Do most private independent primaries hothouse them?

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Local private primary

1. follows national curriculum
2. class sizes of 10-15
3. gives half hour of homework to children in RECEPTION. More and more as they get older.
4. Starts children who are barely 4 on full days when they go into reception (no half time at all).

Isn't 1) unusual?
I think 2) is great.
But isn't 3) and 4) too demanding? Those things really put me off. I would not want my barely 4yo being pushed so hard. What's the advantage of a small class-size if the children need so much reinforcing at home?

I wondered how typical it was, do most indep. primaries push the academics so hard, so early?

I don't know about 1. 2 is unusual. 3 is pointless and weird - evidence shows that homework, before secondary, doesn't actually help at all. 4 is normal, I'm afraid. Actually, I think state school in my borough is full time at reception, too.

It was 3) that REALLY put me off, but 4) I don't like either.

1. I don't know
2. Class size doesn't really bother me
3. In Reception, half an hour a night is way too much imo
4. At ds's state primary they start full time straight away (the summer born children do half days for the first week only)

DS1's primary has class size of 20 (two teachers). He gets sent home with a book every day, at first for us to read to him, now for him to read to us. They do a week of mandatory half-time, and the second week can be half-time. After that, it's all full time.

DD started private primary this year.

1. In reception yes, follows the Foundation stage. This means that parents can use the nursery vouchers until their child turns 5. But after that our school doesn't do just NC stuff. It has other enrichment subjects and activities and doesn't do SATs.

1. Class size is 15.

1. Only homework so far is reading, which started on day 2. Takes about 5 minutes.

1. The girls did 4 days till lunch time. 2 days of finishing after lunch, and then FT. She was 4y5m. All girls did same. It was much better for us, as I only had to use a week's holiday from work. PT any longer would have been a nightmare logistically. Local state schools has 2 intakes. DD wouldn't have started till January. DD was ready to start in September; no need to keep her in nursery longer. One of reasons we chose private for her actually.

Preprep1 in DD's school is not academic at all. Emphasis is on learn through play.

Ours does follow NC broadly speaking. Class sizes between 16/18 for Pre Prep, 20ish Year 3 plus but more ability grouping for maths and english so actual teaching groups are smaller in many cases. Reception homework was just a book or sight words, Year One book plus occasional activity sheet and weekly spellings. All kids went full time from day one of Reception (afternoons tend to be low key play, art or physical activity, no formal academic stuff) and dd was one of the youngest having turned 4 in August. She ddn't feel "pushed" and was ready for all this but it is catching up with her a bit in year 1.

Message withdrawn

IMHO and IME it is what happens at the other end that is worst

Preparing them and cramming them for 11+ entry into senior school

IMHO and IME there is NO point in all the cramming cos IF the children can't pass the exam then the school isn't right for them and they may struggle and be unhappy

Mone go to private primary
The follow the NC
Dd (9) in a class of 16 ds (6) in a class of 12
Reception h/w is just reading, takes about 5 minutes
Full school from reception, but I went to school full time at 3.5 and it was a state nursery to boot.

Do they 'push' In my experience they follow the child IYSWIM. Dd gets lots of extension, ds gets lots of support as he finds reading hard

I was looking at a private school recently and was told only 1 entry per year, so dd would go at 4 and 2 months. No half days or reduced hours to settle in. "But it's learning through play in reception, isn't it?" I said. Oh no! Straight into sit down classes and academic work.

oh and their recption has lots of play. So do years 1 and 2!

1 - Mine does the same as Hulababy - follows Foundation stage at Reception (though with major emphasis on reading), but ignores NC thereafter. The school doesn't do SATs but does have annual exames from Yr 2 onwards

1. Ds1's class started at 15 but has had an addition. Maximum in pre-prep is 20.
2. Homework - Ist term was meant to be no more than 10 minutes, building up to more by the 3rd term. I think that 30 minutes is more standard in Yr 1 - ds1 has reading, spellings and timestables.
3. All the local state schools had the children full-time by half-term. Parents are typically divided on this one as too many half days are a nightmare for working parents or if you have other children at preschool.

