Should I move my child or are all state primary schools like this?

[Wednesdayschild87]

Thats it really. My 7 yr old daughter is at a single entry school in a leafy area of a small city. The school has had a lots of changes in the three years since she started. The head teacher left and it took over a year to find his replacement, lots of experienced teachers have gone along with long standing teaching assistants who haven't been replaced. The level of need in the reception intake's since has gone up dramatically but they can't fill a class of 30 each year, which impacts funding. There are 1-1 support but less class TA's.
My daughter used to be really happy but not so much the last couple of years. She's quite bright and more than keeping up with the work but now going into KS2 the school has accepted two more children in her class bringing it up to 32. The two new children are struggling to regulate their behaviour and she often comes home and says she can't hear whats going on because these children shout and scream all the time. I did ask if she could be moved but they moved the one disregulated child who was next to her and swapped them with the other one so I don't think I can ask again! The child has to sit somewhere!
I wondered if it would be best to move her to a bigger school with more pupils which means more funding and just a general better educational experience.
I'm not naive and know that no school is perfect but I wanted to ask, is this what all state education is like now? She's my only child so I don't have any prior experience of other schools. I don't want to cause her potential upheaval if all primary schools are like this. No TA's, the bare minimum staff, only employing newly qualified teachers and lots of SEND children with their needs not being met and impacting everyone else?

My DCs school isn’t like this at all - but it’s a tiny village school with a max intake of 8 per year. The largest class has 27 pupils, one teacher & 2 TAs, but is made up of 4 year groups.
All the staff are long serving & experienced; the school has its limitations but not like the ones you describe.

Wait until she gets to secondary…

Definitely true. I hear stories of some kids who have to be kept out of a classroom because it’s not safe for them or the class. They need an adult with them all day every day, and the funding that comes with their EHCP does not cover that so the difference has to come out of the school budget.

My DC’s school is a two form entry in a large town in the SE. Head has been there a long time, lots of long standing staff. SEN children seem to be well supported. They seem to do lots of special theme days/external events. It is part of an academy that feeds a high performer state secondary. Maybe we are just lucky.

It unfortunately isn't unusual.

My son has 2:1 TA support and I had to have a chat with school recently because they were ''sharing'' one of my son's TA with another child which then left my son without the support he needs. Thankfully, it was quickly sorted and whilst I would always say something to them about it, I can also understand why they sometimes feel like they have to do it.

I think look elsewhere OP.
we moved DD early in Y6 - best thing ever. Her new Y6 class was a very positive, nurturing place.
All the best x

School funding is based on pupil numbers. Classes with less than 30 pupils will mean less money.

Most schools won't have class TAs in ks2 - the only ones in the room will be there as part of dedicated provision for pupils with ehcp funding. I don't think this is a big deal, there were not TAs in junior school classes when i went in the 90s.

• high levels of kids with sen & needs not met: standard. I would say it is usually between 4 & 8 children per class of 30-32 in our leafy area.

• 32 in a junior school class - standard, especially if the school is popular eg oversubscribed.

• only employing NCTs - not standard but quite common, its because there are not enough teachers around, and government changed the rules on teachers pay. It used to be that more experienced teachers reached higher pay bands and stayed on these even if they moved job. Now an experienced teacher often loses upper pay scale if they move, and they can't afford to. So they don't.

• taking a year to replace a head: not standard. This suggests the governors are a bit crap.

I work in a 3 form intake. Every class in R and KS1 has at least one child that needs, but cannot always have, 1:1 support. It isn't their fault, but does mean disruption to the learning for others.

Taking a year to find a new head isn't unusual where I am. I'm a school governor and there are just no applications.
What can the governors do in that case?

No my kids state school isn’t like this at all. In fact the local private school has had two kids move to state as the parents has the same concerns you did there.

You are making sweeping generalisations about your own experience only.

This.. yes of course we must support SEN children but not to the detriment of the rest of the children but this is how it is at the moment. Inclusion like this wont work without proper funding.

My children's school was not like this. In KS2, they did have 32 pupils in a class and no TA apart from 1:1s, but they had experienced teachers, very low staff turnover, excellent leadership and were very organised. Not chaotic at all.

My child came home today and told me a 7 year old lad in his class said he wants to blow up the school and hates his family. I should safeguard this with the school yes ?

Not our school. Every class has at least 1 TA and most have 2. Lots of space and plans for time outs/movement breaks etc for those that need it.
Large 3 form entry

We are at a school that also serves one of the most deprived council estates in the Uk and the head has it working brilliantly, I’d take a good look and see what else is out there. We’ve seen a couple of local primaries close in the last couple of years, they aren’t closing them early enough, there is way too much capacity in the system so too many schools are really struggling to finance the provision they need. A clear out of senior staff can be good as they can be seriously expensive, but if you can’t get 28+ kids in each class is a real struggle to get the numbers working.

I think so x

It's not like that in my dd's primary school. There are some SEN children in her class who scream but they are usually diverted from the class if it's disturbing learning of others. I would look at other primary's school in your case.

DC are now in high school but there was a change in head teacher when dd2 started Y5. By the time she left several teachers had left including some long standing ones. If dd2 had been lower down the school we may have considered a change, a some of the new ideas/rules were not to our liking. But new head teacher didn't fully have an impact until dd2 started Y6 and she had lots of friends and was generally happy. Dds class didn't have any DC with SEN, though it was a class of 30. While dd1 was there her class of 20 had two DC with SEN and had two/three TA's most of the time.

I'd look around at other schools locally, also keeping high school choices and feeder schools into consideration. Our nearest local high school (which my DC don't attend) has gone downhill considerably over the last couple of years. Following a spell of it being extremely popular and only ever hearing great things about the school.