Experiences of very large primaries

[waterrat]

I'm moving to walthamstow east London and some of the primaries are multi form entry - I went to a single form entry primary myself so have no experience of this

Does it matter? Does it affect teaching/ the way the school is run?

Does it mean playtime is a bit more overwhelming for the little ones?!

My children's primary was a four class intake (120 children per year). I think this is too big, but the school made considerable efforts to stop it being a problem. The reception classes, for example had their own area and playground.

It can also be difficult for a child to stand out - and it's a lot more difficult to get into school teams, etc.

But on the plus side there are wide opportunities for friendships, lots of stuff going on, and when the children start secondary school they're well prepared for 'big school'. And my children have been very happy at their school.

Read the ofstead reports of various schools. I suspect that there are far more important factors in how a school runs, such as who its pupils are, how supportive its parents are and what qualities the staff have, especially the head, than how big it is.

Just to add - for teaching purposes the teachers have regular meetings to check that the syllabus is the same across the four classes.

My DD goes to a very large primary (in Paris) - there are 90 DC for the first three years of école maternelle (on two sites) and 125 DC for the next five years of primary school, though there are 7 classes on a different site in the last two years.

There are pros and cons. The major pro is that there are lots of potential friends! In a big school, you will always find a big group of like-minded people to hang out with and it makes for a large, vibrant and interesting community. DD's school does a lot of streaming and setting and there are pros and cons to that - I am pro-streaming but not pro-setting as it is very hard to track DCs when they have a mishmash of teachers. Setting also wastes a lot of time as DCs move classroom.

Probably the biggest con is that big schools can be quite anonymous places where DCs can get lost if they don't have a big personality or shine/stand out in some way (including being naughty!).

my dds primary is 3 form entry and I can only see the positives

playtime and lunch time is staggered so nursery & reception, yr1-3 then yr4-6

literacy & maths are streamed from January in yr1 across all forms, these groups are very fluid and even go across years for the most able

the yr 5&6 are very heavily involved in peer mentoring, there are numerous clubs and teams and transition to secondary is seemless as the dcs are used to multiple teachers and moving around the building for various classes

Ds goes to a school with 100 kids across 4 classes in his year, I personally think it encourages them to be independent and confident.

We have a 3 form intake, but as part of an infant/juniors system, so current infant school only has yr, y1 and y2. It feels like a small village school! Kids and staff know each other, very friendly feel and don't get any of this school gate clique nonsense that gets mentioned on here all the time.

Think a lot depends on the schools attitude and their approach.

I agree that large schools foster confidence. I would be wary of a very tiny primary as I think they shelter children from the real world for too long.

Our local primary was 3-form when DS started, then went to 4-form the year after he started, 30 children per class.

It's a bit of an issue of the moment as they added the extra class and embarked on a building project to house the extra children at the same time. Work has of course taken longer to complete than expected, but hopefully finished by Sept. It has meant that things are a bit topsy turvy moving around the site, but the school is managing as well as it can.

Other schools round here are also 3-form entry, apart from the RC school which is 1-form, but obv no chance of getting in there!

I've been happy with DS's teachers, and teachers from the different yr groups definitely meet regularly. DS has friends across the 3 classes in his year. In reception they had a separate playground away from y1/2 and still do.

My dc (younger 2) go to the largest primary school in glasgow. It's specialist provision (Gaelic) and so popular they're building a new school.

Big doesn't mean worst.

My children go to a very large primary and it's great. I think socially it is miles better - there is much less opportunity for playground cliquiness getting a grip - the school can afford lots of full-time specialist teachers (music/art/PE/languages) rather than having their class teacher cover some or all of those subjects, there are masses of after-school clubs and classes, there are permanent cover teachers that can step in when there is staff absence etc and the children get to know them, it's not like some agency bod being parachuted in for the day. Admittedly drop off and pick up can be a bit chaotic but you get used to it and there aren't very many "whole school" activities such as sports days/concerts etc (they are all divided into year/KS groups) but, overall, I think it's very positive.

The primary school my dc go to is enormous. 5 classes at p1 rising to 8 by p6.

I think as others have said it depends on how well the school manage it. In our case it seems to work well. Teaching can be more targeted as children are streamed for certain subjects within the year, rather than just within the class.

There is a lot of effort made to integrate the children within the classes- classes are remade three times at primary. There is a greater pool of children to be friends with. My dd seems to know everyone within her year (150). The mist noticeable downside is that there is very little interyear mixing. They do everything as a year group.

Thank you - that is all really helpful .. I like the idea of more potentil friends!

there are 900 children at my kids' primary school - sounds horrendous? It isn't. It's a great school and there are definite benefits - more teachers willing to do after school activities, which means more sport, music, drama and other clubs. The class sizes aren't any bigger than anywhere else and I think it will prepare my kids for secondary school better than the tiny primary school I attended.

Ours is a huge school. 5 form intake last year, 4 form usually.

To be honest, it really doesn't seem to be an issue. There is still plenty of personal interaction and they have really good facilities.

The only drawback for me is that a lot of things that the school arrange are rather overwhelming- like the Christmas fete and disco evenings etc.

I do think it helps to prepare them for secondary school and for life in general.

It is an outstanding school by the way