To be considering private school at reception?

[Aramist]

We live in a small village which happens to have a really good private school 5 minute walk away. We've looked round, talked with the teachers, done our research. Loved it.

We've also looked around the nearest state school, which is a 5 minute drive away. Also a nice school, headteacher brilliant. Lots of recommendations.

The thing is, even though we can comfortably afford it, the class sizes at the private school are tiny. We're talking maybe 6 or 7 kids per year group. I think there are something like 20 (if that) kids in the whole of key stage 1. I can see that being a lovely thing, family feel and the attention my DD will get would be great, but I worry about her socially as I can see her being a quiet and sensitive child at school.

With the state school, each year group has about 30. Big classes. I work in state and have a class of 30 and it's hard work, can be chaotic and I just can't give every child the attention they deserve. I'd also worry with her potentially being quite quiet she'd get a bit 'lost' in a big class like that, but at least she'd have local friends (not necessarily in same village though).

The other issue is if we moved house. Our house isn't necessarily our forever home but we're happy for now.

I'm torn. Any words of advice?

Honestly go for it. You’ve seen them both, go for your gut feeling.

She’s really little. You can move her later if it doesn’t work for her. The added bonus is that it’s your local school!

Better they start somewhere gentle when they’re little, in my opinion.

From what you just said I will say this to you, I think she will sink in a class of 30. If she's quiet and delayed. Mine did and I wish I'd pulled the trigger on private school earlier. She is now flourishing.

@Aramist

The composite classes at such an early stage would be a hard no from me.

Is behaviour out of control in a lot of schools? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/4836123-is-behaviour-out-of-control-in-a-lot-of-schools

Read this OP. I'd go private, I do go private.

Shame there isn’t a middle ground. One school sounds too big and chaotic the other too small and intense. Personally would prioritise a nice deep friendship pool.

The teaching at my village primary school was pretty shit yet many ex pupils have done incredibly well Oxbridge etc always made me wonder how valuable those early years actually are educationally.

I'm inclined to agree. I had the exact thought before posting this.

I feel like she'll be in that 'coasting middle' part of the class. Quietly gets on while the teacher sits with and deals with the disruptive or those with SEN.

Why? There’s been a lot of research about how they’re really great for children. I’ll dig some out.

My main concern would be the viability of the private school with such small classes and the potential scrapping of VAT if Labour win the next election. I'd be worried about scrabbling to find a new school in a couple of years. For what it's worth, my summer born, quite and speech delayed reception starter has absolutely thrived in his state school albeit they seem to have quite a few staff so he gets lots of individual attention too.

I mean they call it the foundation stage for a reason.
It's a massively important stage. Sets them up for the rest of school.

https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/news/2021/newresearchshowscompositeclassescanboostpupilattainment/#:~:text=Their%20results%20suggest%20that%20Primary,1.3%20to%201.5%20percentage%20points.

My shy quiet child didn’t make any friends in her small nursery class but has found 3 other quiet girls to be friends with in her bustling class of 30 and has formed a tight knit group.

Only 40 kids in Yr 10?!

The reception being 6/7 kids is absolutely not enough to make good and varied friendships.

I don't think this school will be viable financially in the long term unless they have huge assets or money in trusts from somewhere.

As a comparison my kids private primary had 20 in reception and went up to 24 from yr 1 onwards.

Their private secondary has around 100 in each year group.

I'd not touch it myself.

I teach a composite class. Always have done in my 12 years of teaching.

The lower group thrives, the upper group struggles.
I find it very hard to challenge the top end because of the range of.ages and stages.

To be fair it does sort of balance out by the time they move on.

Class size though, I would be able to do my job far easier if I had 20 rather than 30.

