tying myself up in knots about state vs private

[susieb19]

Help
I an exhausting myself churning over the options of single sex private vs co Ed state (a v good one). Dds current school is over subscribed Catholic. Pretty good but 34 in the class with one teacher. Am having my head turned by small class sizes on offer at nearby private (where I actually went and loved). Any views appreciated??? Thanks

the spider criteria!

IMO class size of 15 is too small for a secondary school. Also 1000 pupils isn't that huge, my secondary comprehensive was 1500+ and with good pastoral care (form tutors, "houses" etc) didn't seem too big. No sets except for maths was rubbish, but think times have changed on that now.

Hi HocusCrocus

Was trying to emphasise that they both get a great education – even though one has more frills. I was being flippant (I think you did get that didn't you)? Obvs not paying for access to spiders, sorry if I didn't make that clear.

In fact DS didn't pass the test for the super selective, he sadly missed out by 2 points. He would have gone in a shot if he had scored highly enough. Luckily he did get in to a really good private school. My point though, was that both are doing well despite the differences in class sizes.

I know - so was I ! It's just I would pay good money to be certain of no access to spiders. I do realise it wasn't your top priority

Just one view but I would not put 15 as a class size as necessarily too small.

15 is OK in Primary but far too small in a secondary school. Think about the class sizes when they start doing different GCSEs. Even if the school can provide a wide enough range of subjects.

DD2 was in a class of 15 in y1. I think it was too small as it led to indiscipline, problems with forming friendships through lack of choices and dominance of bigger personalities within the class. The issues persisted even when the DC were later mixed into larger class groups.

I think individual class sizes of 15 for secondary especially in practical subjects is great but within a year group of closer to 100. We have the exotic pet store 100 metres from the secondary school for anyone who wants to visit spiders during lunch break .

ho hum, I'm off

Oops sorry really I didn't mean to offend . I actually love spiders and found myself explaining to DD3 that the reptile house needed a ready supply of mice for the snake before considering whether that might be a case of tmi for a 3 year old.

I think it depends on the children and the school options as to whether the differential is worth it. Also depends if you can afford it. We can but I do wonder whether we would have been better to have invested the money for their future. Our local secondary is fine but not great. Sorry - also have to say that IMO the John Farrell article is dreadfully self satisfied and half of it a load of rubbish. The local thing is true - stay local at prep/primary level if you can.. It does mean at secondary all their friends come from a wide area which isn't as great as all local.

I don't normally comment on state v private threads as I have Strong Views, but do you mean 15 in each class or 15 per year group? Because that doesn't sound like a school which is thriving to me. What are the range of subjects like? Who's teaching what? There just doesn't seem to be enough income (ie pupils) to support a staff bill for a wide range of excellent subject teachers...

Good question. Is it 15 per class or 15 per year group?

15 for a year group would be too small.
For me, a big bonus of having a 'big' school is that you have a nice mix of personalities and abilities. Which also means it's easier to find people you can gel with rather than having to do with what you have iyswim.

Other question is about your dd abilities and whether they would fit better in such an environment.

Ah Bertrand - take your point. I jumped the gun a bit. So, at OP's DCs age - actually DS had larger class sizes than 15. I would need to check with him re GCSE years but his school I think had a reasonably high % of compulsory subjects so I suspect the chances of a very small class at GCSE was not high. I am thinking of 6th form where the class sizes varied from smaller to larger than 15. Memo to self - read the question. Sorry if I have misunderstood your point.