Would you send your children to a primary school with only 48 pupils?

[MamaG]

Thinking of moving

Not that far from where we are now, but much more rural

Local school for 4-11 year olds has 48 pupils and two classes. Excelletn ofsted report

What do you think?

yup why not?

I don't know why not, thats what I'm asking

Its all to consider, isn't it, when you're thinking of moving.

I'm from LEeds, I don't "do" teeny rural schools!!

sounds fantastic

Do you think though that children in bigger schools have better social skills? Or soemthing...

t sounds great, ssomething your dcs will love.

It will be more personalised learning, as teacers havent got so many pupils to cope with.

would depend on the atmosphere of the school - and also the catchment of the school. What I mean is - are all the kids from the village, or are people travelling in from further afield ?

We have a small school near us that has similar numbers - but oddly more than half the kids were coming from further afield - driving past perfectly good local village schools to get there. Somehow that bothered me - made me question why the parents wanted to do that. And that made me wonder if their children would be the right peer group for my kids (given it is a very small peer group it needs to be one that suits them). Also we wanted our kids to have local friends and not have to cart them miles to play with school friends.

In the end we chose to go to a slightly bigger (about 80-90) village school about the same distance away in the other direction.

nope, they are socialising wherever they are.

I went to a huge primary school and at uni dont find it any easier to amke friends than my friends that went to tiny schools do.

Hmm yes, good point.

ofsted report said "teachers know each child very well and tailor the work to suit each individual child" (or similar)

DD is very sociable, but 48 kids is quite a lot isn't it? Should could still go to Brownies and dancing with her curent friends (she's 8, so am a tad anxious about changing schools, even though she is very confident)

yes, sounds lovely. i suppose the only downs ide if you could call it that you'll have mixed age classes, but speak to the teachers about how they manage that. i would assume from an outstanding ofsted that it isn't a problem to the children's achievement or pastoral care.

throck

ofsted said that most of the children are from the village with some from the surrounding area.

I will def visit the school before I decide on moving.

PP - good point, thank you.

some pros- children tend to form friendships with kids of different ages which can be lovely and really good for them. prob. really good pastoral stuff, real community sense, sense of belonging and ownership.
cons.. my ds1 really struggled with vertically integrated classes as he has some problems with concentration and got distracted by other stuff being delivered in the same classroom.
plus can feel a bit insular.
however, i would choose a small rural school over a massive one everytime. clear as mud sorry, as always, depends on the child, depends on the school.

to answer your comments about social skills - that was one of the plus points of the smaller school - the kids seemed to have real self confidence and also had friends across the whole range of the school ages. It seemed that it was a very safe and comfortable environment where they could all be themselves (I guess in a smaller group there is less of a herd to follow!).

Our school is similar in that sense - but not quite as much as the smaller school seemed to be.

Teh school DD attends now is quite small, jsut one class per year.

She's very clever and doing well so I don't want to disrupt that (Gawd I sound dreadful)

I went to a brilliant primary school that had approx 50 pupils. It was fab

The pluses:

More teacher time for your child
More individually tailored work for their ability (mind you I'm in scotland and we're not restricted by NatCur, may not apply in England I guess)
More integration with children of different ages (and with the opposite sex)

The minuses:
Smaller circle of friends to choose from
Possibly less opportunities in things like PE, music lessons etc (though IME they get visiting teachers in for some of these)
If you/your child don't get on with a teacher you might be stuck with them

IME the pluses far outweigh the minuses

Thanks very much - good list there Miaou!

Sorry for terse last message, was b/fing!

Just to add about mixed classes - they can be a mixed blessing. Yes some children may be distracted by others doing different things; but if for example you have a bright child they can work with the older ones in the class rather than being "held down" or sat alone with different work. (Equally works the other way with children who are stuggling). Mixed age classes tend to be grouped according to ability rather than age which is much better IME.

Yes, you're right ,. I didn't think you were terse btw

I think a visit to the school is in order, if I like the house (going tomorrow!)

this school thread!

lolol - I thought you meant a thread about MY old school and

take your dd to visit as well - she is old enough to have an opinion worth listening to.

oh yes, def

good lord yes, i went to a rural primary school with only about 50 pupils (and 3 teachers inc the headmaster!)- it was fantastic, like a big family.
also, my ds1 now goes to a (private) school with 9 in a class, from a school with 30 in a class. he is a changed boy.

I definitely wouldn't. I know too many friends and too many teachers who have had a lot of problems at small schools. Problems including lack of resources, lack of children to run decent sports teams and similar clubs, difficulties in recruiting/retaining staff, mixed-age classes spread across 3 or even 4 years instead of only one or two year groups, and most importantly socialisation problems. One of the biggest problems is the much smaller pool of potential friends. This magnifies every little incident between friends, and if a couple of friends fall out, the effects can be felt more than within a larger group. Many of my friends have moved their children from 'good' schools with 40-60 children to schools with anywhere from 200-400! because of similar problems.

One of my relatives is currently teaching in such a school and she is desperate to leave for a bigger school, as are several of her peers in similar schools. She says everything is just so much harder and more of a struggle in a school that size. She now feels she would never teach in a school with fewer than say 100 pupils, and in fact her ideal would now be over 200 pupils. This is despite her school always doing well in Ofsted.

The other thing to consider is how stable the school is, numbers-wise. Round here some of the smaller schools sweat it out every year to see if they have enough new pupils joining to remain viable, and a few schools will probably have to close, merge or federate. It may be that the school you are looking at is OK this way if it gets good Ofsted reports, but that doesn't always apply.