Leaving private school for state 6th form - experiences?

[WomensRightsRenegade]

I did ask this once before but it was quite a while ago now so I was just wondering if this was something more people were doing/ thinking about doing?

Thanks to the VAT increase my son had his bursary halved (from 100pc) and it looks like it’s about to be reduced further or removed. I guess they have no need to rush confirmation seeing as they will know parents will do almost anything to avoid moving schools for year 11. It’s all been quite nasty really. Seeing behind the gloss and the taglines about how they care for the boys like family has been illuminating.

Anyhow DS is utterly heartbroken at having to leave when he is so happy. He is very talented musically and was so looking forward to continuing in the ensembles and taking Music A level there. It’s going to be an agonising last year as he can’t even let anyone know he’s leaving until April. No local sixth forms to us even offer Music A level and the nearest college is a lottery system.

Are other people facing having to remove kids against the child’s will? I am so worried he will always think we could have found a way, even though he’s said nothing to us except that he understands the situation totally. Academically I’m sure he’ll be fine if he works hard, but socially and musically it feels like it could be a very abrupt end. If I could go back in time I would never EVER have accepted the bursary. This was always the risk.

They don't target poorest pupils. They don't have the money to offer them free places anymore. You advocated for this.

750k is the bare minimum. 12% of students are on bursaries.

Bursaries do not tend to go to the most deprived kids or those with severe SEND or real behaviour problems though. They go to talented kids with clued up parents from backgrounds who cannot afford private school fees, but are often otherwise advantaged (innate talent etc). Taking them out of the state system does not necessarily benefit the state system, rather the opposite.

Society is struggling most with properly poor kids and those with really bad parents or severe SEND. All I am saying is that if there is spare cash spend it where it is most needed. One idea would be summer camps for deprived teens - to really offer them a turn around in attitude. Now I know that would come with issues but if the private and state sector worked together these things can happen.
And lots of state schools also play the game of attracting the easiest to teach kids.

The unis are also playing the game of attracting “state school” kids when often they are not the disadvantaged ones at all and so are employers. People just tick box without making their own lives difficult. But that is when the whole of society becomes a mess.
I am all for bursaries for bright kids with dyslexia or highly functioning autistic children who may struggle with noise/class size in the state sector. So all I am saying is that they should go where they make the most difference. DD has a lot of friends on bursaries and none of them really needed private school. They would have done well in the state sector too. Of course it is nice for them to have these extra opportunities, but it is not some massive value added.

I’d keep bursaries and avoid the VAT impact on them to start with. The op’s dc wouldn’t be impacted without that.

Hopefully scrapped soon, not in time for dc now though.

@WomensRightsRenegade
Have a look at Wymondham College state boarding in Norfolk
https://www.wymondhamcollege.org/sixth-form/about-us/enrich-your-learning-journey

Incidentally - the people who move their kids from private to state to try to game the system? Morally questionaable-and Universities are on to you.

Hmmmm. And what about, lovely @CurlewKate those who move from private to state because they can’t afford private? Are They morally questionaable too? I’m wondering where your threshold is, and how you or anybody else could possibly understand ‘all the people’.

I also recommended state boarding until I realised the OP lives in Outer London. State boarding is actually really expensive now unless you get a bursary there too. So it is much cheaper to use the London oyster 16 plus travel card and access one of the very many selective outstanding state schools in and around London plus Saturday music school and jazz camps etc. as already discussed.
The OP is rightly peeved because the school used her DS’s talents and then stabbed her in the back when she was trapped. Unless the school is almost bust there really is no excuse for this behaviour, going into Year 11. Sixth Form is another matter. I would write to the Governors in OP’s position.

I was very specific about who I think is morally indefensible. Maybe read my post again?

Thank you. Of course I appreciate the chance DS was given, and the opportunities he’s had. But to be treated like this at a crucial juncture is baffling and distressing. I don’t expect it to be more than a first world problem for most.

Removing someone’s whole bursary seems to be on the extreme side. Of course I appreciate the pressures that must be on the school now, but this is a very well-off school that certainly didn’t need to go this far at this point. We would leave for September if we possibly could. But we can’t.

We are seeing it happen across the sector. It isn't just "cutting their cloth" for VAT, it's the huge rise in business rates, NI and NMW plus rising utility bills. VAT is causing a drop in rolls = drop in income alongside huge increases in outgoings.

We said 18 months ago that bursaries would be the first things to go and sadly we were right. Schools are fighting for survival and this year there has been a 67+% increase in independent schools closing. Unfortunately supporters of VAT all think this is great, even when £0 is going into state schools.

16K+ other children are in the same boat. Labour initially said they wouldn't bring it in until Autumn 26 to give parents and schools time to prepare but then callously reneged on that to bring it in at the most disruptive time of year eg January.

Thank you for this. Moving for 6th form is a lesser issue than us being trapped into trying to take out a huge and life changing loan for one year that we have no choice but to fund somehow. At any other point we would have been gutted, but moved asap.

😂 What? I actually quoted you. I’ll do it again.
**
‘Incidentally- the people who move their kids from private to state to try to game the system? Morally questionaable-and Universities are on to you’

Are you unable to answer my question? I’ll repeat it here in case you need a reminder:

And what about, those who move from private to state because they can’t afford private? Are They morally questionaable too? I’m wondering where your threshold is, and how you or anybody else could possibly understand ‘all the people’.

Where the fuck did I mention hating anyone? Not sure where this projection is coming from but It’s really unkind to gloat about a bursary being pulled just before the start of year 11, or to imply I’m ungrateful for worrying about the impact on my son and our whole family. I’ve already said that with hindsight I would have left the private school system well alone. I advise others to do the same unless they can easily afford it now and in the future.

I said ,very specifically, and you quoted me, that people who move their children from private to state in an attempt to game the system are morally questionable. I said nothing about people who move their children for any other reason. I’m not sure that I can make it any clearer!

What about those moving state for sixth form to make a political point? There are plenty of those around too, I know a few. They aren’t try to game uni entrance but they refuse to pay the VAT, out of principle. To be fair, I respect that. It’s ludicrous.

This is a subject which draws out batshittery. Ignore, ignore, ignore.

The policy is that tbf. Look at its impact.

There’s no benefit to a bursary child losing out at any stage, and yet that’s what people overlooked or ignored.

Actually that’s the generous version, some might have thought good if those bursaries go.

You said people who move their kids in an attempt to game the system are morally questionable.

You also said ‘universities are on to you’.

So I’d like to know how you know, (and how universities know), what exactly has motivated a parent to move their child from private to state.

What basis do you have to accuse others of being morally questionable when, you have no idea why a family has moved schools. Unless you’re projecting, but I’m sure you’re more intelligent than that.

Positively crawling with straw men….

I see. You can’t answer the question. Predictable if nothing else.

Which post exactly are you referring to?

Batshittery? Just like the policy you support.
Tell me how happy are you at the % of SEND kids now without a school that can meet their needs? Most likely ecstatic

If standing up for children is batshittery then bring it on 💪

You still haven't answered my Q about how you feel about UK being only country in the world to now tax education.

Lucy- have you never listened to a group of private school parents talking about this? I have. Fewer now, because some are realizing it doesn’t work. But there are posters on here in the last day or two saying that you’re more likely to get to university from a state school. I know because people have told me that’s what they are doing. In real life and on here. And if that’s why they’re doing it, it is morally questionable.