Leverage up for state catchment vs downsize for private

[theendlessjuggle]

We live in Surrey. We moved from a mid sized house in a town to a large one in a village which is lovely… but we are now faced with a secondary school dilemma. Most kids on our road are at at private school. It’s a bit of a dead zone for state secondary.

We are high earners but mortgage, house renovation costs and childcare swallow up a high chunk of our income. Usual story!

We are in catchment for a Good secondary. But most people say “o yes, I think that has improved” because it “required improvement” for a very long time. We viewed it and it was just ok. Head clearly doing her best … and worryingly strong on discipline.

We could move back into the nearby town to be in catchment for an outstanding state secondary (the catchment is less than 1km and comparable houses start at around £1.3). I viewed it and it was clearly better, although more of a music/drama focus than sport. (Our son loves doing a different sport every day at their large outstanding primary.)

Or we could downsize/stretch ourselves and go private… but we have three kids. Right now the sums wouldn’t add up. We’d be paying double fees for 7 years and triple for one! And my husband and I were both state educated in the Grammar system so the private world is totally new to us. Is it worth it?

My husband is reluctant to move - of course. But I see it as a move costing £200k vs private school fees of £500k. Maybe that is too simplistic.

Help!

Originally our lovely rural location was within catchment of an outstanding school, but the catchment has shrunk in the past 7 years from 5miles to 1mile.

That was due to the bulge years in births, they are shrinking now and school rolls are falling.

Just bear in mind schools do change . We have a localist high school always outstanding - those in the know know the parents are expected to pay for tutors . It is in an affluent area - mostly exacerbated by the schools reputation- anyway last Ofsted review requires improvement - no one has inspected it for a long time .

Have you visited the private school and is there just one private option locally? I think you really need to visit all options to be clear in your choice. Perhaps namechange and start a thread with the specific school names. So much depends on actual specifics rather than a generic choice between outstanding state/good state/private.

It's all very well suggesting supplementing with extracurriculars, but if you are in a village will your dcs be able to travel independently to them, or would you have to ferry them around (and will that work with work schedules)? It may be better to live in a town rather than a village with teens in any case. We are city based and I can't imagine being stuck being a taxi service for older dcs.

Like a pp, I have a bit of a thing for education and I think if it were me, I'd move into the catchment of the outstanding school. It doesn't sound like private is a realistic option unfortunately, and the Good school might turn out to be fine but it's a gamble. I think Year 4 is the right time to be thinking about this - you will want to have completed on a property by the autumn of Year 6, and you will probably have to wait for the right property to come up.

How close are your three in school
years ie will you actually have three at secondary school at the same time for many years? It doesn't reduce the overall cost but might mean you can spread it better.

This is such a good point. If you move, will you be able to/want to keep driving the children back to their "outstanding primary" until they've all left? If you won't, you'll be left with the lottery of trying to find school places that you deem acceptable near your new house.

I also wonder what your original intention was re secondary schools. Or has there been substantial changes that mean you are revisiting the original plan.

Just on the choir point, are there not local churches who do a good choir? Mine all sang in a church outside school entirely with the most wonderful choir master who even did tours. The choir was better than most run in private schools.

Also remember that most teachers in most schools are actually pretty good. The issue with secondary schools in this country most often is not about leadership or the teaching even, but about difficult unsupportive families, trouble makers etc and then the reputation goes downhill and those who are supportive avoid the school like the plague. So I would get an idea of who is going to this local secondary of yours now and in the next couple of years. If essentially a number of kids in the primary do end up going there, it is going to be absolutely fine.

In your situation, I would stay put and definitely try the local secondary and take the view that if it is not great, then pay up for private for years 9-11 only. That would save a lot of money and would be a good backup, assuming there are places. It is essentially the best value for private schooling, the GCSE years. After that they can typically go to whichever Sixth Form they want, provided they achieve good grades. Most Sixth Forms are selective. Years 7&8 - Year 7 is transition, Year 8 is a bit of a no man’s land with less homework and lots of kids just do a ton of extracurricular. You can always tutor for that year in some subjects, if need be.

you can also wait for the catchment school to improve as many private school parents will withdraw in the next few years due to VAT and send their children to state schools, so you might see neighbours kids start going to catchment school soon.

Move.
to a place where school is easy walking distance.
where there are activities your family value easily accessible.
where there will be a good peer group for your kids to make friends with.

you have 3 kids.
if you have to ferry kids to 3 different sets of activities and classes you will live in your car, not your nice house in a village.