Those who's children attended private primary and moved to state senior ?

[Sorrento]

Are you happy with how things have panned out, does going to private first set your own expectations or that of the child too high ?
Did they cope well with the change ?
Am just thinking out loud for now, thanks for any thoughts.

But I would choose a good mixed comp over a private school any day.

I wouldn't entertain a comp under any circumstances, would home ed first.

Why Sorrento?

I guess because my experience of them wasn't great. And I've seen nothing to suggest that they have become better, quite the opposite.
I think league tables are a bit of a bug bearer but the three nearest comps to us have very poor results, due to the nearby grammars no doubt and what ever your opinion of that set up, I shall not be sacrificing my children at the political alter.

we don't have grammar schools so really it's the comp or private. As a result, there seems to be a good range of backgrounds and abilities at our local school.

But is all the schools near us were terrible, I would have to think again. As I said, I would choose a 'good,' comp.

Nah, skiing is at Feb half-term

A bunch of parents have been lobbying long and hard at the DCs schools to have the Feb half term a 2-week half term, instead of the October half-term. It makes me smile a bit.

I can see that

See Quattrocentro, I couldn't send mine to private school, what if I booked skiing at Easter? The Horror!

Well you'd struggle a bit for snow The really posh ones disappear to Whistler at Christmas ... Fortunately I am hopeless on skis so am spared competitive skiing holidays

I think the debate on cemprehensives becomes blurred when people use the same word to describe a non-selective school in an area which has grammars (which is essentially a secondary modern but the ed. authorities a=re too squeemish to say so) and an actual comprehensive, which only exist in areas which don't have grammars, they are very different things.

I think I am 99% set on private senior school for the DD's as I do not think DD1 in particular will flourish in the state sector, she's coped until now in primary but she's certainly not flown/shone and I feel she is a smashing girl who deserves the best chances.
So I need to start another thread because I've not looked around senior private schools and made a right pigs ear of choosing the primary both state and initial private

This might be a little controversial, and I might be wrong, but do children at state comps really mix with people from different social backgrounds? My own experience is that children tend to hang out with children who are roughly of similar backgrounds, maybe because the parents encourage these relationships more, I am not sure the reasons behind this. My children's school is a large state school with a very mixed intake, and whilst I have seen kids from different races mix well, I cannot say the same for kids from different backgrounds. I'd say that there is a tendency for the parents to want to encourage the kids to be friends with the "nice kids". That's only my experience of course. As another example, in my DS preschool there are only about 3 or 4 kids from so called professional families and they all stick together. I was very surprised to find that my son was part of that group, I hadn't even met the parents or known about it well after the teacher mentioned who his friends were and I made a point of meeting the parents. It would be interesting if there was some research on this to see what does actually influence it. Back to the OP, I have no experience of moving to the private sector, but I am sure it will be entirely dependent on the schools in question?

I think it really depends on the schools. My elder child was in small private schools until the end of year 7 and entered a very high flying grammar from year 8 onwards. The private schools were rubbish academically but she soon caught up. It took her a little while to adapt to the large class sizes etc but she adapted well, has friends and is doing well academically. She likes the fact that everyone is clever. It is quite a diverse school in terms of ethnicity, which my daughter loves, but very few are on free school meals etc.
Apart from the financial considerations a major advantage is being able to comment on the school and bring up problems, without getting an hysterical or defensive reaction in return - which is what I received at the private school/s. I also feel reassured that she is being taught the national curriculum by qualified teachers, not rubbish by unqualified or plain weird people which was the case before.

I have a friend who is Head of year 7 in a state grammar school. She say that in her experience,in general, children from private primaries know more, but children from state primaries are better at finding stuff out.

Not sure how this contributes to the debate, but i find it interesting.

DD1, went to a very happy privAte pre- prep age 3 to 7. She sat 7+ and moved to more academic selective 7-18 private school. Although first school had junior dept. Over half leave at 7 and DD had definitely outgrown school.
She may have been cossetted at the first school, but no way was this the case at the 2nd.
although she was getting on well there and up to standard, she/we were always being told she was capable of more. we started considering other possibilities late in year 5, partly through financial reasons, partly through worrying they may push her over the edge.
We have two local comps, the one she was most likely to get a place in being the lesser of the two. Grammar in neighbouring area very competitive - takes top. 0.5% or less. More academic than the private school she was at.
DD was against state schools at first, but when we visited both comps in year 6 she liked both. At that point we had ruled out the worse of the two, mainly as they did not do triple science, and DD was already leaning in that direction.

She got into our first choice of state comps, was happy to go, but still cried her eyes out when she left the private school. As soon as she knew she was leaving, she must have relaxed more, as her last report was the best she had ever had there!
Tne main differences (not in order of importance) she noticed when first starting was 1) behaviour - swearing and playground fights were unheard of at the private school. 2) work much easier - in some subjects she had covered the work in year 3 or 4. At the private school they had separate subject teachers from year 5, so she was typiically running 2 years ahead. 3) class sizes - now in a form of 27, previously 18. 4) sport - she was one of the only girls who had previously played hockey. 5) music - private school had much more emphasis on music. Yr7 at state school combined drama and music. 6) subjects - food tech up to yr9 , whereas at the private school that would have been dropped and replaced with Latin/ classics.

She setled in quite quickly and did not have the organisatiuonal problems others had, as was used to going to different classrooms for different subjects. There were about 10 children in total in the 180 year group that had come from private school, but she was the only one from her school, or any other selective.
She is in year 8 now, and still seems to be coasting, so I think she has a wake up call coming as is naturally bright, but lazy. She has not ben bored though, as started two new instruments and gets involved in quite a few extra activities.

Although she has been bullied slightly, she also was at the private school. More down to her being proud to be different and not one of the easily lead in- crowd. If anything, bullying was dealt with better at the state school.
As for the class issue that others mention, I do agree that they tend to befriend those with similar backgrounds to themselves. She is making some good friends at the nee school, and still keeps in touch with some from the old.
Mixed feelings about whether it was best for her education wise, but she is much happier. Main concern is that she will underachieve, as the school seem to pay most attention to the very top few an those that need help. so far she is in that top few. If anything, she is more competitive when near the top.

I was state educated and for several reasons chose private for my ds. One of the biggest surprises for me is his education is no better than the one I had at a primary school in the middle of a large council estate. It is, however, significantly better than our state primary which is in a socially affluent area. Seems I am paying for something that I got for free at his age.

As for teaching 'life skills' surely that is one of our jobs as parents?

Hmm. I taught A Level Politics at a very affluent public school and heard alot of the students' views on a regular basis... I would say that they absolutely DO live in a bubble BUT not all of them. Parenting made an enormous difference to how aware the student was of society around them and how informed they were of the lives of different groups of people. They did learn life skills e.g. confidence.
I agree from DCs experiences of local state primary that kids from the same background do gravitate together.
I am about to send dd1 private at 7 as I am hacked off with the the rubbish level of expectation at her school but do so with some qualms as the school she will go to is generally only available to the very wealthy (we get a discount.) But I do think that as parents we have big responsibility to show our children that our particular life is not the experience of everyone and it was obvious in my Politics classes that some parents had.