Is the school to small ?

[motherearth]

Hi.Im facing a bit of a dilema and would appreciate any comments. My dd1 went to a small primary school where she was bullied for the last 2 years.She was one of only 2 people in her year, the other girl being the bully.To cut a long story short - we (her parents ) and the school, failed her miserably.If was not noticed because nobody really listened to her until she was admitted to hospital one night ? fitting-various tests revealed it was a nervous tremour-this is when it all came out.She is now at a bigger high school, we have all come through it, i no longer wallow in the guilt ,although it will always be there.She is a beautiful and happy child who is totally differrent to the child we knew 2 years ago.I could go on for ever but that is in the past. DD2 is 3 years younger and much more confident-she has a good peer group and has got on well at this school.She is 10. DS1 is 2 (3 in July ) and i dont know what to do. The school numbers are so small that he will be the only boy, in fact the only person in his year.The class will consist of my ds, another boy in yr 1 and a girl in year 2 .How many people in large cities i wonder would want such a personal education ! However i am concerned that it is too small.What if he makes no friends like my eldest daughter ? I want him to go for selfish reasons, because my fabulous childminder lives 100 yards away.On the other hand there is a slightly bigger school (about 7- 12 in each year ) a couple of miles away.This would mean either changing my job (not so easy as am a midwife ) or putting the poor little fellow in a taxi twice a week to his childminder.Does anybody agree that the school is too small or do you think Im mad ?Many thanks for reading and sorry its so long.

My wee brother and I went to a primary school that consisted of only 1 class of 20 kids and we loved it. I should think your son will have more chance of making friends because of the small numbers.

Will he be going to out-of-school activities such as cubs or football etc and what about your CM will she have lads his age?

Don't think you're mad at all , the only problem I can foresee is When he moves to a larger school later on, as that will be a complete shock to the system

Sorry motherearth he wont be going to cubs at will he?

I've just read your post again and can't work out what is your main worry. The bullying?

It does sound a bit on the small side, but I'd be tempted to give it a try at least for the early years. For reception/year 1 it sounds as though it would give an environment closer to a family than a school and that's no bad thing in my opinion. I assume you could move to the larger school later if need be, but if he gets on OK with the older boy and if there's a few more join in the year below it might work out.

It's just a shock to me that there's such a small school operating, considering that there's a much bigger one just 2 miles away. Has your council not been looking to close it?

Thanks for your comments.Redtartan lass your class of twenty sounds lovely, but my sons class in TOTAL will consist of 3 pupils-thats himself in reception, one boy in yr 1 and a girl in year 2.He will have about 10 or so kids in the junior class to play with at break.My main worry is obviously the class size.I wouldnt worry about bullying because i have learnt the hard way and i wouldnt allow it even if it meant homeschooling ! Anyway is 3 too small a number? I think perhaps snailspace is right in saying try it at least for the early years.He will only just be 4 when he starts ful time (Wales ), so i can always move him later on.
The school doesn`t really stand much chance of closure because it is a twin site school, and while we have nothing to do with the other site, it makes the numbers look much better than they are because they are looked at as a total.Also the schools funds are fabulous-someone somewhere seems to donate quite a lot of money ?

I went to a school which had 54 pupils aged between 7 and 18 - it was lovely because we all knew each other and (generally) got along friendships weren't just formed with people in your year (we had the biggest year at 6 people) but you had older, and younger friends.

My dd1 goes to a school which is small, but bigger than yours! There's 8 in her year, and a total of 55 in the school (R-Y6).

When we put her name down for that school, I only saw the advantages (eg, higher staff/children ratios) but I can now see the disadvantages - there's three girls in reception and the other two are quite close. But then again, they reckon that it's a good grounding for work- you have to learn to get on with everyone!

Hope you work it out.

Hi Motherearth. Just to put in my tuppenceworth, albeit rather late-I've only just found this thread. I think small schools are fantastic. My dd is the only one in her year and there are only 10 pupils in the whole school. They are all taught in one classroom together. The benefits are tremendous. The individual attention, learning to mix with different age ranges, being able to work at your own level,the big ones learn to help others, the small ones get a boost of self esteem by working with the big ones, I could go on and on. Unfortunately we have been told that we face closure. Going to fight it though. Wish us luck.
As others have said I'd give it a try. You can always move ds if it doesn't work out

We looked at a very small school 7 yrs ago when dd1 was starting in reception but decided not to go for it in the end. She's due to start secondary school this time, and I must admit I'm quite glad we didn't choose the tiny school as one of the things that is making her secondary transfer a lot easier (or the prospect of it-- we're not there yet!) is the fact that there are 3 other people from her school in her form group, and 22 or so of them going up altogether. This gives them all a feeling of great security and confidence, which isn't something I'd considered at all when she was 4!

It's by no means the be-all and end-all, but I just thought I'd mention it as it is a factor that is currently making our lives less fraught at this stage. Having said that I'm sure that kids from small schools do manage to adjust to 'big' school very well too-- especially if you live in an area where small schools are quite common.

Valid points Orlando.It all depends on your individual circumstances.
In our case the secondary school that dd will move up to is very small also. There are only 18 in total in this years intake for S1. Think there are around 100 in the whole school. All the children in the area tend to know each other anyway, and during the last year at Primary School the P7s from all the schools regularly get together for activities and even spend one night away together on an outdoor activity course. By the time they move up to Secondary school they know all the others who will be in their year.

My ds goes to a smallish school (about 40 kids this year). He is in a class with P1-P3 (total 16 kids) I like it as all ages mix and play really well together - there is a very good atmosphere and it is common for p5 boys to play with the wee ones! However - when we first moved to this village there were 8 children in the school - and at one point the roll dropped to 5. To my mind that is too small - yes, children get lots of personal attention, but a lot about school is the social side - and I think that is difficult if teh school is so small. the transition to secondary must be tricky too.

My dd went to a school with total numbers of 45 R-Yr 6.

She attended from R - Yr 3 and had the best time imaginable, it meant she was in every sports team, got apart in every school play, was given an individual learning programme etc.

However we decided to move her for Yr 4 (last September) as we wanted her to go to a prep that went up to Yr 8 did CE, it has proved the right thing to do as the bigger school can provide many more opportunities for older children and has bigger and better facilities.

I do know though that the children from her old school did come out very confident at Yr 6 from all that individual attention and found no problems coping with a bigger senior school.

My dd's have been to our village school and it's the best school any of my children have ever been to. When dd1 was there it had about 40 pupils and around 30 when dd2 was there. The actual numbers in a year doesn't really seem to matter as they all play with each other anyway. Younger siblings starting school generally know most of the children before they even start! Secondary transfer isn't a problem as all the small feeder schools work with each other over the years, hence the children are familiar with lots of other children, not just their own school. There's also a great school loyalty when they move onto senior school, with their former small-school mates rallying round.

Having said that, if there is a problem within a small school I think it can have a proportionately more damaging effect.

There's a lot of interesting stuff about small schools at NASS.