Has anyone moved their child from private to state primary?

[marialuisa]

DD is in Y1 at a lovely private primary, overall we are very happy with it. However we now have the option of sending her to a small village school and we're very tempted.

Has anyone made a similar move and has it worked out? (Should probably add that we couldn't care less about lots of the usual "pros" for private school e.g. lakes, sports facilities, future earnings and that the state school is 8 miles from home so the local friends thing isn't applicable)

billage school are NOTt he be all and end all that popel (rather oddly) seem to htink they are
how small?

lakes in year one?
what do they do wiht a lake then

what about elocution lessons though?!?!

no experiences of moving from private to state, but I have two children at our lovely village school and one currently at a snootyprep nursery.

There are lots of things I love about our school - they only have four classes so they're mixed, which is really nice I think and as result the teachers are very used to dealing with different levels of ability. The staff know all the children well and vice versa, I can hear the noise from the playground from our garden at home , the setting is beautiful, they're surrounded by fields and rolling hills.

Is the village school near you? I like having the option of walking to school.

The main downside for me is the complete lack of before and after school care, but I've tailored my work towards that.

Actually DD's school doesn't have a lake but having attended schools with lakes, golf courses etc. I find all that a bit over-rated.

School is very small, Reception, Y1 and Y2 are all taught in one class of 21 kids. Reason for this option is logistical not "oh a lovely village school" thing.

well maria luis i thinkt he mixed class ounds terrible.
we fond at ourt large ish primary we get LOTs of pllications from teacheres who HATE mixed classes adn are deperate to egt out
small shcool have BIG recruitment issues and rahter streesed staff who haev to wear many hats all at once. imagine an almost 7 year old being taught int eh saem class as a 4 year old.IMO not ideal

mmmh - our school does not have recruitment issues. I'm a parent governor and on the personnel committee - we had 45 applications for a maternity cover position.
The staff seem very happy at our school, nobody's left in the 3 years that mine have been there.

and teaching almost 7 year olds together with the little ones works out very well here....
SATs are very good, so is value added. They had Ofsted in just before half term and got a 'good with many outstanding features' report.

I don't know about private - village primary but we recently moved ours from a high performing state primary (with swimming pool, nature reserve, loads of facilities) to a small village school. We only did it for the travel issues, not because I'd ever had any desire to send them to a small village school. I did have reservations about mixed classes and limited facilities. But so far it's been a very positive experience, my 6 and 5 year old dds really enjoy walking 5 minutes to school, and being in the local school.

the school does work hard to make mixed age groups work, they are so aware of it that they do seem to manage it successfully. Lots of going up for lessons to the next class for the quicker ones, and lots of small groups working at different levels. From initial scepticism am fairly converted to village schools.

we moved Ds1 from a private pre-prep to the local state school when we moved house. nursery class. He much prefers the state school. Possibly because they don't make him work so hard and just let him play ...but I say, the little lad is only 3 years old, why does he need to learn how to write his name yet?