Historically schools in my town have been First School (Reception to Yr3), followed by Middle School (Yr 4 - 8) then high school. This will all change in 2015 to bring us in line with the rest of the country and the Key Stages. No objections to that at all.
DS1 is in Year 4 at his new Middle School and, although he found it hard to settle at first in Sept, he now loves it.
We had always planned that DS2, who is currently in Reception, would follow his brother to the same Middle School when he reached Yr 4. But because of the changes he will now be expected to stay at his current First school.
The First school is getting a new Head, new teachers and will be building new classrooms to accomodate the new, older children that will be coming up "thorugh the ranks" from 2015. They assure us that the school will be fully equipped to teach older children and will follow the national curriculum.
Whilst the First school is a lovely small (2 x 30 per year) place for children to start and has a great pastoral care and family feel, I don't think it is equipped with the IT and sports facilities that kids of 8, 9 and 10 years old require. I also don't think the school pushes the children as hard academically as the Midddle school. For example homework in Yr 3 was once every 3 or 3 weeks and suddenly jumped to every night in Yr 4 when DS1 moved over.
We've been offered the chance to apply for a place for DS2 to move to the Middle school with his older brother in 2015 (when he'll be starting Yr2). This is possible as the school also has a separate First School provision. I would prefer to do this as I think he'll benefit more long term being in the bigger school with more resources. Also the changes to his First school are an unknown so I prefer to move him to a school where we already know how they cater for the different age ranges.
The difficulty is that all of his peers seem to be staying put at the First school. I've asked other parents in the playground and also asked the school but it appears he will be the only one to move.
My husband feels that moving to a new school with all new classmates at Yr2 will be too tough on him and will knock his confidence (he'll have just turned 6) and that we should leave him put with his established freidnship groups. DH has every confidence in the school making the necessary changes.
I, on the other hand, think that he'll probably be a bit unsettled for a while (as was his brother) but that he'll soon adapt and over the long term he'll benefit from being at a larger school (5 x 30 per year)with better facilities. I also think he'll have less of a shock on the transition to high school.
We can't agree. We've spoken to teachers and parents but everyone has a different view. As our only exposure to the new school is from DS1 being in Yr 4, we're going to have a tour of the First School provision to get a feel for it on 19 June.
The deadline for applications is 20 June. How do we make a decision if we can't agree?!