What is normal school size?

[wildpoppy]

I keep seeing people on here talk about big schools by which they seem to mean three form entry. Primary school I went to, in London, had four form entry and just seemed normal. Certainly never thought of it as a big school. Is this unusual?

[steppemum]

I think 'normal' is usually one or two form entry. More than that is considered large. 4 form entry really is big for a primary school.

In fact when I was teaching my school had 2 form entry and we were referred to as a big school. (now I wouldn't think of it as large)

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Here (N. Essex) I would class a 1 form entry as small, 2 form entry as normal, and anything 3 form entry as a big school.

[cumbrialass]

Depends where you are! In the area of my county where I teach mixed age classes are the norm with PAN of 15 being usual, in the towns 1 or 2 form entry is the norm and we have the odd school with 3 form entry!

[mankyscotslass]

Here (Tameside), 1 or 2 form entry, of 30 per class is normal, anymore than that is considered large.

[scaevola]

How times change!

In the small sleepy place where I was brought up, the junior school had 140 pupils per year in 3.5 classes, and the others were similar sized.

I'd see 60-90 pupils per year as normal size now, though.

[mrz]

In the small sleepy place where I grew up the school had 30 pupils in the whole school (with one teacher)

[DorsetKnob]

Rural around here so the norm is one form entry and less than 30 per class unless you are in a town. Dc's school has a max of 24 per class, the one she started at has a mixed yr1/recpetion this year as there are so few children.

[Pooka]

Round here two or three form entry is the norm. One rom is unusual. There is a local six form entry which seems massive to me.

[derekthehamster]

We have several schools with a 4 form intake, but these are split into infant and junior schools, usually on different sites. So the schools themselves, aren't that massive.

[Bunbaker]

DD's village primary school had about 140 pupils and only 5 classes of mixed year groups. I was worried about the mixed year group idea, but my worries were unfounded. The school consistently gets outstanding ofsted reports, its added value is the highest in the borough and over 65% of year 6 children leave with level 5s.

Her high school is massive though - ten times the size of primary school, but DD has adapted.

[cumbrialass]

When I was training I had 4 placements, one in a school of 465 ( including Nursery), one in a school of 210, one in a school of 57 and one in a school of 37! All were within 20 mins of where I lived

[halloweeneyqueeney]

not london, our biggest school in catchment has 600 children

[halloweeneyqueeney]

..in a town not a city
it feels like a secondary school to me though, I feel its not the right environment for small children. its all on one site

[cumbrialass]

My school has nearly doubled in size since I started teaching there, from 52 pupils to 98!

[GoldenPeppermintCreams]

In my London Borough, most of the schools are two form entry, except the catholic and CofE ones which have one form, and a couple in the high populated area which have 3/4 forms per year. My son's school has 4 form entry, but is split in to two separate Infant and Junior schools.

In one of the highly populated areas (near my work) they are building a massive new estate, and will be converting the existing separate infants and juniors into two separate primary schools, one an academy.

[MrsJohnDeere]

100 pupils at our school. 4 mixed age classes.

[BackforGood]

Depends entirely on the locality - from the teeny weeny schools with about a dozen pupils in all, to the inner city schools with 5 or 6 classes in a year.
Also, some areas have large Nurseries attached to their schools, some have lower, middle then High School systems, some have right through Primaries, occasionally there are right through 3 - 19s, quite a lot more common there are 7 years in a Primary. Lots of variables really.
Where I live, the majority of schools have 2 classes per year group, bu it's also very common for 1 or 3 form entry, and not uncommon for 4 or 5 form entry.

[Fuzzymum1]

Approximately 100 children in 4 classes at our local school. R/1, 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

We have a couple of local schools that take either 1FE or 1.5FE. The schools can't expand due to site size. They were originally built as small village schools, but the town has grown to 'absorb' the villages IYSWIM.

They are going to build another new primary, 4-11, AND a new Secondary too, at our end of town. We had a new 210 pupil primary open just two years ago.

The problem here is site size, so you end up with lots of 210 pupil primaries due to not enough available land to build bigger schools.

Though in the 8 years my DC's have been at their primary, it has gone from being under 1FE (less than 30 in a class) to 2FE, and 3FE in a bulge year. They are talking about expanding it to 3FE permanently, but site size is an issue.

[teacherwith2kids]

When Ofsted comments on school size, they seem to use '2 form entry' as 'average' size, 1 form entry as 'smaller than average' , 3 form as 'larger than average' etc.

We're going to have a party when my school hits 100 - 2 more pupils to go! (It was down as low as 70 and shrinking about 4 years ago)

[cumbrialass]

Maybe we could have a joint party, we're on 98 too! ( We were 100 for 1 day last year until one child simply didn't turn up!) So far this term we've had 3 leave and 5 join us. Turnover can be said to be high!

[teacherwith2kids]

We never quite know who is going to turn up on a given day .... The most new children who have ever turned up mid-term, expecting to start that day has been 6!

[Myliferocks]

Our local infants school is a mix of two and three form entries and has mixed year classes. There are eight classes in total with at least three classes having over 30 in them.
The local juniors has 3 years with 2 form entry and 1 year with 3 form entry. The 3 form year group only has 30-33 per class whereas the 2 form entry years have between 35-40 per class.

[mrz]

We've had children turn up unaccompanied to start school

[teacherwith2kids]

Mrz,

Our favourite was the child delivered to the doorstep ununnounced one morning in about November by his mum
"We put him in the wrong school. You're our school. So I told the others yesterday he's coming here, and here he is."