Advantages and disadvantages of a brand new school?

[Lawks]

We are outside UK. The schooling mirrors the UK system.

Dd is due to start KG1 in September. This morning I went to look around a brand new school. It's been open since September.

It currently takes children up to Year 4, and will be increasing to Year 6 next year. It will eventually be quite a big school. At the moment though it isn't. There are only 2 children in Year 4!

They hope to have 60 KG1 pupils this September (they currently have 20).

As far as dd is concerned, she would never be in a teeny year group, as she's starting from the bottom. There would not be many children in the years above her at first. Does this matter?

Some parts of the school are not yet finished. The Foundation Years areas are finished. It's the big school that isn't complete, but she won't be using that bit for a couple of years anyway.

They are feeling their way a bit. They only just got the library books delivered, so for example don't have any sort of set library visiting policy.

I'm not even sure they've decided which sports they are going to do.

But does any of that matter if she's in KG1?

I was thinking an advantage is the cosy feel of it. It's new and exciting. There aren't many of them. She would probably develop a fierce ownership of the school, no? The first kids to go all the way through from KG1 to finish?

I think it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I wondered what others thought. Particularly interested to hear from anyone in education or with experience in a new school.

Bump

I guess it's not really something to grab your interest if you've not had to think about it yourself.

And my OP is a bit rambly.

Pros - up to date, new facilities, a bit of a "buzz" about a new project

Cons - unknown quantity, teething troubles whilst everyone settles in, possible problems if building works overrun etc.

I can think of lots of advantages such as new resources, motivated teaching team and nice environment.

A possible con would be that presumably it is a private school if it is mirroring the UK system but abroad: what happens if it is not successful / cannot find sufficient paying pupils to maintain it? Are there other international schools where you are and how do they fare? Do you have any idea what the local demand is likely to be? What would happen to your DD if the school closed?

Ds sat 7+ for a new school this year.

My thoughts included- pro and con, no particular order:

they would be keen to fill the places

they would be keen to get good results

they had excellent brand new facilities

the school felt very empty

the children would have the benefit of lots of space and might be able to build more confidence with fewer pupils

what if they could not fill the places? is there financing in place to cover this?

do they have the full complement of staff if many have to be part time?

would good staff want to join a school that was an unknown quantity.

As it turned out, ds had an offer from another, more preferred, school but this one would probably have been our second choice!

We signed DD up for a school that wasn't built!

It was the new prep school for an established independent senior school on our doorstep.

It went from drawing board to opening in 9 months and opened with about 100 pupils aged 3-11. She went in at the beginning of its second year, as a nursery child.

Two years later it started increasing to 2-form entry. This year it will celebrate its 10th birthday and has almost 400 pupils from nursery to Y6. Children can start in nursery, there's 2 form entry at reception and 2 form from Y3.

We've watched it grow and been part of its growth. WRT sport - for a while they taught tennis in Y2 but now they don't. They are a force to be reckoned with sportwise though Musically, every child in Y3 gets to play an orchestral instrument (1-2-1 lessons) and many children continue. They have ensembles and do regular performances.

They've just had a new library built and new Y6 classrooms.

So IME, go for it!

Sorry 3 form entry from Y3