Moving State to private in Y1

[Frozen682669]

Hi there, have name changed for this. Looking for some thoughts on our current situation.

DS is currently in Reception in an Outstanding State school. School is lovely, close by and has a great community feel. School generally does very well academically although it has suffered from cuts in funding recently which has made itself felt. Despite this, I think the school will still do very well. My point is, I think it's a great school that does really well with what it has.

However, we've recently been exploring moving our DS to a private school also nearby. Main reason is that we don't feel he's reaching his full potential at school. We think this is down to him being in a class of 30 and they simply can't give him the attention he needs. He's behind where he should be but not enough for him to need any additional support or attention in class. Instead, I've been asked to provide more support at home with reading and numeracy etc. E.g. he only gets a few minutes each week to read with a TA and his reading record usually tells me he's read one or two pages max, which isn't much! At home, he's fine to read Level 3 phonic books with me but they won't move him beyond Level 1 at school (I have asked) so there also seems to be a disconnect between what I know he's capable of and what they know of him. Our DS is bright but slightly lazy if I'm being honest. I know that DS also struggles to sit down and focus for the period of time that they expect of him in class. He's young though but I also get that the class needs to run like this as they're trying to teach 30 kids all of whom have mixed abilities.

The private school means he'll be in a class of 12-15 boys so will benefit from more individual attention. They also make sure the boys aren't sat down for long periods of time which appeals to us. I suppose they can do this due to the smaller class size and still cover the same ground as a class of 30. It's not an academically selective school but the results are good which suggests they are getting the best out of the children. What we are concerned about is that because DS is a little behind where he should be, he isn't enjoying learning as much as we'd like him to (though he does enjoy school itself). He's only in Reception so we know it's still a lot of play but we really want him to enjoy learning and have fun with it which we're not seeing right now.

So we have the option of moving to this school for Year 1. DS is settled and loves his current school but then Year 1 is still very early on and lots of time to make new friends.

Other option is to keep him where he is and try to supplement/support more at home (to the detriment of our home life and quality time together?) and hope that things get easier as he gets older and matures given that he's still so little? Thing is, if this doesn't work out, private won't be an option at all because it will then be 7+ entry and we don't want to go down this route with DS. So it's either move in Year 1 or not at all.

I'm wondering if anyone here can share experiences of small, single sex class sizes and if they feel this has worked for them? I don't have experiences of private schools as I was State all the way. We can afford the private fees if we choose this option. It won't be without sacrifices but they are not massive sacrifices and we are okay to make if it means making the right choice of school for our DS.

Sorry for the rambling post! Would welcome any thoughts on the matter!

I don't understand why you say it's now or never. Why can't he move (if you're set on private and it sounds like you are) in Year 4 or at the age of 11?

Crpis,

The thing is about Maths that the National curriculum is a relatively narrow path through what is a very broad 'field of study'.

So an able child CAN - and indeed under the old NC often was - accelerated linearly along this path, there are other options. This can be applying the range of what could be described as mathematical thinking - reasoning, deduction, logic, puzzle solving - to a range of different contexts (nRich is a good source for problems of this type, as are older puzzle books by MC Emmett and others). It can be exploring the areas of Maths that aren't in the current NC (topology, for example, formal logic, and bases other than base 10, were things I was taught at primary that simply aren't much taught now). It can be by explaining what is happening, rather than 'following the algorithm'.

So a child who is simply 'doing more advanced NC work' is in fact having a very limited mathematical diet.

@cantkeepawayforever

I totally agree but my son can do the recommended Nrich activities a 4-5 years ahead. I teach maths at undergraduate level so introduce him to various ideas outside of the syllabus entirely - I would never teach him syllabus topics at all in fact. He does primary maths challenge, pure logic, lots of tricky trigonometry (but which only requires logic nothing more than angle sum of triangle knowledge wise). The thing is the greater depth material for his age group is really quite easy and the teacher doesn't have time to create her own material for each individual member of the class so he just does greater depth a few years ahead. I don't think this is particularly unusual for maths where the ability seems to vary greatly and a bright student can teach themselves things like adding fractions, algebra etc without ever being taught so the greater depth for higher year groups is very accessible (at least for the most part - DS can do long multiplication but in a way he's invented himself so can't do some questions involving long multiplications with missing digits as he doesn't understand the layout).

I do agree that the NC has very little actual maths - mainly algorithmic arithmetic so accelerating in a linear fashion is a terrible idea.

Sorry to derail OP!

frozen

I could have written your OP - in fact for one moment I wondered if I had posted it while asleep and forgotten I’d done it...

We were in the same position last year. DS was in Reception at an “outstanding” mixed state primary. Most of his friends were girls. But I had a feeling something was wrong. In my view, fostering an early love of reading is one of THE most important things primary school can do. But the school wasn’t encouraging this at all - the children were given very dull books, read-with rarely, the TAs were very reluctant to move children up a level (because it apparently involved a lot of work for the staff, they only re-assessed Reading levels once every 4-5 months)... There were other niggling concerns too but the attitude to reading was particularly so.

Anyway after much agonising we moved him to a private school for year 1. He’s gone from a co-Ed class of 30 to one of 14 boys. Key differences I’ve noted:

• Reading is properly celebrated and encouraged. They have much better books and are read with every day. If a child is progressing well they move up a level straight away without fuss.
• the teachers know the children incredibly well. Homework and other activities are tailored to where each child is - so they don’t waste time doing things which are too easy or too ambitious for them.
• the school is very responsive - I’ve had more contact with his teacher last term alone than in six terms combined at his last school. You can email teachers or see them before or after school, and they take issues you raise seriously.
• they pack a lot more in to the day - the school day is a bit longer but there’s also less time wasted sitting/standing about waiting while the teacher tries to corrall miscreants. Behaviour is generally pretty good.
• they do a lot more sport and exercise where he is now - organised games/PE 3 x a week plus running about in a park 3x a week. His old school did virtually nil.
• quite a lot is expected of parents - I do a lot more with him in terms of HW support than I did at his last school. But some of that is due to this particular school and the amount of homework set.
• he HAS missed the presence of girls (I think) and has struggled to make friends because he was the only new boy.

Overall we don’t regret the decision to move him - although if I could choose again I might have gone for a co-Ed pre-prep.