Are more of you planning to move your DC from private to state for 6th form now?

[WomensRightsRenegade]

Apologies but just wondering this? My son is going into year 10 at a school he loves, but we are realising that even with a generous bursary, the 20pc VAT will mean it’s impossible for him to stay for 6th form.

I know it’s a transition phase anyway, but he will be very upset to leave as historically not many kids at the school have left then.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

Two examples of where NVR questions are part of the 11+ are the grammars in Trafford and Barnet.

It changed to GL about 10 years ago, my DS was the first year. The only noticeable change was comprehension and spatial reasoning.

The whole grammar school system is divisive and unethical and I for one will be very glad when the whole lot have gone. Funny how many like grammars but don’t like secondary moderns, which 75% end up in.

Oh and FWIW my DS went to an Ofsted “outstanding” super selective grammar and my DD went to the local grammar, which is currently “requires improvement”.

Funnily enough, the local grammar is far far superior to the “outstanding” super selective, in terms of teaching, ethos, support, culture, you name it.

Careful in putting any store in Ofsted!

There are many comprehensives - better or worse. My son is going to faith school in Sept

There aren’t any comprehensives in grammar school counties. The top 25% are missing = not comprehensive.

So what do you have as the remaining 75 perc?

Hypothetical DC!!! For some very odd reason @Collexifon alluded to them

Today 14:21
** you obviously have an extremely bright dc who will no doubt go on and do good things with a well paid job. Hopefully they won't want private education for their own kids, I suppose at least they'll be able to buy a house in a super selective grammar area.

Ok..got it

Essentially those schools become secondary moderns.

Exactly this. They have euphemistic names like “academy” or “community school” but never “comprehensive” as they aren’t. They are secondary moderns.

‘High School’ is another euphemism.

Bumping thread with actual practical questions.

DC will be going into Year 11 so will be staying at their independent school until GCSEs are over. It was always the plan that DC would go to state sixth form, the VAT thing is just the final icing on the cake.

Where we live, there are 5/6 sixth form options - most are within secondary schools, a couple are sixth form colleges. I understand that each will have separate admissions and that an offer (if made) will be on the basis of GCSE results. I also gather that in the event of oversubscription, secondary schools will prioritise pupils already there.

My questions are: Given that we expect state sixth forms to be extremely popular going forward, should we assume that the secondary school sixth forms will not have places for DC coming from other schools? And therefore we should specifically focus on applying to the sixth form colleges? Finally, is it possible that DC could end up with no sixth form place at all because e.g. too many applicants?

@TinyCarpetRake v v unlikely schools will be full to good students. There are no limits on size of classes. They will be able to be picky though.
Apply to everywhere you like. You don't have to decide until Sept of year 12.

Thanks @mumsneedwine, glad to hear that it's worth applying to all the sixth form options. Do they really have no limit on admission numbers?

(Also guessing you mean Sept of Year 11)

@TinyCarpetRake no, Sept of year 12. You can hold as many 6th form places as you like, and just decide on the first day where to go. No penalty for dropping out.

6th forms have limits due to teachers, but classes can hold 30, although usually about 35 these days. But can fit extra students in if have seats in the right subjects. It's more funding !

25 !! Not yet taught a class of 35 after KS3 (where it's now scarily common).

Wow, that's amazing information! Thank you so much Takes a load off my mind.

DC love their school but know that this coming year is the last one. Anecdotally many of their classmates are also heading for state sixth form after GCSEs.

Meanwhile, we have decided to stop their music peri lessons to make up the VAT difference. Feel sad for their excellent instrument teachers, but it's the biggest non-essential chunk of money and we are justifying it by thinking that DC need to concentrate on GCSEs anyway.

@TinyCarpetRake I'd wait and see how much difference the VAT actually makes. If schools can charge it they can also reclaim it, so the net increase might not be that much.

And it hasn't even been passed into law yet - there are legal challenges which say it's not lawful.
It won't be a 20% rise (unless the school are trying a fast one !).

@TinyCarpetRake thanks for asking this question, I'm worried we won't get a place at a state sixth form for ds as I think it's going to be very competitive. We want a place in a school as opposed to a college, there are three good options in our town. But there are 4 private schools, and I suspect a lot of parents might be planning to move to state. But he should get reasonable results, so we will apply to all three state schools and keep our fingers crossed.

Don’t know if I said on this thread or another but moving from private to state 6th form is pretty normal vat or no vat.

Actually think it’s a good gentler introduction to independent study - some private school students struggle going from having a lot of support to university where you are on your own. Many of dd2 private school friends are moving to her state. Unless your child is very sporty most sixth formers drop the sport in 6th form in favour of more school work / epq/ getting super curricular evidence/ Saturday jobs/ social lives so paying extra for the sport at a private isn’t worth it in the way it may be for younger ones.

You would certainly get a place in any of the 4 decent state 6th forms in our small city as long as your child gets the required minimum results - the more academic states require 6s.

The only negative is the teacher shortage crisis that affects private too but is worse in state schools

But surely we'll be overwhelmed with floods of eager teachers thanks to the VAT bonanza

Think any “flood of teachers” is going one way only - out of teaching altogether be it state or private 😢

Sixth forms in state schools cannot be picky. They must follow the admissions code.

We have found that if a pupil is “on the edge” with results but is well liked and a nice kid there may be slack cut for staying on at the same school for 6th form. Otherwise it doesn’t make a difference if you are from another school. Quite a lot of cross school changing between the different state schools where we are as kids fancy a change. Also some 6th forms are stronger in certain subjects so the choice affected by that too.