Is this a typical primary school day / experience?

Private school here:
-Early drop off from 7:30, normal drop off 8.15-8.30.
-Class sizes of 12, think they’d prefer it to be more like 15 though. 1 Teacher and 1 TA per class. Phonics are taught in ability groups made up of kids from all 3 of the reception classes.
-Classes are pretty calm.
-Obviously yes paper books, ipads are for year 5 and up.
-No forest school but they have weekly outdoor learning in reception.
-Sport twice a week in the pre prep, 3 times a week in the prep with one term of swimming lessons a year (the 3 classes get a term each) until year 5.
-In the pre prep Clubs until 4:30 then wrap around until 6. In the prep 5.30 finish as standard then optional clubs until 6.15.
-Yes we can email the teacher.
-Outside space is decent for London but there’s no veg patch.
-Food is very good/cooked on site if a little old fashioned- there seems to be a lot of cake and there are food based rewards e.g. house feast for the house that gets the most points.
-At least 1 trip every half term.

So yes I’d think you’re getting a pretty typical private school ‘experience’ except what’s up with the 5.35pm finish? Do parents not need to work to pay the fees 🤣

Think it massively depends on your school.

My children have attended both a 2 form entry (30 kids per class) school on the outskirts of a major city and village school with an average of 25 kids per class/year.

My experience :

• start time is around 8.50, finish around 3.20.
• greeting outside/by the door by name is standard
• calm/quiet environment - sometimes. Depends if they're doing a structured lesson or focusing more on free play. Gets calmer as they grow through the school.
• forest school weekly - nope. It's been every other week in the village and same in the city but only for a term.
• books rather than tablets - yes
• reading multiple times a week with a teacher, TA or reading buddy - yes
• sports 3x a week - nope. Just once.
• after school options - for a fee. More in the city (dance, music, multiple sports, plus just general childcare/colouring as you say) than the village (arts and crafts, brownies, martial arts, football)
• lots of contact with the teacher - hard to quantify but I'd say yes. We see them every day, can also contact them via an app, get regular updates
• lots of outside space - yes in both. Different zones for different age groups/uses. Ie a big field Vs play equipment Vs wooded area. No gardening though. City school was next to a city farm so they could see pigs and goats etc through the fence which was quite cute.
• food cooked on site - mix. City school was definitely mass produced/delivered and heated /prepared on site. Most schools in the area had the same weekly menu. Village school has a chef who makes everything on site. It's lovely..
• 3 school trips - no. City school did 2, village 1.

We considered private but loved the vibe in our city school, was such a fabulous community and with the green space and farm next door etc it felt far more rural than it was. Loving the class sizes and staff ratio in the village school but has notably less funding/stuff going on.

Depends on the school, but you are extremely unlikely to find class sizes of 12 in state schools-that’s what people pay for.

I have never taught in a school without actual reading books though!

My GC school doesn't have the trips and the sport is available as extras. We are well served in our area for sports and they are low cost or free (especially if you show talent). We are very lucky, though.

Every school is different, I mean I have never come across a school that doesn’t have real reading books? I thought all schools had books not tablets?

our primary for comparison,..

8:45 start
8:50 morning maths challenge
9:00 maths
10.00 fruit and milk break
10:20 English/phonics….
11:20 PE or science
12:20 Lunch
1:20 PE or Humanities
2:20 Art/DT/Cooking
3:00 assembly
3:15 home time

the children have swimming and activities outside just like your school. Teachers can be messaged on Dojo 24hours but messages are only answered 8-5 unless it’s urgent.

choice of meal cooked on site usually two hot options, one sandwich option and one jacket option daily either salad bar and bread basket on offer daily. Children read to the teacher or another adult 3x a week

school trip just once a year but they have lots of companies coming in to do special assembly’s such as pantos at Xmas or science shows.

after school clubs are available, my child is doing science club this term which is out sourced and cost £65 per term. Other clubs such as Art/cooking is run by the school and it’s free.

our council run school in an area of poverty it is in acres of ground and has animals and veg patches.

I find that the teachers really do care and want to help the children.

I think state schools are unlikely to ever give the same level of service as they have much more sparse funding, but a good state school gives some of it.

My dc's primary school had a teacher to greet the dc every day, though not until 8.40.

