Prep 2 form vs 3 form

[user14809753]

Hello

We've narrowed down our prep school options to 2 Co-ed & non selective ones for our DS. They have very similar offerings and results (destination). We've visited both a couple of times each and we feel that we would be happy with either of the two.

The only real difference we see is that one is 2 form (40 pupils in total a year) and the other is 3 form (60 pupils in total a year). Part of me thinks that our DS will get more opportunities to take part in various school activities as there is a smaller pool of kids to be chosen for sport team, choir, drama etc. But a part of me feels that the bigger school with more varied extra curricular clubs might benefit him as he has more options of activities to choose from?

But I know little about the difference in reality.. Could you shed some light for me? Developing him into a confident and well rounded child is most important to me (more than academics) And I wonder if one school might be better for this than the other due to its size.

So they both start with 2 and 3 forms respectively and carry on right up to year 8 or do they lose/add forms? I prefer smaller classes up to age 7 or so then having a larger pool of kids to choose from can help you find your tribe. Which school has a head that's likely to be in place for a long time? Do you have a preference between the heads? What's the financial position of both schools? Have you met and liked some of the year 8 boys from both schools? What are the facilities like? What type of parent/family does each attract? You're going to be stuck socialising with these people for years and it really does matter. How do they view sports? Lots of teams and encouragement to participate or only field the best? You need to really drill into the detail.

So they have 2 and 3 forms respectively throughout the school years from reception to Y6.

We've done that drilling down for a long time. Having started with many more school options we've now narrowed down to the two after the drilling down process.

It's hard to tell which head will stay longer. And we like both heads for slightly different reasons - but they are both good. The Y6 kids we met were all very bright and nice. But also we don't want to generalize the entire school with the two kids you meet on open days. Facilities are similar. One has a bigger canteen and the other has a bigger ground, but no material difference we saw. We think they attract similar kind of families as they are quite close in terms of location and almost identical fees. One seems to have more international families but again we feel that they are similar.

So on many aspects we've found that the two schools are very similar, or where there is a difference we like both. Only thing we are trying to get our head around is the size of the school as we haven't established our opinion on the pros and cons of the 2 form and 3 form..

Oh that and the fact that one school does setting fir English and math (separately) from I think y3 and the other school doesn't have this practice.. (academic results seem very comparable in the end)

Maybe go along to the summer fetes to get more a sense of the community and other parents?

With regards setting...tends to benefit the very bright pupils and be worse than mixed ability for average and lower ability pupils. Assuming your child is 3/4 it’s hard to know which he will be I know!

Personally I prefer a smaller school. I’m a teacher and have worked in both and love the personal aspect of a smaller school. The ‘negatives’ of a small school are unlikely to be a problem for the school you mention though as 40 per year isn’t that small.