Desperate for advice, as i am so torn as what to do.
Currently my daughters go to our village school. My eldest is a young six (June birthday) and in yr2. She is highly motivated by activity based learning and thrives when doing sport or physical activity.
My second daughter started reception in Sept. Overall she is enjoying it esp the learning to read and write, but she is quite a sensitive little girl, very caring and maternal but doesnt like to stand out too much. She has already been upset and asked not to go to school on occasion because she has nobody to play with at playtime.
PROS (Or what i consider to be) of current school.
It is small (45 children)
It is literally a 5minute walk from our front door, we never have to go in the car. We all enjoy walking to school.
Morals and values are installed to a high standard and shine thorugh in the children.
The numbers are small so i would imagine it is hard for the children to get lost.
Acedemic achievment is high.
A high percentage of the children that go to the school live in the village so school friendships link into out of school socialising.
In the foundation/yr1 stage they get to go on weekly welly walks, forest school, bear hunts etc.
CONS.
The numbers are small. Therefore they only have three classrooms, with mixed age/ability groups. When my first daughter started there were only around 32 children so this didnt seem an issue, as there were high pupil to staff ratios, but now numbers have increased, staffing has stayed the same. In a way friendships can be harder to form (for my youngest this maybe the case as she is not so confident and i worry she will struggle to find her place)
Due to increasing numbers at the lower end of the school my daughter has been moved along to the second class sooner than they would have previously done and now does no play related learning but 'works hard all day'
I feel homework can be quite long and challenging for my eldest.
Due to the size of the school, facilities are minimal. They have a school field but do vertually nothing in the way of sport and PE is basic due to numbers for team sport and lack of facilities. Extra curricular activities are very minimal.
I worry that it may be hard to teach mixed age groups efficiently within one classroom with one teacher.
So, in surrounding villages close (10min drive) by there are a couple of very good school, in terms of acedemic success and Ofsted results, but what actually is drawing me to them is there huge amount of facilities for sport and one in particular seems to focus on individuality. These two schools in mind have higher numbers of around 150 but, i believe a classroom per age group. They would also offer a huge amount of sporting activities..hockey, rugby, tennis, gymnastics, dance....
This, i know would suit my first dd down to the ground. I also have to bare in mind a have tow younger children that will both be starting school withing the next 4yrs so ideally i need them to all be at the same school.
So what is the most important????? ...i feel they could gain alot from the bigger schools but also lose other things i feel are important like being able to walk, firends within our village, community etc
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.
Primary education
Calling all primary teachers, experienced advise please. Most important aspects for primary education? Considering changing my childrens school.
15 replies
threecurrantbuns · 19/11/2012 20:52
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.