Three form entry primaries which have expanded to become four form entry

[DougCranston]

My children's primary school is currently 3 form entry but the local education authority is consulting on whether to change it into a 4 form entry to cope with the rising number of primary places needed. Does anyone have any experiences of where this has happened or perhaps your children already go to a 4 form entry primary and you could share your experiences and advice. Many thanks

We went to four forms and had no consultation! LA just said this is what you are doing. We are now on two sites. Pluses lots of resources for kids with gifted programme, more music, speech therapist and OT on site. Also have EP coming in every three months on standard rotation so no waiting to be seen. Minuses are the extra time between schools for parents with kids in both. Also no whole school events like nativity play. As a parent can feel a bit lost in overall size but staff work hard at helping children feel included.

Not quite the same thing but DS's junior school constantly swaps between 3 and 4 form entry depending on the birth year. AT the moment I think all the years have 4 forms. I'd want to check if your school is about to swap that there is sufficient communal space (e.g. playgrounds, halls etc). Also how they will accomodate extra classrooms - will they have to have temporary?

4 form entry has been great for DS - it means he's had access to a wide variety of opportunities and has a bigger peer base (he didn't gel with any of the boys at his 2 form entry infants).
Slight downsides are managing space -it's a squash to get the whole school in the hall, and DS (e..g) sometimes complains that they are shephered in and out of lunch very quickly.

My son goes to a 4 form entry school. However it's split into separate infants & junior schools so it's technically a smaller school than the other primary school down the road that has 3 form entry.

He's been in the attached nursery for a year, and is currently in reception, so we've not been there too long but we think it's fantastic. The only negative stuff is logics stuff like millions of cars on the road at drop off/pick up time etc. Each year in the infants has their own playground.

Time might change our opinion though!