prep school offer but a place at Eton didn't ultimately come off. You might know before year 8 but other seniors would pretest in year 6/7 , you'd be hunting down a bursary/scholarship and he'd have missed out on 11+ grammars.

Surely the least stressful path for you is let your boy sit the 11+ and hopefully go to the Grammar School. If he likes the school, you may want to forget Eton. If he doesn't like the school you can apply for a New Foundation scholarship at the beginning of Year 8.

I tend to agree with grovel here.

I do not mention parental determination and optimism for want of anything else to talk about...

Quite right too - that is why we asked in first place. Don't hold back, your opinions are as valid as ours, and our skins are quite thick.

Also you would need to consider what might happen if you took up any prep school offer but a place at Eton didn't ultimately come off.

This is what plays on our minds too, at 3am in the morning. I [husband] have a colleague with a son at a private boarding schools (this one) who think we are daft to consider the idea for our child. But is this sanity, or just prejudice against the school that we approached, and is trying to encourage us?

FWIW just weeks before we approached them the school was planning a PR drive in our area.

“One of our concerns is that C1 category white British boys are not responding sufficiently well to such scholarships. There will certainly be people among that group who would be aspirational, or potentially aspirational but think we could never go anywhere like that.”

All we desire is a coherent argument for either saying yes or no.

It's a tough choice - which most people never have to make.

Staying put and waiting to take the NF Scholarship does seem the less daunting option now.

But the advantage of moving to a really stellar prep (assuming a bursary to the prep) is that a boy will be working amongst several others who all have the same goal. There would be dedicated teaching towards a King's Scholarship if appropriate. This sort of prep might send 15-20 boys per year to E. (I guess this means that statistically the odds are better taking this route? Though there are no guarantees.)

LIZS I'd hope that the prep would guide the child into another "comparable" senior school if E didn't work out. If they gave a bursary for prep they'd want the boy to leave in a blaze of glory.

Dani Forgive me again but your colleague with a child at the school you linked to will be flabbergasted that you have the chance of getting your child to E. Sorry but that's the truth. If your son does get in don't expect everyone you know to congratulate you.

Also you would need to consider what might happen if you took up any prep school offer but a place at Eton didn't ultimately come off.

I can't see how this would happen. Surely you would only be looking at the prep school option if your son took the standard test at 11 and was offered a conditional place. The only thing likely to go wrong then would be if he completely messed up his CE - which doesn't seem likely - although you may change your minds of course.

But op is talking about prep from age 10 ie year 6 so results in year 7 would be too late for state 11+ and they'd already be committed to independent sector.

That's certainly not how I read it LIZS. OP has said they are relying on bursaries, you would only have a hope of a prep school bursary for years 7 and 8 if your DS already had an Eton place following the Eton test at 11.

Mudder Forgive me again but your colleague with a child at the school you linked to will be flabbergasted that you have the chance of getting your child to E. Sorry but that's the truth. If your son does get in don't expect everyone you know to congratulate you

Y'know, I kinda thought that too.... , ha ha.

I have tried to banish what few preconceptions I have about E and OEs. I have never had an instinctive dislike of any of those in the public eye, not even David Cameron [as an individual he seems one of few genuinely likeable people to hold that office in the last forty years, and I've never voted Tory in my life, so far]. My DW has even fewer preconceptions than me.

The NFS boys and King Scholars whom we met were the ones who seemed the most committed to the place.

Surely the least stressful path for you is let your boy sit the 11+ and hopefully go to the Grammar School. If he likes the school, you may want to forget Eton. If he doesn't like the school you can apply for a New Foundation scholarship at the beginning of Year 8.

IndridCold grovel

this seems the best way forward for now - keeps our, and our beloved's options open.

Furthermore, our beloved took the Lincolnshire Consortium 2009 11+ last October, with the minimum of coaching - Bond books - that sort of thing.

Pass mark is for KEVIGS is 220 apparently. He got 223.

