Should we pay 3x our current house price for a top 20 independent school, or stay put and have our children attend a top 275 school?

[Keto481]

Our two children have been accepted at two independent senior schools and our options are as follows:

Option 1 - Continue to live in our current home and send our children to the local independent, which features towards the latter end of the top 275 independent schools nationally. The performance at A levels is obviously better than our local state schools, but hardly any pupils go on to Oxbridge. (Not that we are aiming for Oxbridge, but I am just trying to give an idea of it's performance). This option will allow us to live comfortably financially as we have substantial savings.

Option 2 - Roughly an hours drive away is a school which year on year features in the top 20 independent schools nationally with the highest performance in the region, and I believe around 15% go on to Oxbridge. To live in this area, house prices are triple the cost of our current home. Due to our savings we can afford this, but we would be left with very little savings and have to live a significantly less comfortable life.

The areas in between where we currently live and the top 20 school are not areas where we want to live. If our children were to catch the train from where we live to the top 20 school it would be over 1 hour and a half each way and we do not want them to have to endure that journey.

So I ask is it better to have the financial security and have our children go to the local independent and I assume not perform as well. Or to move home and not have the financial security, but have our children attend the top 20 school In the hopes they will perform significantly better?

Oh for goodness sake, stay where you are and enjoy your life. I cannot be doing with all this martyring oneself for the sake of your children's education and MN is full of education angst at the moment.

Your children will be fine, you will have money to tutor if necessary, you will have a safety net if you or DP have to stop working, or split up, your life will be perfectly pleasant, more financially secure and most importantly of all, your children will be fine.

I'd stay put. There's a lot more in life that contributes to your kids academic, intellectual and emotional intelligence, and it sounds like this would be hugely restricted if funds are zero'd out on a house.

Clever kids who work hard will get the grades anyway. But those in a targeted academic 'get the grades or your out' setting might not thrive and come out worse off.

I assume your kids will have a choice about whether they even want to go to uni at all....?

A bit confused at PPs describing the top 275 school as 'mediocre'?!

I've just started a thread about a school we're really keen on (admittedly a state school so not quite the same) which is top 500. I thought that was fantastic!

Pop over to the Oxbridge thread in Higher Ed. There has been a big debate over the last couple of days on this very issue. Also, you can't play the system by moving from a private school to state for sixth form. The top universities use the school where you took your GCSEs, not A levels to consider context.

Stay where you are, life is not all about academics or Oxbridge. Enjoy your money and spending time with your loved ones. Agree with most posters about the weeding out at the super selectives.

Also imagine the pressure your kids will feel, knowing you've spent so much and uprooted just for their schooling. That's a lot to put on a kid.

Send them to the local state school instead where there's less chance of them learning the values of Boris Johnson?

Stay where you are and use your money more wisely.
I agree that the difference in results will largely be down to how selective the school is at intake. Chances are they would not perform significantly better there.
I’m glad you aren’t considering making your children do the journey. My DP works at a selective grammar that consistently ranks second in the country. The journeys that many of those boys do each day is really unfair to them.

My daughter is still in Year 5, so I don't have to make that choice yet with regards to secondary, but I had to make a similar choice at primary. There was a good state school opposite my house (1 minute walk), but I chose to take her to a very academic independent prep school 30 mins drive away. In hindsight (even though the independent school really does put an enormous amount of pressure to push the kids to their highest potential and my daughter is working way ahead of the national curriculum) - I regret not choosing the local school and saving myself and my kid a lot of hassle and money. My daughter is surrounded by very bright kids and the work load is very difficult (especially now with the 11+ push) and it's not great for self esteem if the child is of average ability.

I’d be wary of basing your school choice solely on results.

Our nearest independent school has very good exam results.

But they’re very selective about their intake, and even once children have places, they weed out children who don’t perform as well academically.
The weeding out includes things like entering children for fewer exams.

It’s not as simple as good results = good teaching.

You can afford to move and the fees?
Have you looked round either school?

How old are your children? How academically selective are these schools? Do they cater fir your dc strengths and weaknesses? If the schools you are looking at are 3-18 you may find that there is a filtering out before senior school. Also be aware that there is currently a period of change at Oxbridge where state and disadvantaged candidates are receiving offers in greater numbers, so a history of high Oxbridge intake may not be the case going forwards.

Is the local state school so poor you wouldn’t consider it instead of the top 275 school, which to be fair isn’t that top. I’m struggling to get excited by 60% A - B at A levels when our local comprehensive is circa 80% A-B. If you’re set on an independent education and your kids have got into the more academic school I would take that place which will give you far more than maybe moving to the catchment of a decent state school which gets similar results to the other independent school

Is the local state school so poor you wouldn’t consider it instead of the top 275 school, which to be fair isn’t that top.

