Hi there, have name changed for this. Looking for some thoughts on our current situation.
DS is currently in Reception in an Outstanding State school. School is lovely, close by and has a great community feel. School generally does very well academically although it has suffered from cuts in funding recently which has made itself felt. Despite this, I think the school will still do very well. My point is, I think it's a great school that does really well with what it has.
However, we've recently been exploring moving our DS to a private school also nearby. Main reason is that we don't feel he's reaching his full potential at school. We think this is down to him being in a class of 30 and they simply can't give him the attention he needs. He's behind where he should be but not enough for him to need any additional support or attention in class. Instead, I've been asked to provide more support at home with reading and numeracy etc. E.g. he only gets a few minutes each week to read with a TA and his reading record usually tells me he's read one or two pages max, which isn't much! At home, he's fine to read Level 3 phonic books with me but they won't move him beyond Level 1 at school (I have asked) so there also seems to be a disconnect between what I know he's capable of and what they know of him. Our DS is bright but slightly lazy if I'm being honest. I know that DS also struggles to sit down and focus for the period of time that they expect of him in class. He's young though but I also get that the class needs to run like this as they're trying to teach 30 kids all of whom have mixed abilities.
The private school means he'll be in a class of 12-15 boys so will benefit from more individual attention. They also make sure the boys aren't sat down for long periods of time which appeals to us. I suppose they can do this due to the smaller class size and still cover the same ground as a class of 30. It's not an academically selective school but the results are good which suggests they are getting the best out of the children. What we are concerned about is that because DS is a little behind where he should be, he isn't enjoying learning as much as we'd like him to (though he does enjoy school itself). He's only in Reception so we know it's still a lot of play but we really want him to enjoy learning and have fun with it which we're not seeing right now.
So we have the option of moving to this school for Year 1. DS is settled and loves his current school but then Year 1 is still very early on and lots of time to make new friends.
Other option is to keep him where he is and try to supplement/support more at home (to the detriment of our home life and quality time together?) and hope that things get easier as he gets older and matures given that he's still so little? Thing is, if this doesn't work out, private won't be an option at all because it will then be 7+ entry and we don't want to go down this route with DS. So it's either move in Year 1 or not at all.
I'm wondering if anyone here can share experiences of small, single sex class sizes and if they feel this has worked for them? I don't have experiences of private schools as I was State all the way. We can afford the private fees if we choose this option. It won't be without sacrifices but they are not massive sacrifices and we are okay to make if it means making the right choice of school for our DS.
Sorry for the rambling post! Would welcome any thoughts on the matter!
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Moving State to private in Y1
30 replies
Frozen682669 · 11/04/2019 00:59
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