DS has just started reception last month at a private school, he was also there for pre school. There are actually 22 in his class, which is one of the biggest intakes the school has had at reception, and they've hired an extra teaching assistant as a result, making 4 members of staff in the room including the teacher. Even in such a short space of time, DS is thriving and getting so much support with the things he struggles more with. Likewise, the things he has a natural aptitude for have been noticed and he's been pushed in those areas. However good our (Ofsted outstanding) local state primary is, I just know deep down he wouldn't be getting the same kind of attention in a class or 30+ with one teacher and a TA, if they're lucky. He's a quiet soul and private works better for us as a result. You know your child, so do what you think is best for them.

@HavfrueDenizKisi 40 kids isn't enough?

How many kids does a child need to find a friend? 100s?

Agreed! The whole set up sounds completely unsustainable! 40 kids in year 10 is a VERY small number and I'd be concerned about how limited they would be in the amount of subjects they could offer.

6 in F2 sounds idyllic to a grown up but in reality it's likely to be claustrophobic and she's highly unlikely to find a like-minded peer so it also sounds very lonely.

I wouldn't discount the state school, I'd be doing everything possible to get her a place there.

I think PP was referring to the long term financial viability of the school, it sounds very small.

If someone had offered me a class of six or seven children for my very quiet, sensitive, gentle overthinker at 4, I might have considered it. I might have thought it would be the best thing for her. But actually she went to the local primary with classes at different times of between 16 and 34 and the very worst class size for her turned out to be the smallest one (the class of 34 was immediately after that and was fantastic in comparison). I feel like she learnt a lot socially in big classes and a busy environment that she might not have learnt in a tiny class and it would not have benefited her in the long run not to learn these things - even though it was sometimes difficult at the time.

As others have said, I'd go for the state primary and think later on about whether a private school might suit better from Y7 onwards. It doesn't sound like this private school is selective so you will almost certainly have the option to move her if you want to.

It's not that 40 isn't enough for friendships.

It's is 40 viable financially to keep the school running? The main costs of schools is the teacher salaries. You pay a teacher the same amount whether there are 7 or 30 in the class. But obviously having 7 means a severely reduced income. For secondary you need a range of specialist teachers to cover the varied individual subjects. How are they covering their costs.

I most certainly wouldn't want to put my child into a school, which they settle into and enjoy, to be toms two or three years down the line that it is closing. Then scrabble around to find an alternative place somewhere. That stuff is of nightmares.

Ah right. I'm not sure to be honest.
The fees are quite low.
They seem to have alot of extra curricular/enrichment stuff going on.
Loads of school trips, competitions etc.

It's been open since 1600s.
I'm tempted to go for another visit and dig a bit deeper.

Is there another private school locally with slightly bigger classes? My daughter was in a class of 7 for reception she absolutely thrived academically but socially it was awful, mostly boys and no bond with the other girl, she was alone a lot and as an only child we wanted her to have more friendship options.

We moved her to a larger private school about 25 kids split across two classes but with plenty of crossover and she is doing brilliantly both academically and socially. We chose that one over another school with a single form entry and 10 kids in a class. I really think you need over 20 kids in a year group to find friends.

My experience is from a tiny village school, my children found making friends tricky as the pool is much harder to choose from. If you don’t ‘click’ with someone it’s a bit of a nightmare and makes making friends very difficult and upsetting for the ones who do not find their niche. Just something to think about.

By GCSE you want your child to have options. If they love languages, a small school may not offer more than one. Or if they want more vocational-type subjects, the tiny school might not offer them. I think having a great choice of subjects is a massive consideration. At this stage you have no real idea what kind of subjects your daughter will want to do.

Thank you all. Lots of food for thought.
I wasn't expecting only one poster recommending the private...speaks volumes !

What I would add (I'm a private school fan) is I get my DD doing other social sports etc like tennis.

She actually travels to a school about 10 miles away so locally it's been important to keep her activities up. And if there is small class sizes this can be important.

Although now she's almost 15 she prefers to stay in bed at the weekend . But previous to that she was doing stage school and tennis holidays and weekends.