Would you accept a significant bursary for private education even if your child is fairly settled in a good state school please

[JIC742]

Hello everyone, hope you are well.

Would you accept a significant bursary even if your child were settled and happy at a state school please?

The reason I ask this is some concern about "unsettling" a settled child, and thinking ahead of if they would like new school, if you see what I mean please.

Has anyone done this and regretted it/or liked it please?

Is a good private education really worth it? Do you have this experience and would like to share your outcome please?

Thank you

Hi there’s s very similar thread on this subject here, which you might find helpful.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3382151-The-old-private-v-state-we-have-to-choose

For what it’s worth my advice is to look again at the reasons you first considered changing schools, are those reasons still relevant? What prompted you to approach the other school? It may be there were issues that are now resolved, or there might be opportunities at the new school not available at her current school.

Thank you errorsjudgement for your comments.
I have always been at home (flexibly working) to support the work done in current school - at home due to circumstances and in-between jobs/career. It has always been that we would consider private when this changes - mainly for the opportunities in sports, languages, and perhaps the keen interest in academia and extracurricular at private etc.
There is some concern that if I got more busy with work (less flexibly) and unable to support work done, standards may slip.
I am worried of taking that gamble. However, I am also concerned that changing schools in Y4/5 may be unsettling and indeed have a negative impact. Also classroom behaviour was a concern at local state.

I thank you for your comment and signposting me to the other thread

My DS is at an independent school on a bursary. The state option is rated excellent, gets fantastic results, all his primary friends go there etc, but the independent gets better results and the whole experience of being there is incomparable to the state.

It really does depend on the schools involved. DS's school is just fantastic in every way, but not all private schools are - DD's gets even better results but isnt as good overall.

Should add that moving in year 4/5 is better than in later years and really shouldn't be a problem, long term.

I was made precisely this offer when DD1 was in year 7. If we'd taken them up on it, the private school would have been free. But she would have had to stay where she was for two years because the intake was at year 9.

We looked into it very carefully and decided to leave her where she was. It came down to the nature of the specific school in question. We didn't feel that the private school was actually a great fit for her. The "extras" in terms of sports etc were not her cup of tea and she was very settled and doing well at a state comprehensive. We were very concerned that the disruption of going into a very different sort of school culture and making new friends could actually set her back quite a lot.

She's now in year 12, has an extremely good set of GCSEs under her belt and has continued to be happy and successful at her state school. So there have been no regrets.

No. My kids are bright and have no SEN. They can do well in a good school if they work hard. I dont want to pay someone to push them, I want them to push themselves.

If the state options available to them were poor I would say yes.

I don't think the idea of being "pushed" in private schools is the whole story. It's fair to say that if you're surrounded by high achievers, you'll possibly/probably try harder naturally, simply because of who you are comparing yourself to. I know that my son would settle for doing ok in an average group, but he's having to work to make sure he's doing ok in a bright group.
Some children are self - motivated, others need external motivation.
I certainly don't feel we pay for people to push him - I'd push him, whatever school he was at.

As always, this depends on how well you know your daughter. Go and view the school. Go and view the school with her. See if she likes it.

My DM did this for me. I started in a local comp but after a term I was moved to the local private school. She felt my musical talent wasn't being encouraged enough (she was right).

I found it hard to adjust at first. Took me the first year to settle in really but I think that's the same for most first years.

But I can hand on heart say it was the best decision for me. There's a level of encouragement and expectation that I have not seen in any state secondary school (and I've been to a fair few over my years of teaching). Smaller class sizes too, usually.

I wasn't a popular kid so it's not like I enjoyed that side of school. I had one or two really good friends. Academically speaking though, there was no question it was better.