To send my extroverted DC to a tiny village school?

[hibbledibble]

I'm thinking of moving rurally.

We currently live in central London and eldest DC goes to a 2 form entry school with classes of nearly 30 (school is undersubscribed). She is an extrovert and very social and active.

We are thinking of moving very rurally, where the entire school will have less pupils than in her year. There will be small (circa 10-15 pupils) composite classes.

To me this sounds great to have such small class sizes, but I'm not sure how she will find the change, and the social side. I also wonder what the reality of such a small school is.

Is this an entirely nutty idea?

Yes I realise it would be a big culture shock. In rural areas teens may die more frequently in car accidents, but in London it is due to stabbings and shootings. These happen with a frightening frequency where we live.

Deadwood not a bad judgement though.

Initially we were looking at a house in a village with a bus service, but for various reasons it was a non-starter. I agree that somewhere with a bus service would be preferable.

hibble you are probably right to move away from a "rough" part of London if it's an option, but move to a proper little town with some facilities for teens if this move is meant to be long term (longer than just for 2 or 3 years).

It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other.

Not so sure about the small class but composite classes are great for very able children. My son is very bright and was in one last year, they put the more able kids from the upper year group in and it really helped them work as a group and work more independently

Evelyn we have been thinking of just how rural. Initially we were going to move to the city, but seeing what you can get just a short drive away is stunning. We are still thinking about the options. Wherever we move won't be far from a city.

Think about independence though. It sucks at 13 or 14 to be utterly reliant on your parents for the kind of independence town kids take for granted due to needing lifts everywhere. Being 29 miles from a city may as well be 200 if there's no transport.

As someone who lives in central London I disagree with your characterisation - for me the main problems are house prices and air pollution - stabbings overwhelmingly affect people already unfortunately caught up in gangs, but there you go.

I totally dig moving to Scotland - I'm looking at some lovely little towns commuter train distance to Edinburgh by the sea. Again, like others on this threat I'd just really recommend trying to find somewhere with transport for your daughter in a few years.

Tbh even 8 miles from a city is no help to a 14 year old unless she can walk to a bus stop from which there is a reliable bus service or better a train station.

Saturday and holiday jobs are impossible as well as socialising and shopping for necessities. It's incredibly isolating and infantilising unless you as parents are willing to make a huge sacrifice in terms of being a taxi without begrudging the time, especially as by the sounds of it you have several children.

I had to do all my summer jobs at the only local employer that ran a works bus when I wasa teen. Plentiful seasonal work in the next town 8 miles away was unreachable for an early start due to no buses and narrow one lane, hedged, pavementless, unsafe for cycling roads.

Exactly @Evelyn

bobo it entirely depends on where you live in London. Our area is extremely notorious and is perhaps the roughest in London. The violence does mainly effect those in gangs but we have had several hundred high profile murders recently where it was either mistaken identity, a person caught in the crossfire of a shooting, or sexually motivated. There is also a lot of local drug dealing, antisocial behaviour, and sexually motivated crime. I particularly worry about girls in my area.

Yes house prices and pollution are also issues. Due to house prices we will never be able to move to a nice part of London.

Evelyn speaks sense. Still recall the utter boredom of wintry Saturday afternoons as a teen in a village with crap public transfer. Deadening! My own criteria for my university was that it be properly in a city couldn't wait to get out.

My kids don't know how lucky they are. There are lots of stunning rural country houses just outside our small city, we cycle past and say how lovely but realistically no one with tweens / teens actually wants to live there. Plus in rurally you may end up with a long commute to secondary so their friends live miles away. Dh had a 20 minute drive to a bus stop then a 30 minute bus ride. Dd walks to school and her pals all live round the corner.

TBH I think that the schooling question is only one of the many challenges that you face.

Do you have a connection with the area that you are looking at? Are you or your DP Scottish? If so, I think that you will have a much easier time than someone who lives in in London, who's just said, "Let's see what we can get up North on right move if we cash in our chips."
It's not like Hamish Macbeth up here.

I can imagine that people will take a little warming up to the 'extrovert' London child whose parents have spunked several hundred thousand to buy one of the nice big houses on the hill.

