Help only 3 boys in reception !!

[mia1972]

Hello ladies, I am looking for advice. I am really quite torn at the moment as to what to do next.
So my DS started reception. He is the youngest in the class and, after a few months he started doing well academically. He is also very settled and has made friends, he is very sociable. Now he is going to a village school which is tiny and only takes 15 kids a year which is great as they get more attention from teachers. However, this year and the year before there were only 3 boys in reception. Up to now it has not been too much of a problem, he is happy going, he does play with some of the girls although sometimes he wants to run around and kick a ball and he doesn't get to do that with them.
Recently however we had an added complication: one of the other 2 boys in his class started to 'bully' my son and being mean, saying hurtful things and occasionally hitting him which is a real shame as he is one of 3. Also as they grow older girls and boys will increasingly have separate interests...
I am felling really quite helpless, I will talk to the teacher about the bullying but part of me just wants to move him to another school where he would have a better more rounded social scene. More opportunities to make friends with other kids. I worry however about moving him when he is settled and started doing well academically. Is it a risk? It's hard to know if a new school will be as suitable on other fronts. However I do think that the social side of things is of huge importance at this age. Thoughts?

There were only three children in my year group including me Kitty

DS1 was the ONLY child in his year's Reception intake . But children do join - there are now 5 in his year. Being such a small school, it has mixed year classes, so he has friends in other years. His BFF is a girl, and he has as many female friends as male, which I can't help thinking is healthy.

Yes they do mix year groups, unfortunately last year they had another intake of only 3 boys one of which is severely autistic, the other 2 much older so there will be nearly 2 years difference when they start mixing the class. It's a shame, it's a really lovely school in many ways but a bit limited socially that is all. And yes my son has girl friends and boy friends but and is happy to play lots of girly things- not all the time - but when there is a large group of girls he ends up not really included or this is simply what it looks like from the outside.

IMHE many girls don't like playing with girly things all the time or at all

I don't think lots of girls are the pink fairy types forever. There is also a problem higher up the school when friends in the year above move to secondary school. Year 6 can be very isolated and there are only younger children.

The problem with three boys is that it is old problem of 'two's company, three's a crowd'. It will never be resolved to everyone's satisfaction and if they cannot all be best friends, someone is continually left out and marginalised.

I am amazed schools cuddle children! Mine would have hated that!

Staff would never cuddle a child unless they wanted to be cuddled.

It's the dc cuddling staff at ds school but it's not discouraged as it was in the smaller school.

Mrz, you were lucky to have had a positive experience, I was hoping this for ds but sadly it wasn't meant to be. Moving schools had to be one of the most difficult decisions but in our case I'm glad we made the move. It's been nothing but positive. If I'd had more dc I would have picked a much larger primary over a smaller without doubt. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the mix of cohort, that being said, I'd still find it stifling to have such small class sizes.

The "cuddling" thing isn't anything to do with size of school.

I'm sure it isn't Mrz, just happened to be that way in the two schools ds has attended. I was initially using it as an example that larger schools can be nuturing too.

*nurturing!

Another factor for us was the lack of interest in extra curricular activities. We had one instance where there was an opportunity which wasn't taken up due to lack of numbers, same activity at larger primary went ahead as a larger number of dc signed up for it. This was a paid for club.

I agree, mrz, cuddling is not really a school size issue, but lots of parents on MN think they can only get this type of attention at small schools and they factor it into their choice of school. They appear believe children need to be more robust at larger schools and such schools cannot provide a good experience for the more "cuddly" child! I think it is rubbish, but so many people think only a small school can nurture in this way and provide a "family" atmosphere.