We had similar staffing numbers, though that was due to being a tiny rural school. Had there been a birth increase in the area there could have been 30 dc in the class.

The environment was calm, but again, this is largely down to the other dc in the class I think.

Yes to weekly forest school and real books (I think that one is definitely a standard in all schools).

Pe twice a week (smaller range of activities I suspect), after school club until 5 (but a limited range of activities, mainly craft and games). Two trips a year (at Christmas and in the summer, but I'd guess cheaper places than a private school might choose).

Lots of space, a vegetable garden and flourishing gardening club.

The meals varied a lot depending on which cook was working.

On the whole, I was very happy with the school and paying for private school wouldn't have been worth it for us. But I think a lot depends on the school and area, we were quite lucky I think.

It depends on local schools, and also, let's face it, the children who are attending the local schools. If there is a focus on education by the parents, then this will naturally filter through to the kids.

You could get most of this at a good state school. You'd need to look at your local schools to see what kind of level they're at though. There is more variation within the state system than there is between the top state schools and private schools. It's just whether you're lucky to have a great state school nearby.

I think the one thing you're unlikely to get at a very good state school is small class sizes, you're probably looking at a minimum of 25 kids in a class. Whether having 10 or so extra kids in a class is worth a £25,000 a year saving is for you to decide. Ime most schools will offer clubs, activities, after-school care and trips but you will need to pay for this (although you also have to pay extra for this at lots of prep schools too).

Apart from the size of class, that pretty much describes my children's old primary school. PE was twice a week but there were lots of after school clubs. Every class had at least 1 TA in the morning and some afternoons.

Plus the school was a real part of the local community, which we valued a lot.

Oldest was in a class of 25 which was typical for that area. Younger one actually was in a class of 12 for a while (freak low birth rate that year. They kept them separate for reception, after that they were in a mixed class) and tbh it had definite cons alongside the obvious pros - much less choice of friends being the main one.

Tbh that's immaterial really though isn't it? What are your local state schools like? Unless you want to up stocks and move then surely that's all that's relevant here?

Unlikely to get a class of 12 in state school. Classes this small usually become mixed.

Sports more like twice a week and definitely less variety and lower intensity/chance to compete/have fixtures than private.

Teachers will respond to messages and emails but it’s my experience that they may take longer / need prompting - mainly because they usually have more like 30 children and an email to each of their parents even once a week is a good 2 hours of their time.

Everything else you can get in state school yes, if you find the right one.

For comparison, the primary my kids are at doesn't do the following from your list - swim, dance. They do have week long workshops for eg street dance, art, and terms with particular instruments. After school club exists but for a fee. Class size is 24 and could be up to 34, theoretically. Everything else, they do. Greeted at the gate by head, see teacher every day at pick up, one or 2 TA's per class, great outdoor provision as they have an opal play platinum award and a forest school. Great food cooked on site. Decent school trips, including residentials for years 4 and 6. Books are all paper and they have a great library and support for reading. I consider the school to be fabulous and will be sad when my eldest finishes in two weeks!

Every school is different so you won’t get a definitive answer unless you visit a school local to you. But for ours:

• school starts 8.30 (or 7.45 if you pay extra for breakfast club), head stands outside the gate to greet parents and children
• my class has 27 children but 30 is the norm, I have a full time TA but also a child who needs pretty much 1:1 attention
• we aim for no disruption but unfortunately there is some
• no forest school
• yes paper books
• sports 2x per week
• after school clubs until 4 but these have to be paid for by parents
• no after school care, 4pm is the latest
• contact books are provided for the children but parents are not allowed our email addresses due to abusive emails sent to us over COVID (because apparently the schools closing was our fault and we deserve to lose our jobs)
• large field and playground but limited on outdoor resources
• food is OK, all prepped on site
• field trips unfortunately are at a minimum as none of our parents financially contribute so we don’t have funding, we’ve done a few free trips by walking though

Class size... no. Phonics etc Yes
Forest school yes
Books yes
Sport... probably not. Especially swimming.
Clubs... limited
After school care yes
Outdoor space varies
School trips.. maybe 1 or 2

But you will have £20k a year to make up the limitations on sports, music, art etc.

It will very much depend on your local area. I've heard of schools that very much pride themselves on a private school like experience. Others are completely different. Perhaps explore your local state options and think about how you could spend the money on any necessary enrichment for your DC.