Cons of a smaller school?

[puddingandsun]

Would you prefer a smaller, one form primary school for your kids or a bigger school?
What are the pros and cons of either for you?

Funding is the main con, imo - less kids, less money coming in overall.

Less opportunities for a range of sports/activities.

Harder to find your tribe / escape friendship issues.

I think it would suit some kids though.

I think one form is fine when you are 4/5/6.
But as you get into the top half of primary, the facilities, sports teams potentials, after school clubs variety, friendship breadth are all better with a larger intake.

Primary level small definitely.

• less overwhelming for small children


• much quieter at lunch (the din in DD’s school lunch hall is astounding!)

If there’s an extra class my experience has been that the classes don’t socialise with each other at all so st primary level is doesn’t increase social opportunities at all.

But tbh if goven a big school and a small school to choose from I’d instead be looking at which has better reputation, most interesting clubs, and happier teachers - read their online summer newsletter and look for how many staff are leaving.

One form intake isnt a small school. There are many schools that are, for example, 6 pupil intake. Plenty of cons for those.

One form intake, so 20-30 kids most likely, educationally is not much different to bigger schools. The issue is socially. Your child will never be in a different primary class to pupils she may clash with. This is very difficult when fall-outs happen or if there is a "challenging" pupil in the class.

Ours is a smallish village school and there's been almost no before or after school provision and while dc2 has a firm group of friends, dc1 struggled with only 3 other girls in her year and none of them her cup of tea. She's in a slightly bigger high school and has a good group of (all male incidentally) friends now as there's more diversity of interests.

now that I’m back at work not having breakfast or after school clubs is something I think we miss out on at a smaller school. Otherwise I really like our wee community of parents and that we know all the kids. Around 70 in the whole school.

DD was at a one form.

There was a sex imbalance in her class only 6 boys for most of the time. More chance of that in a smaller school.
Sufficient choice of friends for most, but DD might well have benefitted from a larger school.
Less choice of extra curricular clubs
Cant move forms in situation of clashes, but no angst of mixing up classes either

More chance of being in sports teams.
The HT & teachers knew the children.
No chance of getting the 'wrong' teacher in the year
Pastorally strong.

I kept wondering about moving her, but her class was well behaved and the strong pastoral support kept me there. Still don't know if it was right.

my Kids went to a 1 class per year school
pros….18 to 24 in a class in any given year
very friendly

cons…imbalance in sex ( my DD was in a class of 16 girls and 5 boys….which was fine for her…..however my DS1 was in a class of 17 girls and 6 boys….not so great)
no school sports teams

My DD chose to send hers to a 2 class per year school even though the class sizes are bigger.

There are 2 primary schools in the next town with 4 classes per year….I visit these for meetings through work and they still have a friendly feel to them despite their size.

I came on to say don't use a small school.
But in my experience a small school is a 2 form school. ie the whole school has about 50 kids.
That is not a good option.

One form entry is a nice size for primary. I prefer it to big 4 form entry schools, which I think are just huge and overwheleming.

My kids all went through a 1 form entry, plenty of scope for friends, plenty of afterschool activities, decent football team etc. But also the school had quite a family atmosphere, every fit into the hall together, quite a good team feel.

I think a school lives and dies on the quality of the leadership team. A good head in any school is far more important than one or two form entry. It is often hard to tell from the outside if the head is really a good one. Asking other parents is a good approach.

What you do have to watch for is if the school isn't full. Because they get money per pupil, is class sizes start to drop too much below 25 regularly the school might start doing mix edyear classes to save money.

DDs have attended 4/5 primary schools. Smallest year group 16, largest 128

The two smallest schools (where the year groups varied from 7 children to 35 children (split into 2 classes)) were great for the younger ones. Cracks started to show in Yr4/5 though, with some kids struggling to find others with similar interests. The year groups were too small for some activities. There was greater opportunities to try different things though... everyone who wanted could be on sports teams or in the choir or in the play... they did whole school productions with every child having a part reception through to yr6. The older children got to do stuff with the younger children. More opportunities for house captain/sports captains.

The largest school was just a Junior school so four year groups, but was overcrowded and impersonal.

The two 2 form entry schools they've attended have been the perfect balance mostly, social and education wise. However, just because there are various clubs doesn't mean all children get to do them. There's usually 15-20spaces over 1-2 year groups.

Yes to the money, and the limited pool of children for friendships. One form isn't too bad for friendships though.

But I disagree on the sports front - we have a PAN of 15 (half form entry) and consistently are top of a wide range of sporting tournaments. We also have a huge range of activities of all kinds for the children.

One of the (state) inner city primary schools attended by our kids had a roll of 100 spread across 7 years. So classes were roughly 15 pupils, small enough for individual attention by teachers but large enough to find at least one congenial friend. Our kids were very happy there.

I think a school lives and dies on the quality of the leadership team. A good head in any school is far more important than one or two form entry
Absolutely this.
So depends on the individual school, but it also depends on the individual child.

DCS1 was one form entry, school expanded the following year so DD andDS2 were 2 form entry.

DS1 had a horrific time at primary, 18 boys to 11 girls, v v alpha male types who he had no respite from. DD and DS2 had a much better experience, classes got mixed up once or twice which helped with any friendship issues.

Other tangible benefits too in terms of what they could offer (more external visitors/clubs etc) other than wrap around care which they didn't scale up

I would definitely go for the bigger school, DS1 still takes with great sadness about his days at primary due to just having no other friendship options.

Our village school has about 10 children per year and 3 classes so ages mixed. Pros, teachers know each child well, very individual in learning opportunities, family feel and the school had huge community support. Cons, friendship issues can become difficult, can be quite narrow in outlook and funding is limited. Both dc loved it until year 5 when we did have issues with friends and by year 6 both ready for a bigger school. However secondary school also small with only 460 pupils but much more opportunity to find their tribe.

DD is at a 3 form entry school.

Pros: they group children across the year for phonics so a larger group working at your level. The teachers share responsibilities and planning, which I think is a good thing in terms of them having more time to focus on their bit. DD has friends in other classes, although her main friends are in her class and she would be fine with that. With 90 children it is easier to balance classes e.g. boys/girls, summer born etc. The extra curriculars seem decent. The head and deputy are great so know all the children.

Cons: it's less personal in that the staff don't know all the parents etc. Personally this doesn't bother me but I can see the benefits of a smaller community. It can get busy at drop-off and pick-up. There can be more comparison between classes. For me the pros outweigh the cons but then all the schools here are 2-4 form entry so I didn't think too hard about it!

My humble opinion is that the real cons of small schools start to kick in when you have half form entry, so end up with mixed age classes etc, it gets that bit harder to target lessons to stretch all the kids.

But every school is different, & it's up to parents to check that the school is well enough funded to have decent equipment, TA's in every class, etc.

mine were at a one form entry prep with very low turnover so about 23 in a class. Pro was great educationally but cons, by year 5 they were fed up to the back teach of each other and there was all sorts of not lovely behaviour in both schools in year 5 and 6 because they couldn't get away from each other.