High mobility in a school?

[BedsitBob]

Just curious really.

Both DS and DD have had new children start in their classes since half term.

That means that this academic year in DD's class - 4 children have left and 4 have started.

and in DS's class - 4 children have left and 6 have started.

Is this a lot/the norm/hardly any at all? I suppose it feels like quite a lot of movement to me, so would be interested to know if it really is?!

I think it depends where you are. The primary school where my DCs both went for a few years had high mobility and was still a good school. It was in a nice but central area of a big city, close to a large university and a concentration of teaching hospitals, which meant that quite a lot of children had parents in academia or medicine who moved around a lot. Also generally lots of people moving to the city for work.

Children tended to leave either because their parents were moving for work, or were moving to areas with better state secondary schools, or they switched to private schools at various stages from year 3 - year 6, again usually in order to get them into good schools early because of the issues with state secondaries in the area.

So lots of movement doesn't have to mean a bad school. However, there are some schools which have lots of movement because they are so unpopular or are clearly failing/heading for special measures, and are therefore the only school with places for new arrivals to an area, but people then move their children to better schools as soon as a waiting list comes up. But I think you'd know if that applied to your school.

Bedsit:

I think it depends on reasons for moving your child from the school. If those families are moving to other towns/ cities for job reasons, then it really isn't a 'bad sign' - it's just that people have moved for career reasons.

I agree that 6 children starting in a class of 30 seems a lot.

I think the thing to ask yourself is whether you're happy that what your son is doing and that in general school life seems stable. Listen to conversations: Are the parents in the school ground in the morning generally pleased with the school or not?

The ratio you mention (4 leaving and 6 arriving) does sound favourable - more want to go to your school than not. I think it is when you see a steady stream of transfers and numbers dropping then there may be a problem (which is the case at DD2's old school - where class sizes are all

It's a lot.

If the children haven't moved out of the area them they're very unhappy with the school.

Besides that a new child starting us a lot of extra work for the teacher.

Besides that a new child starting us a lot of extra work for the teacher.

Why?

I've had some classses that haven't changed all year.

The norm seems to be one or two children in a class. Perhaps one out and one in.

A few years ago I was joking that it was all down to me that I'd had 4 chlidren leave my class and 2 join.

But 2 moved country and the other 2 moved house. It happens.

One did move to another school because her family were unhappy about how she wasn't mixing with the other children. They decided a new start would fix things. Nope, a few months later and they were complaining that their (rather precious, unfortunately) DD was having problems settling with the new children there. AND the new school was unco-operative when it came to her request that her child self medicate with calpol (if her knees hurt), her eczema cream and all sorts of other things.

A new child starting for the teacher means....
New class lists for golden time charts, certificates charts.
New books finding for all subjects.

Getting up to date really quickly with their ability if their school hasn't sent over anything.

Setting them new targets.

Sorting out reading groups, maths groups appropriate to their ability.
New peg labels.

Sorting out which spelling group they are in.
Assigning buddies to help them settle in.
An extra book to mark.

An extra set of parents to see at parents evening.

An extra report to write (when you don't necessarily know the child yet if they join in the summer term.

A new tray label.

Not the end of the world... but not as straightforward as when you do them all for the class in the summer holidays at the beginning of the year.

It's hardly a LOT of extra work though, is it! All sorted by the end of the first week, then it feels as if they have been there forever!