To send my child to a school with 8 classes per year

[Mabelthebore]

This is a high school. It has a very good reputation but I am concerned about the huge size of the school. I believe there are 24 kids per class (8 classes per year group). Other alternative school has only 2 classes per year group, mixed reports about it and not as wide variety of subjects as the bigger school. I fear my daughter might be a bit lost in the big school. She is coming from a small village junior school.

A secondary school with 2 classes per year would be very unusual and I have no idea how they would manage different GCSE options with a cohort that small.
8 classes per year is about average isn't it? My own secondary school had 12 classes per year.

Normal I think. Our primary school had 6 classes per year. Local high school has 12 or 13 I think!

We deliberately chose the 8 class state school
over the 2-3 class private school as we
felt that was far too small- very difficult to get decent sports teams etc if you only have 30ish boys in the year. No regrets here, in his final year and it’s been a great school.

I admit that I was apprehensive when DD went to a 10 form entry high school after leaving a primary school with 142 pupils in total and mixed year groups.

She managed perfectly well.

It is quite usual to have large secondary schools these days.

I totally misunderstood the title and thought you meant your child only had 8 lessons per year 😆

It's normal around here.

Coming from a small school won't make much difference after a couple of weeks.

Kids tend to get used to these things fast.

Totally normal - mine go to a 10x30, and that’s not the biggest in the area.
I’m more intrigued by the 24 per class and the other school with only 2 classes per year! I don’t know any state secondary that small.

This is normal where I live. One of the schools has 10 forms per year group, the other 8. Children adjust, it probably seems a lot more of an issue to you than it will to your daughter.
The 10 form school has a climbing wall, trampolining club, huge library, huge field with running tracks and sand box's for jumps, a dance studio, a gym (treadmill, cross trainer etc) and much more. I doubt there would be so many facilities in a smaller school.

Mine went from one form entry to twelve(!) form entry. It was absolutely fine. All of the children from their one form entry school got used to the big school very quickly.

When I went to school (quite some time ago) there were six classes (3 streams, two classes in each stream). We only mixed with the people in our class or stream so we didn’t really notice anyone else.

Seems fine - are there secondary schools much smaller than that? Maybe a bit but not considerably?

I went to a secondary school with 13 classes per year (only school in a small town, also taking students from all surrounding villages). It was a good school, and the large student numbers meant it offered a very wide range of subjects at GCSE and A level, because there were more students to fill a class and make the subject worth it.

Dc's school has a 280 admission for year 7, yes 10 forms. Works well, loads of children for sports teams, school clubs of all varieties. They did come from a 3 form entry primary. Big over small any day for friendships and choice on subjects.

Perfectly normal…..it’s 10 form year where we are…300 kids in the year

2 classes per year group is way too small ……subject variety will be limited…..mine went from a 1 class per year of around 17 kids per year to 10 forms ( 300 per year)…..wasn’t an issue…..they much preferred it…..far more people from who to find your crew

My high school was 14 form classes per year - two heads of year, who oversaw 7 classes each.

I had no idea that high schools could be so small - 2 classes?

There are 10 classes per year group at DDs secondary.

She seems to be doing fine 🤷‍♀️ I am a firm believer that motivated kids will do well almost anywhere

Bigger schools often mean wider options for GCSE. It also means a bigger pool of potential friends if there are friendship group issues And probably more extra curricular options.

It will seem like a big school to her for about a week. Then normal.

Sounds perfect...more people to choose to be friends with so your child will get friends that suit her...

That’s not that big is it? My secondary school had 10 classes of 30 students per year which I thought was normal. It didn’t feel like too many people and I was bookish/shy. My sixth form college was about 1000 students per year! I think 2 classes per year would be too small - if there’s any drama there’s no escaping it.

V normal round here. I found they were v good at “chunking” each year group down into smaller cohorts, because they were always designed to be big. And they have lots more staff and resources. The only high school that is smaller round here struggles to retain staff and can’t offer as many subjects.

Both mine went to tiny rural primaries and enjoyed it, but have also transferred to the much bigger environment with no problems.

My DS went from a village Primary to a 8 class year group at Secondary school.
I went from a small faith middle school to an 8 class per year group Comprehensive in the 1970's. Pretty standard size for a Secondary school in my book.

I went from a tiny village primary (3 classes across the whole school) to a secondary with 7 classes per year. It was fine. That was the option for all the villages in my local area. Large secondaries are the norm and have a lot more opportunities I believe.

I went to a secondary that size and became invisible. While yes the logic is form tutors only need to know about the people their classes registration is such a small part of the day that they do forget students who aren’t loud (or have other needs they are forced to take an active interest in).

I’d personally take the smaller secondary and uplift any gaps with tutoring/enrichment

Very normal size. The advantages are a wider curriculum- smaller schools don’t give a choice , it’s one curriculum for all- don’t want to stifle choice of GCSEs at 11 ! Better opportunity for sports teams / hobbies / music etc. which with smaller numbers wouldn’t be possible. Also a better opportunity to find / make friends and settle with kids of similar interests. I went from a junior school with 1 form to senior school with 10 forms - loved it !

We have 8 forms of 30-32. Normal here.