Massive school 25 min walk away vs tiny lovely school 1hr walk away??

[Mummywantsaweewee]

Thinking about where to enroll my 2 y/o when the time comes. The school closest to me is a massive primary which combines 4 villages children in one. 25 minute walk to get there (uphill all the way so chances are it will take a bit longer than 25mins)
A bit further away is a lovely small school very similar to the one I attended as a child max 30 kids from reception to yr6. Am keen for my children to have the same experience as me, tiny school so like a second family but it is a bit further away, about an hours walk or 7 mins by car.
Am I mad to consider the one that’s an hours walk away? I’m sure kids walked that far or further in years gone by and I’m sure it will be a better school experience.

DD is in preschool at a lovely 2 class/60 kids school 3 miles away rather than a much larger school 1 mile away. Hopefully she will get a place in reception (only 8 kids in her year so should be okay).

Our other considerations when choosing the school we did was better estyn report, lower free school meals/SEN rates, and also more children with welsh as a second language than the bigger school (we are not a Welsh speaking family).

My only concern is that if it ever gets closed in a bid to reduce the number of schools that it will merge with one a little further away, as they already share a headteacher. However this would be annoying but not a big deal and it is also a much better school (estyn excellent) than the school 1 mile away.

Closer school, hands down.
An hour walk would take forever with a 4/5 year old, moaning, feeling too hot/cold/wet/tired/hungry/thirsty. Wind and rain. Snow. Blazing sun. Remember you have to get there and back, so that's a 2 hour+ walk for you.

30 kids in the whole school is tiny. I live quite rurally and my kids go to a small school, but there's a form per year. It can be very hard for a child that doesn't click with any classmates or is an outlier in terms of age.

A 7 min drive can be exponentially longer during the school run as well.

And 100% agree that having school friends close by can be much better for kids.

My mum had a 3-mile walk to school & still goes on about how much her little legs hurt, chilblains, wet clothes & the cold.

This was in the 1930's.

A reasonable walk with alternative transport available is fine. This is a bit much.

Small schools aren’t always better. Less funding for a start! And what about when they join senior school.. less kids to go up with and a huge change! My primary school had about 50 children in.. nursery to y6. I absolutely loved it and was mega close to my friends.. but there were 6 of us in y6 and only 1 went to my secondary school. It was a huge huge huge change for me going up and I struggled massively.

What a weird way to ask. If you can drive then it doesn’t matter how far it is to walk.
I would chose the bigger school.

Unless you live on the motorway I'm also struggling to understand how a 7 minute drive translates to a 1 hour walk. But honestly, if your car breaks down, you make a plan.

If most of it is on National speed limit rural roads then it could easily be 5 miles.
7 minutes at an average of 40mph is ~4.5 miles.
Four miles an hour is a fast walk for an adult, most people realistically walk slower than that.

I would hate a small school

Bigger school. And I wouldn't make tiny children walk 20 minutes uphill either, btw, so I would still be driving.

With the bigger school your child will have more options with friendship groups, sport, activities.

I have purposely chosen a small secondary school for my children, but I think a big PRIMARY has a lot more to offer than a small one. Even things like PE are much more fun with a big class than a little one, your nostalgia for your own primary school experience nothwithstanding.

And I wouldn't make tiny children walk 20 minutes uphill either, btw, so I would still be driving.

I'd drive in the morning, walk on non-foul afternoons.

As to size of school - the only non-faith school anywhere near us was tiny - it didn't have any facilities for PE except a small playground. It just seemed too small and limiting. We ended up with a ~20 min drive to a larger (though not huge) school.

Are you planning to drive them there? You mention walking a lot. The car can break down, sure but that is the case for anyone who commutes to anywhere in the Country. You just deal with that as it arises. By talking about walking it suggests you don't intend to drive them on a regular basis. 1 hour away is too far for walking.

How big is the bigger school? If it's 1 or 2 form entry that would get my vote ahead of a 30 person school regardless of distance.

The 1 hour walk is a red herring as you would not be expecting your dc to do that (bar emergencies). Obviously a 1 hour walk would be a crazy thing to expect a 5 year old to do twice a day every day, rain or snow with a school day in the middle.

