Boy heavy class

[Jennybeans401]

Dd was bullied at her previous school (Y5) and I removed her a few

Did you post too soon?

weeks ago due to this. I've looked at other schools in our area and there is only one with spaces in her year group. MiL just thinks I should send her there but the school is in special measures at the moment. There are also 16 boys and 4 girls in the class.

I am struggling to home ed her as have another dc with additional needs. I am really concerned though that dd will not be much better off in the new school.

Sorry, yes I posted too soon the first time! Apologies, I'm so tired.

The other girls might be delighted to have another one join.
I suspect that, unless this school has a bullying problem, any school will be better than no school.

What is the matter with more boys in the class?
My primary school there was 20 boys and 7 girls.
We all played together and even though I'm in my 30s I'm still in touch with a few of them.

I'd be more bothered about a school in special measures than a boy heavy class.

You could always give the school a try, or if you decide not to then you might be able to contact local home education groups for support and advice.

Odd to worry more about boys in the class more than the school being in special measures. Go and look around the school and make your own assessment, but ultimately if you can’t home educate you don’t have much choice.

In dd's primary class, there were 13 boys and 4 girls. She thrived.

She's 15 now and all her closest friends are boys.

I would be concerned about the social aspects tbh. Dd2 was mainly friends with boys and that wasn't a problem.at all obviously but then it wasn't a local school so things like playmates and sleep overs were few and far between so it didn't make much of a difference but if your hope was to have a more involved school experience then if the other girls don't all get on then that really limits things as obviously you wouldn't have mixed sex sleep overs at 10/11.

I would worry a bit about PE too. There were times at dd1s old school where the boys wouldn't let the girls do anything so the girls all went off and played their own games of cricket or whatever. You couldn't do that with 4 girls.

It could hamper extra curricular sporting activities

I am going to make an observation that may totally wrong, but I think a class with 20 boys will have more behaviour issues than a more mixed class. I won't say a bunch of stereotypes like they need girls to calm them down or boys are always bad, but statistically, you are more likely to have higher rates of the issues that affect boys more acutely, like autism and ADHD.

So your options are keep her at the current school where she's been bullied or put her in the one in special measures?

Tough call. What is the current school planning on doing about the bullying?

Why is the school in special measures? Have you seen the OFSTED report?

Behaviour is good at the other school but the Ofsted report criticised the teaching standards.

A friend of mine also said there is a high turnover of staff.

Another thing to consider is where will she be going to secondary school.

Moving further down the school when there's still a few years left for the kids to grow up/out of bullying it would probably make more sense. But moving in year 5, putting her through all that upheaval to simply be back with the same kids in high school in a 2 years later seems a little pointless.

What have you done to work with the school on the bullying? Schools can be terrible for dealing with it but unless you want to play musical schools for the next few years at some point you May find yourself in the position of having to really work with the school and maybe get together with parents. Because actually you could find the bullying moves to your new school fir what ever reason and it starts all over again.

Can you speak to other parents find out of they are working on anything?

My son's primary class was very boy heavy 22 to 10 I think, and it was a lovely class - his teachers all commented on what a nice set of kids.

@Whatwouldscullydo the school couldn't do anything more, they said I needed to speak to the bully's parents as the school didn't have the resources to sort the problem out. The school encouraged us to move schools.

Dd was depressed and anxious every day so I took her out of school a few weeks ago.

Dd1 only had between 3 and 5 girls in her class the whole way through primary. It was ok and it taught her how to get along with people she wouldn’t be natural friends with.

id be more Concerned about the school being in special measures. How long ago was the last ofstead? Have they had time to improve the standard of teaching since the last inspection.

if it’s your only option then I’d try it. Hopefully it will all work out fine.

I think their ofsted was in 2020, the new head seems good

What resources are they talking about? There's no behaviour policy/ reward/sanction set up?

Have you contacted ousted re the disregard of controlling behaviour at the school?

I only asked because its not that long until you will be looking at high schools and unless there's loads of choice your likely to end up with exactly same kids you moved away from.

@Whatwouldscullydo the head was dismissive , they said they'd tried lots of strategies but when I asked them about the strategies the head had been watching the children from inside the hall. The bullying was emotional/verbal and nasty but I doubt you'd be able to hear that from the hall.

Dd was so miserable and had been for so long that I took her out.

Local authority told me I now need to complain to the governors then to local authority about it. The bully's mum's best friends are governors at the school though.

Of course they are... God. Please tell me you have options other than 1 or two local high schools?

We didn't go to a local school so anyone my dd had a problem with , well they all went to a different school so it wasn't a worry.

Are you in as incestuous situation as it sounds? What are your options re high schools? If the school doesn't deal with anything and the parents are part of the inner circle then you are gonna be straight back here very soon. 😬

Is moving an option at all ( long shot I know)?

I think it's good you've removed your dd, the other school doesn't sound ideal but you could give it a go. You could end up making yourself ill trying to do too much which will be very bad for your dc.

As for your original question about a boy heavy class it may be okay. If the teacher is good and has good discipline then it could work out great. It also depends what the small group of girls is like, it's very 'up in the air' I know but it's pot luck with the personalities in a class.

Boys aren’t evil you know.

I had 19 boys and 5 girls in a January intake in my Reception class once. It was the best class I ever had. None of them were bullies.