I did it and got 158. I passed the 11+ in Essex in 1983. I'm getting progressively more stupid.

If the boy goes to a prep on a bursary he then pretty much has to win a KS to Eton to get all his fees paid by the school. From a state school he can try for a New Foundation Scholarship. The latter is more based on potential (to catch up with Kings Scholars).

I would definitely do the NFS route which does not jeopardise the Grammar route.

Currently bursaries are not conditional on being awarded a KS.

(If the OPs were going down the prep route they would have been well advised to try to get him into yr 6. But I think deadlines for the most relevant schools will have passed.)

" If your son does get in don't expect everyone you know to congratulate you."
Dani - if your son gets into Eton I will certainly congratulate you and him! That school was the best thing that ever happened to my Ds.
You've had plenty of good advice from those in the know and I hope your DS will be happy and fulfilled whichever school he goes to.

I know Muddler but this couple need full fees remission, I think. Eton had 44 boys last year whose parents paid no fees at all. That's 9 a year. I assume at least a 3 or 4 a year are Kings Scholars or exceptional musicians. That leaves 5 or 6. The school offer up to 4 New Foundation scholarships per year which presumably accounts for the majority of the rest. Since the NF scholarships are targetted at boys like the OP's, I'd go that route (as suggested by the school).

Happy to be corrected.

I hadn't thought of it like that grovel! I guess the almost-unconditional bursaries must be a vanishingly small proportion of all the bursaries that happen.

However - given their stated aims one would hope that the number of bursaries might increase year by year. Freeing up more that don't wait upon an academic award.

It's so difficult to give advice when every family's experience is marginally different to everyone else's. (I last thought about Grammar Schools when I was perhaps six years old; so wanted to go but they were wiped out in the areas I lived in. And also in the area we had to consider lately. So they don't tend to figure in my calculations ... I can see that having that possibility complicates any decision.)

Muddler, as the parent of a recent OE I absolutely believe that the school is genuinely committed to being/becoming "income blind". The headmaster was a full-fees scholar himself. I thoroughly approve (having paid full fees).

Dapplegrey if your son gets into Eton I will certainly congratulate you and him!
MuddlerInLaw If your son does get in don't expect everyone you know to congratulate you.

Thank you, though not as much as we will congratulate him if does. The road to Thames Valley Grammar might have many turn-offs and roundabouts for us - wasn't expecting this level of support or interest.

grovel Eton had 44 boys last year whose parents paid no fees at all.

Interesting....you've all given me lots of info for when the school is next back in contact...

The number of boys with completely free places has just hit the initial target of 70. I think this might include the boys who come in for the sixth form too, but still! This is significant because it was the original number of boys when the school was founded in 1440.

Like grovel I thoroughly approve of the school's stated aim of becoming totally needs blind, and I do get a bit evangelical on mumsnet in trying to encourage people to consider this fantastic school, and not be put off by the many negative preconceptions that abound.

OP, I hope this thread has helped you a bit, and I wish you and your son the very best for his future.

Its not terribly easy being enthusiastic on this particular subject here. One is called all kinds of names ...

And the people most likely to be put off by rumours and hearsay are the very people who might perhaps have few "local" options available.

Danimirj

I don't know if you have seen these?

www.etoncollege.com/userfiles/files/StatutoryAccountsTo31Aug2013%281%29.pdf

OP if you can move would you consider or are able to move to London, Colet Court offers assistance with fees here and takes children from the state sector here he would then go onto St. Paul's who also offer assistance with fee St Pauls, being London based it's multicultural forward thinking school with some very impressive results as you will see might be worth a look and gives you another option both schools are exceedingly difficult to get into so it could be wise to cast you net as wide as you can.

The other school you may want to consider is Christ Hospital it is selective and offers very generous bursaries and starts in yr 7 thus solving the problem of looking for a prep. It's a bit of a troll from Lincolnshire but as you said you'd move again definitely worth a look.