Only boy in class

[Muumm]

My son started reception class today and he is the only boy in his year with four girls. My husband is talking about wanting moving him to another school now. My other son is in year two in the same school. What would you do?

It must be a tiny school to only have 5 in the whole of reception? I think regardless if the children are girls or boys it’s a tiny pool of children to be friends with.

Only 5 in the year? Is this a private school or a just a tiny school with only 1 or 2 classes (eg in the middle of nowhere)?

If only 5 in year it isn't a great surprise it could end up unbalanced.
Was this size unexpected to you?

Where do you live for there to only be 5 pupils in the entire reception year OP? If it’s that remote, is there even other options for schools nearby?

I can understand your husbands concerns, especially if this is likely to remain the situation until he leaves the school in 6 years time, but I think it really depends on how practical moving schools would be.

Can’t he get his ‘male’ fix from other activities i.e football clubs etc?

Only 5 children his age in the whole school? Yes I would move him.

I'm curious as to what message your husband would expect your sons to take from that?

I imagine you must be fairly rural would it not be a massive hassle to have him at a different school?

I know kids who went to a rural school with 10 in the year with a 8 boys / 2 girls split which seemed to work ok as they all played together.

Will they be taught separately or in a mixed R / Yr1 class? How will school encourage him to make boy friendships? Is the school so small that team sports opportunities will be very limited? Would that be a drawback for him? To be honest the limited friendship options for the girls sound terrible too, there will always be someone being left out. Speak to the school first.

I imagine you're pretty rural to obly have 5 children in his year group. I wouldn't think moving him would be a great idea if that's the case as surely most of the local schools would have similar numbers and you could never garuntee that children wouldn't move away after you'd moved him to a new school.

I would let him settle in a bit and then ask his teacher what the plan is for him mixing with more children. I appreciate covid might make this more challenging but even ignoring the fact he's the only boy having a group of 4 peers is going to be beyond stifling friendship wise.

That's a very small school!

The school has a capacity of 100 and in my other sons year there is 14, no problem there, but for some reason, the next year intake was only 3 (one boy), which we’re not sure of the reason why. May see the year out and see how it goes, it would be difficult to move one son and not the other though.

Where would you move him to? There aren't likely to be two schools within commuting distance with those tiny pupil numbers??

Is it a state school? How are they still open with intakes of 3 and 5 per year?

In my experience, in smaller groups, they All tend to play together anyway. The only time they wouldn’t is if a child prefers their own company.

So in year 2 there are 14 children
In year 1 there are 3 children
And in reception there are 5 children

A grand total of 22 children in the whole of KS1 is just mind-boggling, why doesn't the school do mixed classes? I'd be wondering how on earth they could justify hiring a teacher for just 3 children.

Are all the other local schools so tiny? I'd honestly consider moving them both.

Why do you want to move him just because he is the only boy?

am I missing something? Is it just because he is the only boy and you want him to have other boys to mix with. If so will he not be able to mix with other boys from other year groups at playtime ( after Covid if they are in bubbles)
Or is it just the class size is too small and you would like him in a bigger class?

Some rural schools are tiny. The one in my village has one teacher and 17children.

When I was at school (different tiny rural school), there were 27children.

One thing I'd say is that the roll for these schools tends to fluctuate a lot.

I'd move him if possible. My dd is in a boy heavy class...it's been a massive issue.

They are talking about integrating KS1 actually, as I spoke to the head at pick up today. This may sway me to keep him there, as it is a good school overall. If he wasn’t happy, I’d definitely move him. Thanks for all your comments.

One of my dc's was in a year group with 10 boys and one girl, small village school and because of low numbers the year groups mixed a lot they were all very happy and well adjusted.

My dad’s best friend through out primary was a boy. I wouldn’t worry about it too much

Are they not combining classes if it's that small. Tiny schools in my experience often have classes of several year groups. One in particular just has one KS1 and one KS2 class. I think there are fewer than 20 children.

@Muumm

They are talking about integrating KS1 actually, as I spoke to the head at pick up today. This may sway me to keep him there, as it is a good school overall. If he wasn’t happy, I’d definitely move him. Thanks for all your comments.

X Post. Hopefully they'll do this but I think it's odd they're only thinking about it now when they've had their allocation for months. Maybe they've had some children move away over the summer?

It's a very small school. I personally wouldn't want there to be less than 15 kids in a year, ideally one full class per year

The school my ds is starting tomorrow only has 35 pupils from age 3 through to 11. We're rural, but not so much that there aren't other schools nearby, within a few miles. I'm thrilled tbh. Makes drop off and bubbles easy.

It might not necessarily be a really remote school my kids village school has 30 kids per class, there is another school a mile away with 15 per class, however a mile in the other direction is a tiny school in a small village with 30 in the whole school. We are about 45 miles from London so not remote.