Private to state for sixth form - having a wobble

[LostinLondon]

We decided to move our DS from his single sex private school to a co-ed state in Sixth Form and now I'm having a major wobble. The move is partly due to financial factors but is mainly because we actually believe he needs a bit of a change (incredibly lazy). Academically he's very bright and will do well anywhere but I'm now panicking that we're potentially causing upheaval in his life that might affect him personally and academically. He's not desperately keen on moving but that's because he doesn't like change but I actually really believe he'll enjoy being in a more relaxed, co-ed environment.
Are we doing the right thing???

In our case we had some nasty reverse snobbery from a teacher at the new school ("it may have worked like that at your previous school but it doesn't here" said sneeringly in response to my reasonable request for an appointment with the head)

The teacher concerned has now been sacked though."

Gosh. Is it possible that maybe things just worked differently in the new school? Just a thought..........

I know the teacher has been sacked because it's common knowledge.

I'm not prepared to go into details but no, it wasn't that things worked differently, he was a twat. HTH.

I am kind of in the same boat. My DS son has made the decision to leave his private school for a grammar 6th form. Admittedly he has done this off his own back but even the HM of his school wanted to know why he did not want to stay.
Thankfully the HM has kept his place for him until half term in case he changes his mind and this reassures me. But I will be anxious for the first couple of months.

I work in very high performing state school, we get quite a few students from independent schools and they generally make a very successful transition. One of the students told me the standard of teaching was so much better than in his independent school. There is a bit of unnecessary fear of state schools here.

My DDs both moved from private to state for sixth form, driven mainly by DD1's desire to go to a large co-ed environment,, rather than stay at the small but lovely Girls' school.

It did work out for both girls, but only because they both wanted to go and both worked really hard. The class sizes were larger and DD2 had some issues making friends as surprisingly there were few girls in her subjects. She was the only girl in her class of 20 for maths for example.

If your DS doesn't want to go and you can afford it, I would keep him in private, as it is a very intense couple of years, and they need to go into it with the right attitude..

I went to a sixth form college after private 11-16 because I couldn't deal with being bullied for another 2 years. Best decision I ever made: 3 As at A-level and I went on to study at Oxford. I was also surrounded by lots of like-minded, academic people.

Ripeningapples

We're about to do the opposite and I've got concerns too. Will ours be overwhelmed by the confidence, lifestyles, etc. Also will she be out of step intellectually coming from a comp that didn't live up to expectations?

They'll be fine, all of ours apart from the youngest two went to state until 13, they were absolutely fine adjusting, lots of their friends only joined at 6th form too and were also fine, give it a term and it'll be like they were always there.

Most private schools are not full of uber rich crazy confident kids, there is a good mix at most schools.