primary school - too small??

[Nocturnalnonsense]

I might be moving to a village which has a very small school. 3 classes, 70 children, 10 in each intake. It has a good ofsted report, good (2) with several outstanding features (1). Especially strong on personal/social/moral development. I'm trying to be objective and realistic about it. Any thoughts on what the draw backs might be?

DD's school has 46 pupils (3 classes) and the school I teach in has 86 (4 classes).

Negatives might include: small friendship groups; possible lack of larger facilities; fewer adults - variety-wise iyswim.

Positives might include: better adult:child ratio; family atmosphere (all children know each other); greater chance for 'verticle grouping' in split age group classes.

DD goes to our catchment school but we wouldn't have thought twice about sending her to the village school, despite its smallness. She has only been going since September and already knows all the other children (and they know her - and me!) she knows all the staff by sight and most well enough to talk to.

The small numbers can be a drawback if you are worried about socialisation ... DD is still friends with children from her nursery who go to other schools and will go to Rainbows when she is old enough both of which help to broaden her friendship group.

There can be downsides - poor teaching seems to be magnified somehow - but if you are happy with the teaching standard then I can't see a problem.

Our twins go to a small school - 100 kids split into 4 different classes.

There are many pluses - very friendly family atmosphere, everyone knows everyone, all the teachers including HT are accessible, you really feel a part of a community. Our kids were very nervy and insecure so it was a great school for them.

However, there are many many many drawbacks. If one teacher is off, it is a disaster because there isn't a whole team of staff there to pull from to fill the gap. The adult - child ratio is not better as there is one teacher in each class and no permanent TAs. In fact I think this means they are worse off because that one teacher is splitting herself between two different age-groups within each class. The facilities are basic and we are forever trying to raise funds for every little extra thing. Opportunities for after-school clubs and team sports etc are very limited, again due to the small number of staff.

It sounds very much like my DSs primary - total of 75 in 3 classes there. He did very well there - small class size (max 25 in a composite class up here), flexibility about ability groups, friendly family atmosphere so he got to know all of the other pupils to some extent.

Team sports are tricky to organise, and they tended to do more athletics/ kickabout type games. After-school clubs was just the one club, though they did different activities on different afternoons to vary things.

Socially you have fewer choices, but the children tended to play together at breaks etc so it wasn't an issue. Possibly more of an issue for girls as they tend to want a "best friend" and choices can be limited, whereas boys seem happy in a group.

Overall we were very happy with it for DS.

Thanks for your thoughts. Really helpful. We have lots of friends with children so there would be opportunities for socialising. Will check out after school clubs and facilities, and other groups in the area.

I have two boys, eldest more of a worrier/less confident, the youngest is lively boisterous so in some ways different sorts of schools would suit their very different personalities. Interesting point about staffing. Just looked at the school website and I don't think there are any male teachers at the school which would be a shame for them.

So difficult to know what the right thing to do is.

I know that having men at school is a big thing - esp if you have DSs - but it's not necessarily a deal-breaker ... are your DSs of Scouting age? What about a non-school-based sports club, like mini-rugby?

Can you tell I'm all for small schools??

(BTW - the only male teacher my DB had before secondary school was our dad!!)

My DC was at a small school - about 50 pupils - and moved to what many might still consider small - 210 pupils - but the change is fantastic. Small schools can be incredibly 'cliquey' & claustrophbic, socialisation can be difficult (also everyone is likely to be the same sort of background), few after school activities, everyone knows everything about everyone (not always a good thing ) ............ if I had a choice I would avoid very small schools. Classes may be two year groups so same teacher for more than one year - not ideal.

My two children go to a very small school. They're in Year 2 and Reception, there are 51 in the school split across 3 mixed age classes.

I have to say that the school is fantastic for them. Corny as it sounds, it's like one great big happy family. They all know each other and look out for each other and there's no room for cliquiness. The children socialise with people from a range of different backgrounds and don't pick up on that 'I'm only playing with girls/boys' thing because it would cut out half their potential friendships.

My son is in the biggest class, with 21 children, one teacher and a TA. My daughter has 15 in her class, again with a permanent TA. Adult to pupil ratios are fantastic and I've not known any issues when teachers go off sick.

The only drawback I've come across is the lack of after-school care and clubs. I'm lucky that my work is flexible enough to be able to work around that.

If you have more than one child relatively close in age, they are more likely to end up in the same class at some point, which might be a negative for some (certainly I'd have hated being in the same class as my siblings, and did have that for a small part of the time with my older sister, when we did mixed-year work in one school, even though we were in separate classes the rest of the time).

I have no direct experience but have friends who do. The two main drawbacks for them have been:

• friendship issues, especially if there is a higher number of either gender, meaning that the gender with a smaller number has fewer peers to choose from

• if there is one 'difficult' child in a class it seems to have a greater knock-on effect as there aren't many students to 'dilute' the bad behaviour, or there's no other class to move them to.

Hi. Just wanted to add my experience. Have just moved my dcs (aged 9 and 7) from very small school (34 pupils). When we moved into the area the schools in the town could not take the children and we were recommended to this small school.

Unfortunately it was simply too small, very cliquey, and my dd in particular found it impossible to break into the very tightly knit circle. She also completely lost her confidence as she was constantly compared to the only other pupil in her year. I would say that they fell behind with their general education which was disappointing considering the staff to pupil ratio. The potential should have been enormous, but sadly I think it failed both my dcs. They have now started at a larger school, although still relatively small (110) pupils but in six weeks the improvement both in their progress and their happiness is massive.

Hope this is helpful.

My DD has moved from a smallish school (70 pupils) to a smaller very boy-heavy one (48 pupils).
there are only 11 girls in the whole school.But there doesn't seem to be any bitchiness at all.The girls have a bit of a seige mentality i think and stick together