Would you change your 4 years olds school?

[ilovetulips]

Ok have namechanged for this.

My youngest ds is an august born 4 year old and in his first year in reception at an 'outstanding' c of e village primary.

The school is always over subscribed and on paper is an excellent school.

He is in a class of 30, quite alot of them are summer born too. He seems happy to go and has made some nice little friends.

But there has been quite alot of disruption to the class as his teacher has been mostly off sick since he started and things have been rather disjointed.

Anyway I have been going in to school to help out and have been a little disconcerted about some things. The classroom is small and to me it just seemed that many of the children were just messing about on their own, mostly the girls were doing something like a jigsaw or playing the dolls in the corner or writing at a table, but many of them were just being loud and noisy, including my ds.

He still cannot write his name, that in itself doesn't bother me, but the fact that he isn't being shown how to write it. How is he supposed to learn?

But what concerns me is the fact that when he moves into year 1 he will be expected to sit at a table and write and read.

So I am thinking of looking at a private school, where the classes are smaller and hopefully he would have mroe individual attention.

What would you do? Am I being to hasty?

Just want to do whats best for him.

Not an expert but this is very early days. My DC (now 12 and 16) barely remember reception - the highlights relate to a few episodes of bizarre behaviour.

Mine did OK at an outstanding cofe primary and to be fair we always had reservations about some things but you will have those wherever you go. Moved DS at end of Y4 because he wasn't being challenged and it was the right thing to do and even at a very selective and high performing London independent there was a year when he had 4 maths teachers (although it was put right the following year and the school accepted responsibility and I'm not sure this would have happened elsewhere). DD is a different child altogether and she stayed until Y6.

Ultimately if your child is happy and wants to go I would stick with it and not underestimate how important it is to have a happy child. Also, please don't underestimate the importance of what you do at home with your son - we never sat down and taught ours, but there has always been a house ful of books, and stories and trips to the library and the museums and the park - oh and music. You lay the foundation for future success - not reception. Reception, IMO teaches them to be away from home, to line up, to know when to be quiet and gently identifies the children who may need some extra help for various reasons. A year ago, many of these children were in nappies.

Personally I don't think there is very much correlation between class sizes and overall outcomes. I have friends who have sent DC to private schools with classes of 8. Their DC have not passed the tests for the most selective schools around here but the top few from state primaries with 30 in a class generally do. Further down the line, some of these from classes of 8 go onto to small independents with 15 to a class, getting a lot of attention and doing well at A'Level. Does anyone know how they do at Uni in a massive lecture theatre when they are expected to self motivate?

Oh dear - sorry for a bit of a diatribe from an older mum who isn't a teacher.