Urgent Help - Year 9 school places for six children required asap

[2010louises]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who would prefer to remain anonymous, could any one help or offer her advice please ?
"Do any parents whose children are in Year 9 know of any local schools whose classes have room for 1 child (or up to 6 kids) ? My son is being forced to change schools at short notice , he is one of six kids in his year who are in the same situation, all the parents are now scrambling for a school that has spaces available. I have contacted my Local Authority (Bromley) and been told despite classes being full , not to worry as by law the local authority have to find him / them a place, so in the meantime we have to join the waiting lists "

@premierleague - why would these boys want to stay until the end of year 9? The council itself advises to move asap before GCSEs. In addition, the triple science syllabus is often started by several schools in year 9 because there is so much material to get through.

Everyone back together to complain about VAT..extra points for creativity OP

No excuse for this last minute panic if real. This has been on the cards for at least the one academic year you could find a school space in.

Thx for explaining , it was my misunderstanding of the situation by incorrectly saying different curriculum , I now realise it’s potentially a different exam board 🤦‍♀️

Re different curriculum - I’m guessing that this could mean IGCSE as all the independent schools here do those. I don’t live in Kent though

Thankyou x I believe my friend is now on the waiting list for Ravenswood , as well as several other schools across the borough , but most are very long waiting lists so it’s pretty stressful both for her and her son ☹️

Or, rather than plough though a doc written by a MAT my kids have no intention of attending a school at, I could ask the person posting what they mean since they were the ones making that point.

I totally agree … but government moved the goalposts , they initially said would be from Sept 2025 .. and then just a couple months ago changed it to Jan 2025 😳 she thought she could see out this last academic year before having to plan ahead and move him next Sept , not this rush panic

100% vat is being applied from Jan 2025 😔

Academies have to comply with the same rules as all other schools. They cannot prioritise children for admission just because they are high achieving (and, as other another poster has said, being at an independent school doesn't necessarily mean they are high achieving). The only question for in-year admissions is whether the school has places available.

Ok, I opened this doc. It just says that MATs have their own admissions policy.

It doesn't say that Harris prioritises high achieving schools for waiting list places. Harris schools are not selective. They use banding to allocate places (they claim to ensure a spread of abilities- whether they do or not is another matter)... but this if for y7. If they have spare spaces in year, are you saying they only allocate these according to banding? I find that hard to believe. They get funding per pupil, a space opens, they want to fill it. They're not going to say "sorry, you're in the wrong banding, we'll wait in case someone from this band to turn up."

Would like to hear what you meant though, as you weren't at all clear.

...we think!, I work in an independent school bursary, and as yet, we, like many can't even register to charge the VAT.

Its a bit of a mess, the inside view (at least that I'm hearing) is it probably won't be able to happen in Jan and will be deferred at the last minute to September, of course that doesn't help with notice etc.

We are not expecting to loose any pupils thankfully, but have said we will be flexible with notice, if it gets put back the pupils (if any were leaving) will be welcome to stay on and roll that notice forward.

she should maybe ask Ravensbourne if she can go and look around. It used to have a bad rep but the school has turned around. I know of a few children who attend (different temperaments too- some confident, some shy) and have heard great things about it in terms of discipline and resources (e.g. there's a recording/film studio, and an allotment).

Last year they got their highest GCSE results ever.

So if there are spaces, I would check it out.

Because they'd then be applying in the usual September application and less likely to be out of school for a period of time

There is no application round at beginning of Yr 10 @premierleague. They ate best being on waiting lists ASAP so if a place does become available they have a chance.

They only have 11 terms left. At £450 per term that's £5k. Couldn't some of these 6 take out a loan? I can see that the vat increase is a huge issue if you have multiple / young children in private education, but I would have thought by year 9 you were pretty committed.

I think the OP said per month

It was suggested by the Labour Party that the VAT wouldn’t apply until next September. It was only announced a few weeks ago that it will apply from January. Before then no one knew if Labour would actually win the election (let’s remember that Labour only won 34% of the vote share). There was no point in disrupting happy children if there was no need. For families who couldn’t afford the VAT, most will have been planning to switch next September, once the election results were known.

There’s no application period at end of year 9 tho. I agree with others, much better to move mid year 9 than at the start of year 10, for reasons to do with GCSEs as already mentioned.

@2010louises all your friends can do is apply to the LA and take the place they are offered. A long waiting list is unlikely to get shorter in year 9 IME, but the LA has to offer them a place once they are out of education.

They can always appeal for their preferred school, if that’s appropriate.

The VAT is an extra £450 per month? £5.4K PA?

How much are the fees?

The average VAT figure will be about £4K a year at secondary level, per child. Many families have more than 1 child. A lot of families with a couple of children can’t just find an extra £8k per year. They might not be able to take out a loan. Many are already stretched because of the cost of living and interest rates on existing borrowing.

Check out all options.

1. look at grant making trusts, they might be able to help, unlikely but it does happen. Even if it is only until the end of the academic year.

2. check out other schools for scholarships / bursaries. I know these are disappearing at a rate of knots but some are still around.

3. Consider boarding. There are state boarding schools, education is provided by the state but you pay for boarding. Link to one near me, they were private until about 1 or 2 years ago https://www.theroyalschool.co.uk/state-international-boarding-wolverhampton/fees Boarding is under £6k per term.

4. Ask the LEA to pay for the term or to pay for the VAT, it might be cheaper for the LEA to fund them.

5. Consider a tutor / governess. You cannot have a tutor teaching more than 4 children as then it becomes a school but parents could hire tutors to work with half of them at a time.

6. FE colleges can take children from age 14, not ideal because often they only provide a couple of GCSEs.

Good luck, I'll be back if I can think of any more options.

About £27k based on those figures. Not unusual for secondary school. Many families at private school with 1 child use pretty much an entire salary on paying the school fees.

about £25k which is average for the more economic end of private secondary

@2010louises a poster above makes a good point. Speak to their existing school about bursary assistance. I know some schools have said that they will not see any child having to leave for financial reasons; they will step in and provide assistance. Admittedly that tends to be the wealthier schools with large endowments.