Also, have you or your DP ever lived rurally? It's not just a 'culture shock'. It can be a total headfuck.

And you need to be able to get along with a lot of the neighbours. And put up with the ones who are bastards.

And you'll need 2 cars. And one should be a 4x4.

In any case, I would strongly advise you to move to a village rather than rurally.

Your DC are young, and when they are that age, you can't imagine them needing anything other than you and CBeebies. However, roll on even until they are 10 or 11 and you will be spending hours in the car ferrying them here there and everywhere. And I can almost guarantee that, for example your DD gets into music, or sport, that there will not be a bus that can take here where she needs to be at 9am on a Sunday.

God don't buy a house until you have lived there if you are moving blind you could make an expensive mistake.

Remember online house hunting when we were moving out of London - near where I came from so I had local knowledge. DH kept finding these "amazing" houses for cheap prices. Yes they were - but I would know why they were cheap! The locals will be rubbing their hands with glee if you sink your London equity into some white elephant house...

callyourdad are you saying there would be anti-English feeling? I have friends who have moved up, and have spoken to locals as well as those from England who have moved. They have said this isn't an issue in this part of Scotland. I have some Scottish ancestry but our accents are very southern!

I don't see putting up with the neighbours being any worse than London. There would be a lot less to start with!

We are still thinking of exact location.

Kerala we have been doing house viewings in person. Seen some stunning houses, and some one that you might call 'white elephants' which are still stunning.

How is there a school in Central London which is currently undersubscribed? I thought all schools in London were oversubscribed with several kids for every place?

Not recognising the culture shock/headfuck thing at all. I'm a lifelong southerner with a pretty RP accent, decided on the move to Cumbria having only ever been here once. None of my or dh's relatives live north of Milton Keynes . Locals are friendly (far friendlier than anywhere I've lived down south) and there is plenty to do. Yes you have to drive to places, but that's pretty normal in most places tbh. I'd rather that than be on the tube!

mygod there are a lot of central London schools with available spaces. There are also many which are oversubscribed on the other hand. Some schools are a lot more popular than others. My dd's school is a bit of a hidden gem (excellent school, but people turn their noses up often at it due to the area it is in)

eolian I don't either. None of the locals I have spoken to mentioned it either. They all say that it is a wonderful place to live with families with great quality of life.

I work in a mixed yr group, small primary as a TA. I would never send my child to one. The top ability in Year 2 is so very far from the lowest in Year 1. I feel it only benefits the brightest of the lower year.

Really msharry how big are the class sizes?

They vary throughout the school but range from 20 to 30. Having worked in single year group only classes at other schools, I can compare the two. I think staff become more specialised if only dealing with one year group. Of course it's only my opinion. Also beware that small school means small budget which means less provision available. Schools get funded per pupil.

I can understand how catering to a composite class of nearly 30 is very challenging. As this school has far smaller classes it won't be quite the same challenges. It's a lot to think about!

I think that you are being pretty naive about the whole thing.

You will have to ferry your kids around. you need to accept that.

Checking out public transport is a must.

And I suspect that there will be an element of, if not anti-English, feeling, then some careful assessment of you as new comers.

And the relationships you will have with neighbours is different to the ones that you may have in London. It's not a case of avoiding the ones that you don't get one with. You will will be joining a community and would imagine that they will be thrilled to have a young family to help bolster numbers at the school.

However, as people pointed out up thread, there are just as many arseholes in Brigadoon as there are in Brixton.

I’m in Scotland and the max composite class size is (I think) 23

callyourdad I'm assessing all the options so we go in with our eyes open. I've done lots of trips to the area, seen houses, spoken at length to friendly locals etc.

The driving is a flippant comment. I don't like driving, but even in London I do a lot of it! Packed tubes and buses are a nightmare with young children.

We don't live in Brixton it's actually a very nice and fashionable area now despite its historical reputation! We live somewhere that has been far more resistant to gentrification, if you are genuinely curious you are welcome to pm me.

Our neighbours in London aren't problematic, they are actually very good. I'm not worried about the neighbour issue: we would have far less and they would be further away! Joining a community is actually a big positive for us.