Too-small primary school

[lovelyjubilly]

Has anyone else had the experience that the primary school their DC attends is not big enough to provide the level of enrichment that they would really benefit from?
My eldest is in Y4 and always exceeds in all areas. She is by far the brightest in her class and I am concerned that she never has to work hard for anything. We can't afford extra-curricular activities and the ones offered by school seem to be more geared towards 'cheap childcare' than enrichment. She doesn't play an instrument, doesn't play any sport (in fact I'm not even sure they get the right amount of PE in a week - only 1 lesson per week), there are no opportunities to be in a school production... How normal is this?

We didn't send our kids to the local primary school. I think there were a maximum of 15 children there at one stage- class 1 and class 2. Like others we took our chuldren to schools outside the village. One parent discovered that when he moved his child at year 3, she was way behind the others in the new school, so others moved their DC. The County Council closed it , shortly after spending a lot of money on demountable class rooms which are still there I believe.
I think schools can be too small to benefit the pupils.

Could your DD teach herself a music using YouTube? Or learn a language online with Duolingo? Do Park run at the weekend?

She does do Spanish on Duolingo which she really enjoys.

She doesn't have the perseverance to learn an instrument independently (largely I think because she doesn't really know what it means to have to work at something).

I like the idea of taking her to parkrun but the junior one is so far away from where we live and would clash with church.

Thanks for the suggestions though :) It's so hard to know how to encourage her when school are seemingly doing nothing.
She absolutely loves singing and dancing, is desperate to go to stage school but we just can't afford it and there are just not the opportunities at school.

Are there any amdram groups nearby? Some only take children past a certain age but the one Ds goes to you can join at age 6.

We teach DS using Alfred’s basic piano course (we do play instruments - though only amateur). The ukulele is fun too. Or something like the pbuzz (though maybe range of notes on this is a bit limited).

www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Piano-Course-Lesson/dp/088284816X/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_5?psc=1&pf_rd_p=ae289644-4811-4c81-ab14-ea5d2b3a4c7d&_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_wg=45JhM&pf_rd_r=7ASTPVWWV3BVJ56RRJA1&pd_rd_i=088284816X&pd_rd_w=XoJ1O&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&refRID=ABR22HRJ3DRWKXY6C7DH&pd_rd_r=a7ee1d67-2771-4de0-81c3-7fdc1f56bc20

Puzzles like:
Smart Games SG 431 Penguins Pool Party www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LYF5IM9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_wFf3Db2QBXHXJ?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

There are fun videos on Rubik’s cube solving and speed cubing.

Riddle/puzzle books

Raspberry pi, bbc microbit. Haven’t tried the activities, but this page seems to have quite a few fun ones: makecode.microbit.org/projects/banana-keyboard

Board games: carcassonne, pandemic. Also classics like backgammon and chess.

There is no required time for PE in the curriculum.

Is there a bigger school that you could take her to? If so I would probably move her. Being a big fish in a small pond is not the best way to educate a bright and able child and I doubt you’re even getting accurate feedback about her learning if she’s deemed better than the others. If that’s not possible then try a home education school - many (The Australian ones tend to be the best here) offer correspondence teaching - so you can meet your teacher online, work in groups with other students etc.

Sounds like your DD's school is quite small and I understand your point of view. DS went to a one-form entry primary school, with 30 children a class, and I still think it was a mistake to send him there. He stood out like a sore thumb and he felt singled out often and had very few friends. He was given extra/different work to do but was always working on his own. He completely blossomed when he started secondary school in a large state school as there are other children who are more academically minded, he enjoys the competition, he has made new friends and groups of people with similar interests to his.

Outside of school activities are also important, but these can include more creative stuff like art, and there are so many online tuition (we love Shoo Rayner's drawing videos on youtube for example). DS plays music (three instruments), chess club, coding club, and maths club at school. Large schools are so much better in my opinion. And the older they get, the more 'streamed' the forms are so now the top set in maths or English is really the top set and the work is much more challenging, but for everyone in the class not just one or two children. I'm not saying you should change school, but I'm saying I regretted not moving my DS to a larger primary school once I figured out he wasn't happy.

I like the look of Alfred's basic piano course.
How old is your DS Namenic? Does he get on okay with it? All of the reviews on Amazon say it's great for adult beginners but not many mention using it with kids...

He stood out like a sore thumb and he felt singled out often and had very few friends.
This does concern me a bit. She is in a class of 28 (one form entry) and her similar-ability best friend moved to New Zealand a year ago. She's been a bit lost ever since, trying to keep her nose out of friendship dramas and seems to spend a lot of time helping other children (both in the classroom when she's finished her work and at lunchtime when she goes to help in nursery).

Every parents evening we mention that we are concerned that she's not being challenged enough. They say that it's a challenge to find anything that actually challenges her. My Yr2 dd is the same.
Her end-of-year report for Y3 said that her target in maths for Y4 was to learn the bus-stop method for division. I sat down with her and explained it, she practised for five minutes and had cracked it even before dinner was ready.

Reading some of the replies on here makes me think that we at least have to consider moving them...

DS is 5.5 - I think he started just before 5 after a few false starts due to short concentration span which has now improved. I think there are lots of different books within the Alfred’s course series and the specific one he started on was: Alfred’s basic Prep Course (for the young beginner) lesson Level A (he is now on level B).
He is quite precocious and an early reader - but he loved that there were words to each piece of music. His grandmother could also play the duet parts to some of them to make it more interesting too. I think it builds things at a nice pace and he likes it. Here’s a selection from beginning, middle and end of the book

If she loves singing becoming a chorister is a great option, they actually get paid a small stipend at larger churches and cathedrals plus get music education for free

This sounds more of a school problem than a small school problem.
Until we moved house (and therefore school) ds was in a 12 child entry school. He was stretched massively and never made to stand out like a sore thumb. In fact he made better friends there than he has ever had at the 2 form entry school he moved to. In some ways now he is probably stretched less despite there being more opportunities. Fitting 250 children into a school play is much harder than 70 for example. So in his old school he was singing solos by year 2. This year (yr6) he had a main part but only 5 lines to say.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, in your case changing schools might be the answer, but only if you find the right school. Just being bigger isn't necessarily the answer.

It isn't the size of the school but the expectations and standards of the leadership that dictated the range and depth of opportunities. There are lots of grants and opportunities to work and develop opportunities with other schools and services if you have an outward looking school. Some schools are stagnate and do the same things year in and year out.

You need to be asking the Head if you feel there is a gap in the market after getting feedback from other parents. They may be happy with what they are getting?

I’d highly recommend the philosophy seminars at giftcourses.co.uk, as a relatively cheap way to meet like-minded children.

Also being a chorister is brilliant - they can learn at their own pace, make friends, build confidence etc. It has been amazing for my dd - she’s now in National Youth Choir, singing solos regularly at church and at school, racing through music theory at her own speed. It also gives her access to discounted voice, organ and piano lessons (if she wanted them, which she doesn’t).

IME, school won’t change, and it’s better to just see it as a place for socialisation and covering the basics. And look at all the possible secondary options (specialist places, bigger schools, bursaries at an independent schools etc), as that’s the next step.