Hi Marne,
Clearly, your child's happiness must always be your number one priority, so you should do what you think is best for her, but my G&T DD age 10 got offered a scholarship to a top local prep school last year and I have to say she hasn't looked back since she took up the place.
I am a single parent living in a tiny terraced house and, although I do work, I am pretty drastically hard up all the time! The prep school DD attends is the kind of place where all the children live in enormous mansions and have several ponies and staff etc. and will be heading off to Eton, Brighton and Lancing, so I must confess I did have reservations (read: inferiority complex/panic!) about sending her there, since I knew we would be the poorest by miles, but I have to say DD has completely thrived there.
DD was previously at an Ofsted 'Outstanding' local primary school in a comfortable middle-class area of Kentish stock-broker belt. The children there were tutored to the hilt to pass the 11+ to attend the town's coveted grammar schools and, as a result, could generally be said to be fairly 'bright', but still it was easy to tell that, while DD was pretty happy at the school, she was hugely under-challenged and, as a result, was starting to become more, ahem, 'challenging' in her behaviour - something that I do not excuse in any child, no matter their level of giftedness, but which of course becomes very wearing - particularly as a working, commuting single parent!
As DD progressed through the local primary school, it became patently obvious to me the difference between 'bright' and 'gifted'. (And I should clarify here that I am not particularly a fan of the term 'gifted' and noted with no small level of satisfaction in Denise Yates's latest letter to NAGC members that they are going to change their name to 'Potential Plus'). Maybe it is something that comes to the fore in areas where the dreaded grammar school system still reigns supreme, but a child who is averagely bright can easily be coached to do NVR till it's coming out of their ears, but a gifted child needs so much more stimulation than that. (Aged 9, my DD asked me: 'Mummy, how it could possibly be any indicator of actual intelligence that you know which shape in a sequence of four is the odd-one-out in a multiple test exam in which the odds are 4-1 that you will get it right even if you don't know the answer?' 'Hmm...' I replied after some thought, 'Maybe you should take that one up with the 11+ examiners!')
Since moving to a top prep school, DD is not only much happier, she is also no longer the cleverest child in the school, which has done wonders for her motivation. Gone are the challenging behaviours because actually, FINALLY, she is the one being challenged: Latin, physics, algebra and French are the new frontiers! A couple of the girls at DD's new school, who are already on Grade 8 piano aged 10, are teaching her to play in the music room at break time, which is a wonder because I could never afford lessons nor even fit a piano in my house! Every day she comes back unbelievably happy and so full of excitement and pride at the next stage in her steep learning curve. And, of course, it's not just learning but all the amazing extra-curricular stuff: drama on a real stage with sets painted by students; gymnastics tournaments where the kids compete at international level; lunchtime art clubs where you can go and work on your A0 canvas! She's in heaven! I only wish I'd had the money to do it years ago!
So, there you go: my response to your question would be an overwhelming (and naturally highly subjective) yes! But the difference between excellent state and excellent public, in my opinion, is equally overwhelming. No doubt it shouldn't be the case, but there it is.
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