How far is the 25 minute school from you? Would you plan to drive that too? Would be much easier to do the occasional walk to that one too.

I do have a car and I know the school accepts kids from even further away than me (probably keen to get as many kids as possible to stay open).

We know of a lovely rural school in an idyllic location which used to accept kids from a large area... it closed a couple of years ago. I'd be worried about the long term viability any tiny rural school tbh.

Why would you walk 2hrs there and back in the morning when you can drive there in 7 mins? Yes small class sizes sound good, but it could be cliquish and might close down due to the low intake. How big is the bigger school? Is it 1, 2, 3 form entry?

My children went to a 2 form entry, large city primary and a small two years to a class rural primary (about a hundred on the roll) and let me tell you the bigger school was best by a mile. Bigger gene pool to mix with, more opportunities. The small rural one seemed stuck in its ways because many of the parents had attended. I'd pick the bigger, closer school

Our school is around an hour's walk but there's a bus more or less door to door so we use that. When I'm alone after dropping them off or on the way to collect them I usually walk. In good weather we walk home (or they scoot) a couple of times a week but I think it's too much to expect them to do the walk twice a day in all weathers.

We have closer schools, we just preferred this one. But we wouldn't have requested it if we had no alternative to walking.

Hi @Mummywantsaweewee I had this choice too - neither school close, a significantly larger primary picking up for several villages, or a small village school picking up from three tiny villages/hamlets.

I went for the small one. There are between 8 - 14 kids in each year group.

I went 100% on gut instinct after visiting both schools. I remember I asked them what the downside was, and they said it can be tricky if there are way more boy/girls - or friendship issues can be really desperately hard to navigate because there may only be one little bubble of girls…

It’s worked out so well. And we have had friendship issues for my DD, but the school was small enough to get their eye on it. My DD has recently become friends with a girl two years groups up (very innocent girl, they are both into Harry Potter) I love how the whole age thing/year group has not defined them. All the kids know each other and knock around together to a degree.

So far so good. If your gut tells you the small school.. go for it. The drive at 7 mins is totally incidental.

I can’t see the appeal of such a small school. I would go out of my way to avoid it. DS went to a lower school with 125 kids across years R-4. That was small enough. From Y5-8 he’s at a middle school with 940 kids and he’s absolutely loved it. As he is an only child with no cousins, school is the only place he gets to mix with other kids, i wouldn’t want to limit that for him.

Is the small school 30 kids in the whole school? Or in each year group?

My Dc went to a one-class intake primary. There is no way I would actively choose a school with only 30 kids in total. In such a small number of kids your own age, a fall out could mean no other friends. A couple of friends move away and that’s: friends gone. By 9 boys and girls make close friends in different ways, what if he doesn’t get in with the only boy his age, and the girls leave him out?

Bigger schools have more flex to use their funding, more resources.

I would visit both schools (if we ever can again! ) with an open mind and look at the education ethos and relative progress and achievement.

I'd go for the bigger one as it can be problematic having a small pool of potential friends if you don't gel with them. It's also easier logistically.

I think I would rather give my child the opportunity of more facilities and more friends at the bigger school.

30 children total in a school is way too small. Too many risks that they won't have friends. My kids were in a 100 child school (5 classes) and it was not good at all and they didn't have modern facilities.

You can't expect a kid to walk an hour to school every day 😂 what about when it's peeing down, or icy cold, or boiling hot? I would say half an hour is pushing it!

With 30 kids in total, it's worth asking the school what happens if your dd is the only Reception applicant that year. 30 in total would be an average of 4/5 per year but I wouldn't assume each year group was the same size never mind have equal numbers of boys and girls.

A 12 year old of my acquaintance went to a school 3 times the size of your small one (so about 100 children). I think it's safe to say it's been lifechanging for her, and not in a good way. For the last three years there she was the only girl in her year. She has missed out on those vital years in primary learning how to negotiate friendships. She is now struggling with friendships at a big secondary. Give your child options. Send them to the bigger school. Tiny is cute when you're looking at future schools for your 3 year old. By 11 cute will likely have turned to stifling.