Not sure about "pushing". In Yr 1 the boys are given different homework assignments according to ability (so different spellings for example). School finishes at 3:00 and the holidays are longer than the state sector so in one sense you are cramming the same number of hours into a shorter time period. However homework at this age gives parents a very hands-on role in their child's work and approach to school. Neither good nor bad in its own right - some families like it, others don't. FWIW one of the local state schools has a similar amount of homework so this isn't just a private school thing.

The one we're thinking about for DS keeps half an eye on national curriculum but doesn't actually follow it, has class sizes of about 13, doesn't give homework in Reception (unless you count reading books, but they start off with picture books anyway). It does start them on full days from day 1, but on the other hand all the children (Reception-Year 3) get a half day on Fridays.

It does pride itself on not pushing or cramming children, though -- they say they focus on producing children who are self-confident, inquisitive and ready to try anything and then the child tends to fulfil his or her academic potential, while if you have to really push a child to achieve specific unrealistic academic goals then they may well end up at a school at the next stage where they really won't be happy. They send pupils on to a wide range of schools, including a fair few into very academic prep schools, so there seems to be something in their argument - certainly it's a big reason for its being at the top of our list.

I am grateful that DS has a January birthday so will be starting at rising-5 rather than only-just-4.

Put it this way their job is to get the children into the indep senior schools iyswim

Ask how much preparation is done in years 4, 5 or 6 ?

And make your own mind up

13 in Reception, that is. It goes up a bit in later years.

I am looking at it from other end of primary iyswim

btw my DS is year 7 in indep senior school

btw don't ask if they hothouse or push cos they will deffo say no

Ask how they prepare them for senior school and when they start

How much time do they do in a week practising the entr4ance papers etc

Also ask if they think you will need a tutor to get into the school of choice and they will tell you NO cos they prepare them well enough

Is it a pre-prep only (up to Y2/Y3) or a pre-prep and prep combined (goes up higher than that)?

A lot of state schools now push big style for SATs, so for me the fact that DD will do the common entrance exam instead isn't an issue. The school DD goes to tries not to push in such a way, but from Prep age they have annual exams, which are all based round a more gentle approach to prep for the exam. Have a friend who worked at the school and now of girls been through the system here and all were pleased with the approach and didn't feel there was excesspressure at all.

Dd is at a local private primary and dneice is at our local state primary

Private

1. Only follows NC at Foundation Stage due to funding. No SATS
2. Class sizes 20
3. Only homework shared reading 5-10 mins 2 or 3 times a week

4 Full time from reception class (optional half days for 1st week. September only intake due to being oversubscribed. Intake throughout the year subject to places in nursery.

State

1. National Curriculum, SATS, testing
2. Class sizes 30
3. Homework every week about half an hour each weekend plus projects and reading
4. Full time ONLY from nursery (age 3) half days for first few weeks, no option of part time nursery. September only intake

Kanga, dd's school prepare for 11 plus by having weekly sessions in verbal and non verbal reasoning from prep onwards which they treat as a valuable skill anyway, regardless of choice of senior school. They do have their own senior school though.

Much more coaching in local Catholic prep and state primaries to get into the Catholic (ex private now state) grammar school

my dd1 is in year 1 at a private school - she doesn't have any homework apart from her reading book.

DS1 is in private Yr1. He has a reading book everyday apart from Wednesday (takes about 5 minutes), a weekly spelling test, and some optional homework at the weekend (this week was subtraction - took about 10 minutes). The school has emphasised that the chldren do not have to do any homework, and we don't push it if DS1 is tired. He started reception at 4 years + 1 week, full time apart from optional Wednesday afternoon (he always came home rather than stayed). There are 22 in his class, which seems larger than most others in this thread.

1. Our private prep follows the NC unfortunately, the impression we got was that this is common.
2. Class size is 16
3. Stuff sent home equates to about an hour, plus puzzles, spellings etc. Call it two hours per week from 4. Isn't compulsory.
4. Quite common for 4yos to do full days. My own (truly crap) state/Catholic school did this as well. Depends upon the 4yo, and many private school have optional half days.

Unfortunately its not just private schools that hot house.

My son goes to a state school in a deprived area. Inspite of having a well below average intake they get above average results for SATs. Andrew gets homework 4 nights a week. Home work consists of hand writing practice, jolly phonics word boxes and recently he has some tricky words that he needs to learn how to spell.

State schools are turning into hot houses as well. I have to admit that I think half an hour of home work is silly in reception because children are completely shattered by the end of the day.