If you yourself went to a very small primary school...

[IaskBoringQuestions]

... can you tell me your views on going to one?
Are there any pros and cons you can list to having gone to a small school?

(Sorry for such a dull thread)

I ask because I went to a large city primary and so did my first child.

So now for my 3 year old I can apply for her September 2021 primary School place- tomorrow! -eeek.
And I am in the catchment now for a very small village school- they typically have 8-10 pupils per year group.

And while I know there are good points to a small school I worry that her chances of having good friends will be much lower.
In my year at school there were 60 kids my age. In my oldest child’s year there were 90 kids his age!!
And that was good because we each had loads of friends.
A big school meant loads of school trips and residentials. Lots of parties to go to etc.

A small school I assume means more attention and better chances to learn without distraction.

Any experiences or advice much appreciated, I will read every one.

I went to a small village school (and my kids have gone to small and large as we moved). I had friends and thrived - won a scholarship for secondary.
My kids did well academically in both, but preferred the friends they made in the small primary rather than the large one they went to later.

For my boys there was no difference on number of trips between schools. They got more residents in the small school as they started going in the younger years to make up the numbers.

Thanks @Tiggles so given the choice you would chose a smaller over a larger one?
Is there any downsides to a smaller school?
Less chances for big school trips for example? Or fun visitors to the school? (Example my big one had puppet theatres come and actors putting on plays etc)

I went to a 2 form primary but my DC went to a small primary (16 pupils per year group). Ds1 really struggled with it as he was one of 9 boys and the others were all obsessed with football, he wasn't. There were 6 girls in the year and 4 of them were very good friends whilst the other two were stuck with each other even though they didn't have much in common.

I dont think small year groups are always a good thing.

It depends on a lot of things OP to be honest.
I teach in a school that has 22 in the whole school and they are practically all related.
My dd goes to a school with a similar size to the one you speak off and she has two close friends (I went to a large school and had 2 vest friends so it's no different)

The aspect I like about my DC's school is that the whole school know each other very well and they get more time with the teachers.

My dd really Struggled with mixed year groups, when she was the younger year... are there mixed year groups?

There were 9 in my class and we were the biggest class the school ever had. School itself was fine - the issue was when I went to a different secondary to the other girls and knew no one. It was rough for a few years.

Mine are in a year of 20 whereas the other local schools have 60, they're loving it, academically they're thriving, they get plenty of 1 on 1 attention with the teacher and teaching assistant and they've made close friendships with people in their class and children from other years.

My only concern is how they'll adapt to the high school after being used to a small village school but I think that the benefits of being in a small class during their early years is worth it.

I went to a small primary school and I would never choose that for my child. Too restricted in terms of friendships and social interaction.

Thank you all so far.

And that is something I’ve thought of aswell- when she moves to secondary there is a chance she will have no friends. Especially as the secondary’s on offer round here are all very big & busy.
She does seem to make friends well up to now (aged 3!)

I think it may be mixed year groups but I’m not sure.

Thanks to corona the schools are it doing their usual open days :-(

To echo PP, I went to a v small village primary, 12-16 per year, mixed year groups. Then I went to an average sized middle school and there were only us 3 girls who went from my primary everybody else had come from 1 of 2 local large primaries and were already in established friendship groups, luckily I was adopted by a group

In terms of education, a friends DD goes to the school I went to. She is exceptionally bright and has completed all the Y4 work in Y3 (mixed yr group) so where does she go now?

I was discussing it with my Mum the other day, in preparation for DS and we both agreed it wasn't the right decision for me in hindsight and that its unlikely I will send DS there - he will go to one of the 2 local large primaries.

My DCs first two schools were small (100 or so pupils in the whole school). Now at a standard 60 per year school
The things I noticed...
Swimming taught to more year groups in smaller schools (From Yr1 at one of them)
More opportunities to be on teams at smaller school... My DD was on the football team in Yr1 despite being tiny, as she wanted to be. (10 kids per year, there were 17 in her year). The whole of Yr5/6 were on the netball team, including all the boys. The same with choir etc
More opportunities for the roles like house captains- the whole of Yr6 had a job title (there were 8 of them). You can't do that with 60 in the year.
Cross year friendships.
Cross year lessons- Yr5 and Yr1 had joint PE once a week. (As did Reception and Yr6)
The headteacher knew every pupil and parent.
Other teachers knew the pupils in various years.

The advantages of the bigger school

• more kids to gel with.
• wider range of clubs
• they can split into more ability groups (like for reading)

I was at a small primary (prep). There were 7 girls who always paired up and I was always odd one out. Never actively left out, they didn’t dislike me and I went on play dates etc but I was miserable. Found my tribe at secondary where I had a blast.

Oooh thanks for these replies. More things to think about. I just can’t decide what to do.
I am basically deciding her fate here.

Dh went to a school with 12 pupils total. Discounting his sisters there were 9 kids for him to play with and none where his age. He hated it and had concerns for our kids. Ds is currently at a small village school with 13 other kids in his class. It's great so far but there is a good boy/girl split and he does lots of other activities outside school so still gets invited to loads of parties.

