Anyone's DC been in first intake in new primary school?

[FinnMcMissile]

DS is currently in Y1, but in an infant school so in a couple of years will have to move to the current junior school, or a new primary school which will be opening at that time. His current year group will get split between the two schools. I'm curious to know what it will be like at the new primary school. He would be the oldest year group and it would be 2-form entry. Does anyone have any experience? Is it an advantage (or disadvantage) to not have any older year groups in the school?

DS was a second intake (2 forms). The kids had loads of space - using the empty classrooms, there was also budget left for equipment. There was definitely a sense of confidence and also kids being kids and not learning behaviours from older ones. Cons included: no real pta, and limited fundraising because the resources weren’t there. The school seemed big, but once full parking, playground and lunchroom was going to be rammed. A friend found it difficult as SENCO support was shared with another school and wasn’t easy to access.

Thanks, good point about the PTA. Did they have extracurricular activities? This is one thing I'm concerned about. They have loads of stuff going on at the current junior school but won't have the pupil numbers to support that at the new school initially I wouldn't have thought. I imagine they'll allow pupils from the new school to access after school activities at the junior school, but I doubt they'll walk them over there.

The activities were great - they asked for suggestions and had clubs before and after school - martial arts, dance, yoga, cooking and languages.

On site wrap around provision was limited and used a classroom.

The school was graded as outstanding in its first inspection 3 yrs after opening.

We moved due to jobs so couldn’t stay at the school.

One small con I've seen from observation rather than direct experience is that a cohort who have always been the oldest (and viewed as special because of that) in the school can find secondary a bit more daunting than other kids might, as some of them have no experience of being around older year groups.