School type comparison opinions/experiences: infants/primary, mixed/non-mixed year groups, CE/non-denominational.

[szscesliwedni]

Hi all,

Looking for opinions on a couple of things
Firstly infants/juniors vs full primary
Secondly mixed vs non-mixed year groups
Thirdly CE School vs non-denominational

A
Infants with associated juniors in the next street
Mixed year groups from year 1
PAN 45 - 3 classes of 30 with 15 Y1 and 15 Y2. This is continued in the juniors with Y3/4 then Y5/6. The exception is reception where there are 2 classes of

Not personal experience, but friends have generally been negative about experience with mixed year groups. It does work for some people I know, but not everyone.

Only child or is there younger siblings? The separate infant/junior model can be awkward with siblings if the schools don't work together.

What are the facilities like?

How religious is the church school?

Also... what are the admissions arrangements for the Junior? Is there are any possibility you won't get into the Junior school?

There is a younger sibling. 3 years difference.

A place at the infants guarantees a place at the juniors. The juniors starts and finishes 10 minutes later than the infants which is very thoughtful of them.

The full primary (school B) has slightly better facilities, it’s just has a new building so it’s more modern and spacious. It’s also got more outdoors space compared to either of the infants and juniors.

There is evidence of there being a church influence in the school, no where near as much as a catholic school we looked at which we have dismissed.
The daily prayer in assembly and occasional church visit doesn’t bother me. The religious thing doesn’t seem to be woven into the fabric of the school in every lesson sort of thing like it did in the catholic school.

@MargaretThursday can you explain a bit more about the negative experiences of mixed year groups? What made it negative? Does it just not work as well?

You need to view the schools in question.

Make a list of things to discuss

Facilities
Homework
Quality of lessons
After school activities and clubs
Trips and whole school events
Staff turnover and experience levels
Progression options and routes
Class sizes and numbers
Your own thoughts on the school

Look at the website and talk to people.

@szscesliwedni

Some found their children were very unsettled by it. Because every year there was a different 15 who weren't with them, and then had to slot back in the next year.
They never knew which 15 would be moved in with the form above/below until the last minute.

Some children thrived with being with the older/younger but then the next year they'd be back with the class again and struggled with that.
Some teachers were good at doing differentiated work with the different ages, others weren't so good and would concentrate more on one age group.

However the teachers phrased it, some of the parents always took to be put with the younger form as a stigma and the older form as a sign of greatness.

Other thing one commented on was that if there was an interschool thing aimed at a particular year group (like sports), you were far more likely to be picked if you were in the form that was all your age group.

In the year 5/6 class it was observed over a few years that the year 6s in that group tended to be less ready for secondary. I'm not sure if that wasn't a chicken/egg situation as they may have chosen the less mature ones to go into that form.
Equally well you got some forms where the year 5 parents felt that their children were being pulled into secondary mind sets because of getting ready to go, and then they had another year before they could go and then found year 6 difficult.

Some schools will handle it better than others. Some children (and parents) handle it better than others. These are comments from a variety of friends (and relatives) at a variety of schools, some of whom had thought it was a really good thing to have that flexibility before the children went.

I’d go with primary school.

Being larger means the funding will stretch further to cover extracurricular activities and learning support compared to the infants and juniors which has a smaller PAN and double the senior management staff costs as it’s run as two schools.

On top of that you’ve said the primary school has newer and better facilities including more space.

All else being equal regarding education and pastoral care as you seem to suggest, to me the primary school is the obvious choice.

I’d only go with the infants / juniors if you had a specific desire for a church school or mixed classes, which you don’t seem to.

What @LondonGirl83 says is my view also