At the moment he's just in a class with his year group but the intake the year before was 6 children so they are in a composite class with the one above. I think the breakdown between sexes is also important. A friend (girl) of ds's goes to a neighbouring village school, there are 6 girls and 1 boy. The boy is apparently struggling because the girls don't want to play with him.

I think it's also important to facilitate friendships before they start if possible with small schools. Ds has known most of his class since birth. They've been to baby groups and nursery together.

I went to a large one and a small one...

It is slightly different comparison but the stand out reason I would always choose the small school (which my DS goes to now) is that the majority of the children were more advanced academically than the bigger primary school I went to.

We all went to the same high school and were in mixed classes, there was a marked difference between the people I went to primary school with at the big school and to myself and the others from the wee school.

Obviously there were exceptions to the rule - what I noticed most was the language skills, both schools I was in Gaelic Medium classes and the children in the wee village school were far more advanced with their Gaelic than the kids from the big primary school by the time we all met at high school.

Mine was 15 to 20 per year. Occasionally less. It was pretty lacking in diversity but so was where we lived. (a village in North East). It was nice in that we didn't have many issues with bullying or behaviour.

Went to a small primary. Pros: More teacher attention. Mainly girls in my year so had friends and they all lived locally. Pupils who struggled had extra help to catch up.
Downside: Pace of learning at seconary school seemed much slower. Could be a pain if it was mainly girls or mainly boys if you had noone else of your sex in the same age group.
One or two pupils got special treatment, but I suppose you get that everywhere. It was rural, so less access to amenities like library and sports.

We had 14 in my year. Around 100max in the school. Friendships were limited but you learned to get on as you have to anyway when you live in a small community.
There were downsides but nothing compared to the downside of travelling out of the community for school. I did that at secondary and it was very alienating. I wish I’d stayed in the local school and been properly part of the community as a teen.

My children attend/attended a small primary. Fantastic in reception/infants, safe, small, lovely.

As they get older, though, the smallness can be stifling. At either end of the academic spectrum can be lonely.

They got more residentials, though, I think.

Tellingly, the older ones have chosen a big secondary.

There's small and small, though. And big and big. I went to a school with 1.5 classes per year, and that was considered big, but some schools now have 3 classes per year, and one class is small. Whereas you can have rural schools with one or two classes for the entire school, maybe up to 4 children per year.

I went to a one class per year primary but my dc are in a tiny one (40ish kids in total).

I think in part it depends on your dc as to what's better. I have always got on better in small groups, and it seems like my dc are as well. There are so few kids around that there's a strong culture of rubbing along with everyone (which is strongly supported by the families) and so arguments tend to get resolved quickly. I also like that dc play happily with kids of different ages.

I think that a big school would have fewer trips tbh - our dc go on trips a lot because a class fits on the minibus they own. The community support the school a lot so there's lots of capacity for heafing up to a nearby farm to watch lambs being born or whatever.

There are plenty if parties too as dc tend to invite kids from across the school to their parties. Everyone gets a speaking role in plays and performances too.

A downside has been that in one of the dcs has ended up in a class where they learnt to read much earlier than their peers, and it would have been nice to have peers they could work with. The school solved this by moving her into the year above for some lessons, but this was a bit intimidating for her. I think in a larger school you'd get more of a range of ability.

My year group was 20 children, well over half being boys. It meant it was slim pickings for friends for the girls, and when I fell out with my two "best" friends it was hard to make more friends.

I don't think small groups are a good thing at all.

My DS is 4 and he's just started reception, there's three classes in total. I'm glad as it means he's more likely to find people to click with from such a large pool.

I did (3 classes, about 70 children) I could’ve chosen the same school, which is still a similar size for my daughter but I deliberately didn’t. I didn’t feel that there were enough people to be friends with, if you fell out with one friend it felt like there was no one else to turn to. I also just didn’t feel that there were the opportunities that larger schools can give. I sent her to a primary with one class per year group and I felt she had far more opportunities for social interaction, trips etc compared to the small school

I went to a fairly small primary school, and so do my children (less than 100kids).

Pros:

• everyone knows everyone, and you get to know all the staff well.
• typically strong sense of community
• friends with children of different ages
• strong sense of responsibility and leadership among older children, as all and not just some become children to look up to.
• generally very nurturing schools.

Disadvantages:

• limited friendship pool/ lack of other children in year to play with when arguments occur etc.
• less resources/ facilities than bigger schools.
• potentially more difficult to adjust to big secondary schools.

I went to a fairly small Primary school - not enough kids for a class per year group. It worked well for me as I was quite bright so was often in classes with children the year above. I had good friends and no issues with that, but I know my sister did struggle more with friendships in primary (yet was fine in secondary and now, so it’s not just her personality!)

I then went to the biggest school in the county for secondary - 8 form entry - and was fine, it didn’t phase me. I (well, my parents, but I pushed for it) went out of catchment and knew nobody initially, but I was fine. The majority of my primary all went to the one secondary in the nearest town.

I’ve worked in big schools and small schools. Definitely prefer small. I like that I know all the kids by name, not just my year group. The head knows every child and their parents. I’d definitely prefer my daughter go to a smallish school - probably not the tiny 15 kids in the whole school type, but we don’t live rurally so that’s unlikely anyway, but definitely a one form entry school.