I'm still confused by people being so sniffy about the school being 'only' top 275. There are approx. 4500 secondary schools in the country so the chances of the OP's local state school coming anywhere close to this are small. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere with a school in the top 1000.

If your local comprehensive gets 80% A*-B then that's unusual, extremely impressive and you are very lucky.

Where does the OP say the local state school gets 80% A*-B??

I would stay put and use the money to get a tutor. One to one teaching for me is tailored to your child and I feel more beneficial than a school.

Looking at the figures, Oxford said they had 21,500 undergrad applicants for 3,300 places. So even if you are the best of the best you are still up against some pretty stiff competition.

You don't know that your child will study hard, there are posts on here saying they cannot get their child to revise for their GCSEs, that isn't just state school children. My friend put her DD in an all girl's school meant to coddle, and she came out with okay GCSEs. I think she regrets dropping that kind of money of her child's education.

I think you need to look carefully at both the schools and think whether your children will be happy and fit in. Nothing else matters as much. Don’t take too much notice of the league tables unless your children are super bright, need lots of stimulation and getting into Oxbridge is important to you. Also bear in mind that just because a child is clever enough to go to a very academic school it doesn’t mean it’s right for them (eg if they are prone to anxiety etc). Lots of highly performing schools have a relentless academic pace which doesn’t suit everyone.
I do think that what you’re paying for with an independent is smaller class sizes, better facilities and usually more personalised pastoral care - it doesn’t have to be a top league school to give you that.

There will be a different ethos between these private schools and the state school. However I suspect there is an independent school pecking order here. The 275 school doesn’t get great results. My local secondary modern in a grammar school county got 7% A*/A grades and one a bit further away got over 11%).

I suspect the more academic DC in your area are in decent state schools are or are in the better private school (s). If you want to pay you need to choose the better school. There is quite a difference between the two. Why pay for very second rate? The 275 ranked school won’t have many academic DC there. It’s too lowly ranked. Does that matter? Does it have everything else you want? That might mean it is worth paying for in terms of what you want. However I would be cautious.

I assume you and your dc have visited both schools, and you would all be happy with them attending either? Dc are happy with the choices?

What would you need to miss out on as a family to be able to move and send your dc to the more highly rated school? Are you all happy with that?

Would you be able to afford the move, fees and extracurricular additional costs?

There is a life outside of school, not just for dc but for you all as a family and that needs preserving.

Send to the best one. But dont move house.

Where does the OP say the local state school gets 80% A-B??*

She didn't, sorry I should have directed my post at @bluedogyellowcat

Send to the best one. But dont move house.
The OP has already said she doesn’t want to inflict that journey on her children, and quite right too. Parents that do this (especially when they have other decent options) have lost sight of what is best for their children’s well-being.

Remember, in the top 275 school, there are children who get 3 A at A Level. Funnily enough, they will be the cleverest children in the vast majority of cases. More might get 3 A in the other school - but that's because more children there are in the 'cleverest' bracket.

Shiny facilities don't equate to better results or education. Schools don't turn sow's ears into silk purses - the different results are mostly due to there being more silk purses in one school already.

There are some benefits of being educated in an environment with lots of very clever children rather than a smaller number - they can feed off each other and stimulate each other and go at a faster pace. But good schools can work with a bigger range of abilities and help all get to their maximum - the fat some get lower grades isn't a sign the school is less good, just some of children might have a lower maximum. To be able to get a broader range to their differing maximums is actually more impressive than getting lots of very clever people to do well.

The impact on your child will probably be extremely marginal,Mir both are good schools. I agree that if the local school is not impressive but mediocre, why consider paying for it in the first place. But if it is a good school doing well for its Intake, it can do well for your DC....and if they are clever they will get hem to the A*_B bracket and if they aren't that clever, then they won't.......but actually neither school can make your child something they aren't.

I think the question isn't about the higher performing school but the local one - just how good is it and is it worth it and will it help your child fulfill their potential? That's the real question. If not, there might be several others that could do so that don't require the move and the other school.

I'd think what sounds like a marginal gain isn't probably worth the huge expense.

And re whether top 275 is good or not, well 60% A*-B doesn't sound that great actually. Lots of state schools will deliver similar. Lots of ind oendthe to will deliver better. However,not here is massive regional disparity in terms of nos of high performing schools.m in lots of regions there is no school in the top 30 and only 2 or 3 in the top 200 - large numbers are based in Limdon and the south east. Op sounds like she's not there, because otherwise there would be more choice of great schools in a smaller radius. I still suspect there are more than the 2 possibles mentioned though.

Option 2....I’d move; no question. They have the opportunity to be part of an amazing school and all the benefits that brings. You can live in a nicer area. You cut back on some things sure but this doesn’t sound like it’s putting you on the breadline. It’s an easy choice for me...