What class size would you count as too small?

[LittleLizaJane]

I would’ve thought anything under 10 was too small (which was the smallest class I’d ever been in - 2 girls/8 boys and we just about worked out)

Now I’ve got a new job at a village school and they have a year 1/2/3/4 class (although no year 1s) with 6 pupils and a 5/6 with 6 pupils also.

Honestly there has been no arguing about pairs or general class unpleasantness, there’s been 1 small argument at break-time (in the past month) but that was due to a girl with a learning disability misunderstanding something and getting upset.

Around 1/4 of the children have varied disabilities but are all treated extremely nicely by the other children, never singled out or anything.

In conclusion (I’m not sure how this became so long), I now think the smallest class size is probably 5 or 6, as long as there is a few others to play with at break. Opinions?

No LA should be running a tiny school with 9 pupils a short distance away from another school with only 40 pupils. No wonder there is a shortage of funds. I bet one or both are CofE and refuse to merge. Obviously no shortage of funds here!

To answer the question 20-24 is best for mixed sexes. Single sex private could be a bit smaller. I don’t see a family type school as being an advantage from about y1 onwards. Too claustrophobic. By y5/6 DC really should not have to play with y2s. They have different needs and should have different play areas. However remote schools are expensive and end up with few pupils unless parents stay in the area. It’s a way of life that has to be really wanted.

Interesting point @BubblesBuddy
I didn't find my 'family' type school claustrophobic at all, in fact I love it and felt I was always supported. Additionally, I always felt confident in and around school because I knew everyone so well

Children can be confident around their peers in a larger school. You don’t need a small school for that. Children won’t know all DC at secondary. As long as they know their immediate class well enough that’s just fine. Most DC settle in to their own “family”
at school but in a larger school it’s fluid. It can and does change as DC mature. A family member moving away isn’t a big deal. There are others who fill the space.

Small schools can be supportive but they can limit development by being poor at sport, music and drama and if DC don’t fit into the family (wrong religion, background, race etc) it’s very hard to flourish.

My daughter (17) is the only pupil in her English Higher class. Another High school 60 or so miles away is in a similar position. The two pupils have their lessons together via Skype. A couple of times a term they will meet up and have a lesson together. It's over an hour's drive (if they don't miss the ferry they need to catch) alternating between schools. Tomorrow my DD is off - driven by her headmaster - to the other school for a lesson.

My other daughter - same High school as her sister (strange that) is half her music class and I think she's the only person in her fashion and textiles class too.

My dd is in a class of 8.

There’s a school in rural Ireland with 4 in the whole school...🤣🤣 brilliant!!

How can you learn from your peers or have discussions with such small classes though? If you just have adult company it’s limiting. My DDs wouldn’t be who they are without around 40 school friends each 7 and 9 years after leaving school. It’s almost how they define their lives. Their school friends mean the world to them!

My daughter had 12 kids in her reception class when she started (2 classes of equal size in their year group). She now has 16 in her class in year 5.

I must say I really wanted a school with small class sizes for her in the beginning, so she gets more individual attention, but now in year 5 I actually think there are benefits to bigger classes.

There are more boys than girls in her year group and when she fell out with her best friends earlier this year, there were only a handful of girls to choose from at play time, which made it more difficult. Bizarrely, it took a new boy joining her class and confessing that he had a "crush" on her (they are all 9/10) for her to become popular again with her old friends and it's all drama-free again. But a bigger pool of friends to choose from is definitely an important factor in school life.

But a bigger pool of friends to choose from is definitely an important factor in school life.

I'll agree there. When DD1 came out she was the school lesbian in a total school pop of 200 ish across 6 years. That caused a few 'interesting' encounters.

My High school had some 1500 pupils. It was a lot easier to be invisible if you chose. The easiest place to hide is in a crowd.

Ds's school only has 88 in and goes from kindergarten to finishing high school (18).

He's one of two in his year in kindergarten so they combine with year 1 where there are 6 so there's 8 in the class in total. They combine for specials after lunch every day (French, Art, Music, Library, PE, guidance/therapy) with years 2 and 3 and theres 6 in year 2 and 1 in year 3 so 15 over the 4 years.

They also sometimes do social skills lessons with a middle school kid they're allocated to (11 years old) and a big school kid (17 years) once a week.

He loves his school. The tiny kids are friends with even the 18 year olds, they look out for them. There's probably no school because of snow tomorrow and all the kids will go sledding together, they're like a huge family.

Ds is in a year of 6 (2 boys 4 girls) in a composite Kindy / year 1 class of 10 total. Unfortunately they have lost funding for a teacher and next year he may be in a K/1/2 class of around 13. I am concerned that this is a lot to ask his newly qualified teacher and Kindy kids especially need a lot different requirements than the older ones. Will he be singing the days of the week song for the third year running? The school numbers have halved in the last year due to the Aus Gov cracking down on out of area admissions.
Initially we did want a small school and this one is just up the road from us but I am only seeing it's disadvantages at the moment. He does not get on with the other boy in his year that well and there is a very competitive spirit between them. If the school gets any smaller it could go to two classes over 7 years. I am not sure how they can properly prepare a year 6 student for high school when they are in the same class as year 3 and then they will be going to a high school with 1000 kids at a time when teenage hormones are kicking in.
Also I think there maybe more opportunities for lunch groups at a larger school for things like drama, chess, choir that they do not have the funding for in a small school.
It is the last 3 weeks of term before the summer holidays here and we are yet to find out how many classes there will be.

I am curious hearing about these tiny schools as we live in a big city and don't have any. Do they each have their own head teacher, or is the head shared across several schools? Or is the head also a regular teacher?

@TulipCat At our school the head teacher is shared across a few schools, he’s barely in, but also doesn’t seem to know much about the school so the staff tend to sort things themselves.

@TulipCat
In my school the head was only the head of our school.
The education and facilities were the best in the area, and everyone thrived in the small classes.
Admittedly though it was a private school and therefore I appreciate state schools might not have access to the same facilities etc

Ours has 100 pupils so isn't tiny, but we have our own head 4 days a week and then a teaching deputy one day.
Some share and some have a teaching head full time.
There are secondary schools of 150-200 not far from us too, I don't think either of our DCs will be academic high flyers who need lots of variety of teaching so they may be good next destinations.

I went to a primary school with a very similar set up, it worked well for me as I was able to work ahead with the older ones. I left before year 6 but I do wonder if I would have got bored by then though. To me 6 or so is a nice minimum.

@TulipCat we have a full time head, a principle and a dean of students.