Any negatives with DC attending infant only school?

[LondonSuperTrooper]

I?m considering sending my DC to a small infant only school which I know he will thrive in. My main concern is how he will cope with moving on to a bigger junior school where he may only know 5-10 children out of 90.

Has anyone done a similar thing? How did your DC cope with the transition from moving from a small & cosy infant to a large junior?

Or should I consider the 4-11 school? It is not as good as the infant but he will be there from the outset and will know most of the other children.

All feedback, negative or positive will be hugely appreciated.

My DC are both in an infants school. Most children from the school move to a much larger junior school (which also takes from other infants in the area).

DS is in year 2, so I don't have personal knowledge of how the move went, but I know that parents of children in the year above were very pleased with how easily their children settled - because everyone is new the school did lots of activities for the children to get to know each other and their new school. I think by 7 most of the children are ready for the "bigger" school environment as well.

Real bonuses I've seen are that the schools are much better tailored to their age ranges - the infants school is ideal for a younger child, whereas the junior school has more facilities and offers more adventurous activities. My perception is that in a 4-11 school one end of the age range can end up missing out.

Y2 children at DS's infants are also given positions of responsibility e.g. helping the younger children at lunch, being play leaders at break time etc. DS has really relished this! In a 4-11 school I would imagine this doesn't happen till Y6.

The biggest disadvantage (for me) is that as I have 2 children it will be a pain in the neck to get 2 children to 2 schools 15 minutes apart even if they do have staggered start/finish times to allow this!

It is also worth considering that you could send your child to the infants and then swap him to a 4-11 school. some of DS's classmates are planning to do this - they picked the infants for the very nurturing environment, but don't want the bigger junior school for whatever reason. This obviously depends on how oversubscribed the schools are.

My DC went to an infant school, my ds has now just started secondary and dd just started juniors.

I've obviously not experiences a primary for them but I am very pleased with the infant and junior school situation. I think the schools can tailor themselves to the ages of the children and as a bonus ds and his friends found the transition to secondary much easier than many of the children who came from primary as he had already got experience of moving up schools.

I am dreading the move to an inferior junior school, but have no regrets about picking the wonderful wonderful primary school he is currently in

D has been at small infant school (32 s in school!!) and has just moved this past September to middle school (300 kids). I was very worried about transition for her, but she has in fact been fine!! The scholl split her infant school peers between classes so that they all knew someone, and she has made lots of new friends. From my experience, I think that sending DD o a smaller school first has given her a huge amount of confidence. She knows exactly who she is and did not get "lost" in a class of 30+ kids.

Thanks Red.

My main concern is that the Junior school will automatically feed in 75 children from the infant school on the same site. This is NOT the infant that I would like to send my DC to.

My DC will be attending a different infant and could be in a situtaion where 95% of children know each other and he would know a small handful. But I keep coming back to what he needs right now.... and it is a caring & nurturing environment which he needs to build up his self confidence.

Thought about transferring to a 4-11 for Yr 3, but school that I like is so oversubscribed that he may not get in.

Thanks for your feedback everyone, much appreciated.

I went to a small village primary school with 2 classes for the infant years. We moved in the summer and I started juniors at a school with 3 form entry ( about 100 pupils as before class size restrictions) all of whom had come up from the attached infants- locally all the schools were straight through primaries, even if the infants/ juniors had different heads etc.

I did fine. The transition will be much like that to secondary school and teachers will be well aware of the need to ensure nobody is left out. Plenty of pupils join schools on their own at odd times and do just fine, so think how much better it should be when lots of people are all in the same situation.

The good foundation that your DC will get at a good infants will be worth it.

Thanks, I also think that a good infant school will be the best start to my DC's education.