3 form or 1 form entry

[cafedesreves]

Obviously there are so many factors other than school size to consider, but primary schools round us are usually huge or tiny. I'm trying to work out what would suit DS more. He seems to be v able at the moment and will be old in the year, so hoping for a school that can stretch him.

@SudocremOnEverything I definitely would want equal knowledge of the schools.

Mine are at a 3-form entry (eldest now Y6 so a fair spread of experience to draw on). I moved eldest there from a 2-form entry school in Y2. I was so put off by the idea of a big school that I actually didn't look around current school when I was first choosing, but in retrospect I was wrong- it doesn't feel any less warm or community-like. The headteacher still knows all the kids etc.

IME the greater level of delegation required for effective leadership in 3-form means there's just more going on - so what others have said about 1-form meaning a greater chance of being picked for teams etc doesn't reflect my experience. Our school (difficult london area, not leafy successful PTA type place!) has two football teams per year group, a basketball team per year group, a cycling team, a dance group, a large choir etc. My children (who have areas of strength and weakness) are able to take part in a range of activities. The school has a partner school at the other end of the country, so every year they do an exchange trip there which is in addition to the Y6 'outward bound' type trip all schools in our LA do. I think having a wider leadership team has enabled them to make better use of opportunities. I imagine(?) the budget also means some economies of scale eg they have specialist PPA cover teachers for music, gardening/forest school and art.

In practical terms, I was also able to easily move my child due to a personality clash, which wouldn't have been viable in a one-form entry school.

The benefits of how much is going on is definitely much more obvious now my eldest is 11, I'd not appreciated that when I was choosing schools for a 4yo.

So would I. But, given a choice between no visit, and one of us visiting and sharing the information, I’d choose that.

if you’re a teacher and can’t be there during school hours, then it might be the best way to go.

I have recently moved my ds from a 3 form entry to 2 form entry (with much smaller class sizes) as 3 form was just too big - it was like a factory for getting kids to where they were supposed to be overall and no focus on individual children. I also found it seemed fab when we looked round as loads of facilities but in reality when your class are sharing an adventure playground and forest school etc with 7 year groups with 3 classes in each year there just isn't time/space for everyone to enjoy it on a regular basis. My ds has gone from doing forest school twice a term to every week. The individual classes were OK in 3 form entry, but so easy for lots of children to get lost in a sea of 90 kids in their year group and they never mixed with kids in other year groups and didn't know most of the other teachers in the school.

There are benefits in terms of a large friendship pool and varied extra curriculars but not worth the pay off for us.

Always more than one form ime. If you are in one form and for whatever reason you need your child to move from another child (bullying, interdependence etc) then the only option is to move school

My DC children are at a 2 form entry school. Initially I wanted a smaller school but have found it to be an advantage. Mainly because they swap the classes around each year which can solve any issue with friendships/ bullying etc. Because of this DC definitely have a wider range of friends and know all 60 kids in their year group

I’d say again, that people often feel very differently about this by the time their child is 11, compared to how they feel when they are 4.

Think about the benefits schools have with 2 or 3 classes per year. There is so much more scope to group children for certain lessons by ability, as there will be a decent number at each level and a number of teachers and TAs to staff the groups. As others mention, lots more scope exists to move people around as needed and deal with friendship difficulties - 1 Form can get claustrophobic and there’s no escape.

When a staff member goes off sick or on maternity (and it happens all the time) the school has more staff to do the shifts that mean it can work well still snd not necessarily mean weeks of changing supply teachers.

Cosy and small is lovely for a 4 year old and looks great to the parent of a 3+ who is looking at schools and can’t really picture their child as a big 10 year old who is almost ready for secondary. Their needs change. Bigger schools are more able to meet those needs and quite simply have have the scale and resources which gives them flexibility which time and time again yields benefits for the kids which smaller classes just can’t supply.

This is often done on here and usually the thread goes in a pro-more than one form-direcrion.

1 form can be stifling- especially if it's through to 11- it's the same friendship group all the way through and no opportunity to change classes or mix it up a bit. I've got friends in small village schools with a handful of girls to choose from and if they're not "in" the in griup it cna be difficult.

1 teacher planning isn't ideal. If you have a difficulty with that teacher or in that class there's noone else to speak to! They are all together all the time!

Another thing is sets - we're in a 3 firm and it's brilliant when they're junior age - they've got resources to stream for English and maths and have an extra teacher for support work. They mix up with different people in the day then and also get a different teacher.

Team planning means no class gets left behind if a teacher is ill as we saw with covid etc or goes on maternity.

Resources- just the sheer amount of things you can do!

I think 1 form appeals often for reception and maybe year 1 but above that there's a lot of disadvantages and we'd not choose it all things being equal.

There's other things I'd go on though too. Distance especially, and ethos of the school. Do you know any other parents who can talk about school?

Ha wombat I hadn't read your post when I was posting! Great minds x