Tiny school or large school?

[IsThisYourSanderling]

I'm trying to make a decision about whee to send my DS for school. He's only 2.5 but applying for nursery now, which is attached to one of the schools, which is why I'm thinking about it now.

Large school has 220 pupils, 30 ish per class and growing. Doesn't differentiate by ability within classes. Is a short walk from my house, across a lovely park.

Tiny school has only 33 pupils, divided into two mixed-age classrooms. Children a given work according to ability, as there's no need to keep groups of children at the same level, the numbers being so small. It's a 12 minutes drive away, no traffic. Very rural.

DS himself is very shy with other adults and kids, a little socially delayed, behind with gross motor stuff, but advanced academically. I feel like he might get lost in a big class, and hide his light under a bushel a bit. But is the small school too small?

Anyone have any thoughts? Are there major drawbacks to very small schools? I went to a lovely small village school myself, but it had seventy kids, not thirty.

For ‘option muons’ read ‘opinions’

Ugh, and rising = reading. God I can't wait to be able to type with two hands again (baby is 5mo so that's a while off)

Dd went to a small primary school. There was an infants class and then 2 junior classes. Think there were 6 kids in her year. One year only had 1 kid!

She thrived academically. We moved her to the small school in year 3 from a school with about 500 kids. She was swamped in a big class and went from being a year behind to passing her eleven plus. Totally thrived.

From a friendship POV it wasn't great. Three girls in her year wasn't a good number, someone is always the odd one out. Might be wrong but i suspect it could be less of an issue for boys? They seem to fret less about "best friends" and get on and play all together? You can also do stuff like cubs to increase friendship groups.

Small schools may well have more sporting opportunities. Where we are there is a league of the small schools - with mixed netball and football teams from P1-4 and P4-7. There is farmore opportunity for the less sporty ones to get involved as it’s not all about ability. Similarly with music/drama there are often more opportunities from an early age due to whole school involvement rather than limited to a year or a class.
What a pp said - friendship groups are often across the years and sexes. However, I would try and find out which other kids are likely to be going to the small school just incase there is only your child for that year’s intake.

220 isn't a particularly large school. I was always drawn to the small schools but with hindsight slightly bigger schools would have been better. They have more funding and more resources. A larger friendship pool and a wider group of teachers (probably with different styles), in time your shy little boy might seriously flourish.

I would be brave and go for the larger school

Mine (1 still there and 1 just left) have been in a small school (10ish more than your small school) for primary. It's been great. Everyone plays with, and knows, everyone else. It gives them a sense of confidence as they can't hide! They always have a speaking part in every play/church service, they have to answer questions in class and they do get individual attention from the teacher. My eldest has just gone up to a large secondary, which I was really worried about, but he's taken to it so well, as despite being shy he hasa sort of extra confidence knowing that, for want of a better phrase, his voice matters and is used to answering/asking questions in class. We've always done a few clubs out of school to help with making friends/friendship groups.