Is there any way that he’d be able to apply to 8th grade at the private school (as an 8th grader), rather than to apply to 9th grade (as a 9th grader)? I imagine it would be pretty jarring, socially, to start at the public high school and have all of the excitement and drama and emotions and crushes and connecting with teachers and all of that, knowing that there was a Sword of Damocles that — at the end of the year — would be hoiking you back to start 9th grade all over again at a new school. Better, I think, would be to join the private school as an 8th grader, and to start building those connections a year early. (I get it, though, if the private schools in your area are only 9–12, or if there’s some other logistical reason why this wouldn’t work. I think the idea of red-shirting him isn’t a bad one; I just would be concerned about his ability to be fully engaged with the new (private) school if he had ghost ties to the public high school class.)
1 Like