Thoughts on baby-16years school setting

[Frances92]

I’m considering sending my sons to a small, private school in a nice suburb of a regional city. They are 1 and 3. The school is on quite a small site within a Victorian villa, and has a nursery, pre-prep and prep school all in the same building. There is a secondary classroom next to a nursery room next to a year 3 classroom - no separation between ages to encourage mindful behaviour, confidence, and a family atmosphere around the school / corridors. playgrounds are separate .

My question is: is this odd? Would your little children be intimidated, or older children find this lame and annoying? And, despite assurances from the school, is this safe? 16 year olds next to a room of babies? What do you think about this?

I can’t find much online about mixed aged schools - just mixed age classrooms.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! I don’t know many other parents to talk about this with.

I know one child (actually now adult) who went to this kind of set-up and it was great for him as he’d struggled to settle in large state school mainstream classes. He wasn’t hugely academic but a lovely person. The school was fine at managing separation of ages appropriately. They know what the risks are are are legally obliged to keep their children safe in education.
I now teach in a tiny nursery/prep school and to be honest, by the time the children are 11, they’re generally desperate for a wider circle of friends. In spite of the homely, safe, family environment.
So I’d be tempted to think carefully about the size of the place and how it will feel for a year 5/6/7 child.

I know kids who have studied in this environment. A colleague's wife taught there. They moved their son to another school. He got bored learning the same stuff 3 years in a row. The school was not academic. It would suit not very academic children who need more attention and a highly predictable environment with the same dozens of people. I do wonder if the children would struggle to cope when they go to university.

Probably great if your child needs nurturing for whatever reason, SN or MH for example. Otherwise no, sounds awful.

@ArghhWhatNext this is really interesting, thanks so much for sharing. Perhaps it’s a good setting for primary, and we need to consider all options for high school when it comes to that. Have no idea if he’s academic, shy, outgoing or whatever right now. Just a boisterous happy toddler! Hopefully it will become clearer whether it’s a good fit as he settles into pre-prep. Appreciate your thoughts thank you!

nursery, pre-prep and prep school all in the same building. There is a secondary classroom next to a nursery room next to a year 3
Just clarifying - is it also secondary as well as nursery, pre prep and prep? You mention a secondary classroom next to year 3 but the first bit doesn't say secondary. Does it go right through to year 11?

I actually taught in a school that went 3-18 but it was massive so the pre prep and prep felt like different schools and the secondary was at the far end of the campus. That seemed to work well. I would have a lot of reservations of the same age range in a very small school.

How many students are in the secondary? How small is the school?

Check whether it's financially viable if it's that small....

Children need different things at different ages. Close-knit and nurturing nay be perfect at 4yo... but claustrophobic a few years later.

Or a small specialist school might be brilliant if that's what they want to do... but a smaller schools often have a more limited curriculum simply due to economies of scale.

@TempleHill yeah this is a really good point about university. I went to a village school in the countryside, so trying to mimic that for my children in a small school rather than the big 3/4x reception classroom schools around the city. But there’s merit in those, too! Thank you for your thoughts :)

@Zonder @titchy ah yeah sorry I didn’t say secondary in my post! It’s secondary too. Total 270 students across the whole school, unsure how this breaks down between prep and secondary but I know there are around 20 children in each classroom. The nursery is separate to this, but on the same site.

Thats interesting that you taught somewhere similar but bigger. That’s the thing with this school, when we viewed it, there were (very well-mannered!) teenagers walking past tinies holding hands with teachers. I understand their ethos but also find it weird. I’m glad I’m not the only one that finds it weird - I was worrying that i just didn’t “get it” as someone who didn’t go to private school myself.

really appreciate all the perspectives thank you!

Oh that is waaaay too small for secondary, probably also primary tbh. Not enough for sports teams, wind band etc, fewer kids to be friends with, no subject choice.

No sounds awful. How does it work with the playground and keeping everyone safe but still ensuring they have lots of outdoors time especially in early years but still have access to age appropriate play equipment and toys? The older ones will have limited GCSE options because the year groups are so small. Also it’ll be rubbish for sports, orchestra etc. because of the low numbers. Not to mention the friendship pool being really limited, which will get even worse from Y3 upwards when they tend to stop playing with the opposite sex. Between the high ratios needed for nursery and the specialist teachers and classrooms needed for secondary I’d be really concerned about the financial viability of the school when pupil numbers are so low. Moving on whenever that comes is going to be a shock to the system and potentially quite difficult if DC would need to sit entrance exams for other schools but this one won’t be preparing them because of an expectation they’ll stay.

So that may mean around 140 in prep and pre prep and 130 in secondary? That's a small pool to make friends in and I wonder if the curriculum is limited.
Really it depends on the child. My DC went to a large secondary school and had a lot of social choice as well as curriculum. A couple of friends chose very small private secondaries but their children needed a very nurturing setting and weren't so bothered about the social side.