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.

Yes I’ve also been surprised at how many London sixth forms qualify for contextual offers. Camden Girls, for example, gets brilliant A-level results and a large proportion into Oxbridge each year, but is still eligible for contextual.

This isn’t a reason for moving my own kids, by the way, and universities do ask where you did GCSEs. They are ‘wise to it’ in a way, but if you have two ‘identical’ candidates with identical predictions and one is in a private sixth form and one is in state, the state candidate would probably carry a slight advantage.

@RampantIvy Not the same, we are down south in Hants. Comps go to y11 only, no grammars.

Just need to correct this for you. State kids are not kicked out. If the don't receive the minimum grade they don't get offered a place because they won't be able the handle the content, this is the same for private pupils moving. My child will be going to college in the same academy trust as his school. Priority is always given to kids already in the trust schools. If they don't achieve the minimum grade they actively find another course to suit the pupil so still taking up a place in college. Outside pupils including private enrol 2 days after the trust pupils and get courses from whichever course is left.

@Laserwho yes you’re right, I was just using the vernacular of the local families who refer to their dc as having been “kicked out”

@WomensRightsRenegade it is hard, but just to expand on how it can be quite advantageous, at my DC's school the social groups and cliques seem to get 'set' fairly early on. My eldest (who will remain in private until he leaves for uni next year) has lovely friends, but feels in retrospect that a bit of a shake up for sixth form would have been really good, as socially it all feels a bit 'samey' now. Conversely, his friends who did leave for sixth form and have stayed in touch with everyone - as well as making new friends! So they've had the best of both worlds.

@Laserwho - OP did say they 'kick out the kids... who don't meet the minimum bar for A-Levels' - maybe the words 'kick out' seem a little brutal, but essentially you are saying the same thing. This is why you see a fair number of schools where the A-level results seem to outperform the GCSEs quite significantly.

It's not saying the same thing. Kicked out is not the same as not being offered a place because they didn't get the minimum grades. There was no being kicked out because they didn't have a place in the first place, the same applies to private kids applying for a place.

Honestly, it's good you are aware of your kids' 'gilded' experience so far, but they will thrive and more at state 6th form. And the teaching will definitely be just as good, if not better!

Some private school kids struggled at my DCs grammar. I think it was down to handholding/spoon feeding vs independent learning. Some were ok once they had got used to it. I’m sure it varies hugely from private school to private school and grammar to grammar.

But independent learning is vital for success at uni, and in life.

Slightly different as DD1 left her private school for specialist boarding at 6th form. She had no problems making new friends - most schools do have an influx of newbies at 16+. Social media means it is much easier to keep up with school friends and she'd meet up regularly when she was home and knew what they were all up to via chats. online games of cards for humanity etc. In a way it was helpful in lock down as she already knew how to maintain friendships remotely.

Incidentally that list of school on the Bristol access page is fascinating - several well known Oxbridge factories on it who I am sure milk it for their "reserve options".

@WomensRightsRenegade

"Thank you - does help to know we’re not alone! But re universities I think they only take into account where GCSEs were taken? "

You are correct but you can side step (or lie) this by simply saying your children were educated abroad and that they only moved to the UK for sixth form.

One of my dd’s friends has just done this after GCSEs because of the proposed VAT and also because universities look more favourably on applicants from state schools. My dd’s little gang of 4 is now 3. They’ve been close for all of school so it’s really quite sad. In reality it’s difficult to keep in contact and be as close with your “old” friends if you’re spending all day every day with new ones. But 6th form is relatively short and most 6th forms do have lots of new kids.

Also, the policy isn’t set in stone. There could be legal challenges to it, as taxing education is a seriously regressive step.

Don't do this. 6th form colleges have students secondary schools on record. It's not going to be hard for the university to figure out the lie

I did for mine years ago. I saw no advantage in. Being in private for 6th form

This sort of thing makes me feel ill. Contextual offers are there for the disadvantaged not for the sharp elbowed.

Sickening.

@1dayatatime - that would be a completely BONKERS thing to do! There's no way this would be a good idea and could seriously backfire. All the discussion of private versus state for A-level, contextual offers, Oxbridge quotas etc - the reality is - it's pretty impossible, not to mention silly, to try to 'game the system' in any way. The system as it stands is designed to be as fair as possible, but beyond a certain point it becomes a bit of a lottery as far as uni offers are concerned.

@WomensRightsRenegade - the main thing universities take into account are UCAS grades and, to an extent, GCSE results. Yes, it's going to be more impressive if your kid got 10 '9' grades from a very low achieving comp than if they got those grades from a highly regarded independent. But that's as it should be!

I once read on here about a poster whose child got a contextual offer, but couldn’t attend some visit related to this because it clashed with a skiing holiday they were on. I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

my ds went to private school and has never even seen a bloody ski slope/resort unless it’s in pictures.

the sharp elbowed get everything anyway. Most notably, all the places in the best state schools in the country. I wouldn’t even know where to start finding one of those.

my dd is at private sixth form. Our local state sixth form doesn’t even offer an A level in the subject she wants to study at degree level. (economics).

All that’s goign to happen is that privileged is dressed up differently so people can humbly pretend not to be privileged.

no, the offer won't be lower.

great start to your child's career - a fraud conviction, and yes, it does happen

Why not? Attending a school with low progression rates to higher education is one of the criteria isn’t it?

attending for GCSEs

I would hold tight for now! It still needs to be approved. Sign the petitions on change.org

We will trying to do this. Ds is going into year 11 in September, so GCSE year. We will start looking at 6th forms in Autumn. I'm worried there will be big competition for places though. There are 4 private senior schools in our town,and I suspect quite a few families will be looking to do the same thing. Obviously the state schools will (quite rightly) give their own pupils priority on 6th form places.

Contextual offers are only given to applicants from schools or colleges from which very few pupils go on to university. Those schools are in a minority in this context. Mrs P-J

This is true, they won't get spoon fed as much at state 6th form. But this is a guide thing as it will mean they are better prepared for university. It's not a coincidence that state school students do better at university than private school students with the same entry grades.

DS1s best friend and his brother are now moving to state for year 10 and year 11 respectively. The VAT made what was a stretch unaffordable. I doubt they will be the only ones tbh.