DD2 will be four in August and starts school in September. Sometime soon we will have an interesting choice to make about which Reception class to request.
The school is a two form entry. They are having a new building constructed and it will open in Sept. At that point one of the Reception classes will be on the main site, with all the Yr 1-6 classes. So it will be a BIG school compared to anything she's experienced before. But her big sister will be in year 3. And I know and like the teacher (even though she scares the willies out of some of my friends )
There is also a Foundation Unit at the Children's Centre, which is part of the school but on a different site. It will provide one Reception class in a much smaller setting, sharing facilities with the Nursery class. We could ask for her to be at that site, where she would be in the middle of the age range and get a more gentle introduction to school. But she wouldn't be on the same site as her sister and when she hits Year 1 she'd have to transfer to the main site. .
I feel that the Children's Centre could potentially be a lovely place to start school, but the children there might have problems integrating with the rest of the school when they hit Year 1. The safe option is to stick with the mainstream class on the main site. But she will be very, very young and she's finding her (fairly formal) nursery a bit of a struggle so I'm tempted to give her another year of a pre-school type experience and hope they are good at managing the transition.
I know that I have to make my own decision, but I'd be interested in anyone else's gut reaction. Or experience of dedicated Foundation Units on separate sites - which is a new one on me.