when is the class size too small?

[foreverastudent]

The local newspaper has printed the photos of all the p1 classes of the schools in the area.

DS's current state primary class has 21 pupils in it. So that's my reference point, if you like.

What has surprised me is the sizes of the classes in the private schools. The big, well known hothouse one has 2 classes of 25 pupils (so bigger than most of the state schools). Then there is a girls school with 1 class of 17, which sounds fine. But there are 2 small private schools (one is a prep) where they have only 10/12 pupils (mostly boys).

Would other parents be concerned about sending their child, especially a girl, to a school where there are only 4/5 others of the same sex to make friends with?

In my primary school there were 5 of us in my class and 2 in my brother's - him and his best friend...

21 is great - I'd say 15-22 ideal. My dd is one of 9 - I think that is too small.

Okay, calm down. It's a discussion - people are allowed to offer their opinions, ForMash. It's how a talk board works.

Totally take on board what you are all saying about too small, too big and not engineering, but another point I think worth mentioning is that you can also steer them to have friendships outside school too. As I said, my son is in a class of 16 for y1 (5 girls) and I would not like it to be much lower, but he has other good friends outside school from my nct group, beavers, cousins, sports clubs, holiday club etc. I think this is probably true of most of the children in his class and I think is something you maybe need to encourage in small classes/ single form entry schools as I could see it getting a bit claustrophobic ( esp for the girls). And when the first fallouts happen. At the moment they all got to all of each others parties etc but are already starting to do different after school activities etc. I don't think they exclude anybody or it would occur to them but already one kid got upset because he wasn't being invited on playdates, not due to anything about him but he has very very odd parents that don't appear to supervise the children very well ( running out into the road etc, nearly drowning at swimming pool etc ) so people were concerned about the return visits. We have rectified this now the teacher bought it up but it does show how exclusion can happen almost without you realising, in this case by the parents not the kids.

My friends DD started primary 1 recently and she is one of 6 in her class! It's a village school but not completely rural or anything. I think it must be great in teaching terms to have all that 1 to 1 time. My DS is one of 25 in his P1 class.

Formash I thought we were talking schoolyards?

When we looked at schools for our children on moving a couple of years ago we considered a small community with a very small school. the school looked lovely, but there were only two children in ds's age group, and he would have likely been taught in the same class as dd as they had mixed year teaching. So we decided against that (the school has now been closed so it was probably a good decision).

We've had class sizes for our two of between about 17 and 31, and slightly surprisingly one of the very best years for ds was when he was in the largest class (with a very experienced teacher). Friends wise I'd be worried if there were less than eight children of either sex in a class (it's sad that that gender is such a big divider, but it has always been for my two), and in a mixed class also of each year group. Just because children are very varied and they won't always just make friends with each other, they need to share interests, a sense of humour, like to play the same games etc, just like adults.

last year dd2 (6) was in a class of 9 where she was the only girl.

This year they've jiggled things around a bit and she is now in a class of 21 where she is one of about 8 or 9 girls.

She seemed to thrive better last year, although she's doing ok this year too so not worried, but the only girl/small class thing seemed to suit her better

Pisces I totally agree, it's lovely when your children do make proper friends with your friend's children, or where you can make proper friends with your children's friend's parents, but once your children establish their interests and likes they will make friends with whoever they like and make it very plain who they don't want to hang out with.

My two say things like "I know you really like x, but I'm sorry that I don't want to play with y (because of x,y and z)" and I have to accept that.

I had that nooka. My best friend had a DS exactly a month older than my DS, but the boys never got on. It never worked when they were 3 yrs -DS used to cry if I said were were going to see them. We tried for a few years going out somewhere interesting, but gave up completely by 6 yrs.
When they started school DS1 had lots of friends, DS2 had one close friend and DS3 had a band of 4 friends. They are all different. Why should a DC who is happy with one friend have adults who want him to be friendly with all? They do things in their own time and DS2 is now the one with the biggest circle of friends, IMO adults should let them develop at their own pace. They need at least a pool of 18 in the class and, apart from slight encouragement, parents should leave well alone. Making friends is a learning curve-leave them free to learn!

DS is in a class of 11, year group has 2 classes so 22 in total, no problems that I am aware of.

Should I be worried then? DD will be in a class of around 18 over four year groups, 2 or 3 in her year, 5 in the year above (as it stands at the mo).
Or are we lucky?

I think it's fine - DS is in a class of 17 at the moment and it seems great. Think next year he will be back to bigger class again but for this year it is good.

Have to admit that it may be easier as he has more boys to be friendly with, but whole year is boy-heavy. In fact school seems to be as well (not sure what is in the water here ). Is ordinary state school.

I am also TheLadyinRed - forgot I name changed part way through.

DD2 is in a (3-year-mixed)class of 15 with only 4 other girls ,none of which is in her yr group (y1).But she is fine because there are people she gets on with.It all depends if your child happens to find a friend they click with, and that,I think, is often just the luck of the draw
The plusses definitely out weigh the minus's though, reads every day 1 to 1 with an adult and lots of attention and tailored work.

i know bad spelling and punctiation above (before some smart-arse points it out!)