I must get my DC into a village school!

[Hmmmmnotsure]

My first little one is off to school next September so we are looking around local schools currently. We are considered all kinds of schools but It seems that everyone I know is really keen to get their child into a smaller village school. I really do mean everyone! None of them are in catchment for a village school either.

I am just wondering why village schools seems to be largely favoured? We are quite keen on our local school, which is a three form entry school, it's really making me second guess this. Do children in village schools have better outcomes (including socially)? Would love to hear your experiences and advice.

The school had issues with extra curricular activities too. They never had enough attendees to something to make a coach finanically viable. Previously they'd had a staff member with a minibus licence, and used that for KS2 swimming, school trips etc. but once they left, they never went anywhere. They had to use a farmer's field for PE too so could never do anything spontaneous outdoors because the only outdoor space they had was a tarmaced playground.

I wouldn't pick a school smaller than one form entry.
If you're lucky a village school can be nice but I'd imagine it's a nightmare for reasons like if the child is bullied, the girl to boy ratio isn't pretty equal etc I'd imagine it's very lonely if you're not like the other kids eg your child is the only boy who doesn't play football or there's 5 boys in the class and the others are paired off as best friends.
My children went to 2 and 3 form entry primary schools and the Head knew their names (they greeted children in the morning at the gate)
I can see the allure of small schools for infants but by juniors I think that at least one form entry is better - especially if your child will go to a secondary that's not small (my kids went to
8 and 10 form entry secondaries)

Mine have all been to a single form entry village school, so not a really tiny one (they have had classes ranging over 22-30). I think for mine it has been great, but we are also 3 tier here so they have benefitted from small and nurturing when they were younger, then a much bigger middle school with more facilities for years 5 and 6. I think it could be difficult going straight from a small school to a huge secondary.

Sounds like the school in a neighbouring village to us. Had to go on a massive recruitment drive for pupils outside their immediate catchment to stay viable/open.

Mine went to our three-form entry village school (we lived in a large village) so I guess the best (or worst) of both worlds.

Mine all went to a tiny village school with about 40-45 pupils in total. But we live here , so no special effort required to "get them in".
There are pros and cons. I think a lot of the things people have raised on this thread - lack of extra curricular activities, sports etc - are very dependent on the individual school, the staff and parents etc but other things like potentially being the only girl or boy in your year group, limited friendship opportunities etc are common to all very small schools and need to be weighed against the advantages.
Personally, we felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages and our children had pretty idyllic experiences. I don't feel they missed out on any extracurricular activities - anything but in fact. There were loads on offer and the school frequently won things, including loads of different sports competitions, the county junior Rock Challenge and they got as far as the national finals in a STEM competition several times and went to the international finals once and were the youngest team and the smallest school there. So small doesn't necessarily mean limited, though from observation of other small schools in our locality I fully accept that it can do. I think the Head makes a huge difference. Ours was amazing and really went above and beyond to ensure a wide range of opportunities for our children. We were part of a small school cluster that helped as well as they bought in various services like specialist sports coaches as a group to make it affordable.
By the time it came to secondary they were ready to move on and having a wider range of friends as they approached their teens was good, but the transition was easy enough. However, there are many very small primaries here and the secondary is very much set up for accepting lots of pupils from that background so they are good at it. And it's expected and accepted by the kids from an early age - everyone in the area is in the same boat. It could well be a different kettle of fish elsewhere, particularly if parents choose to send their children to a village school distant from where they live and they don't then end up going to the secondary that the primary tends to feed into.
But as ever, it's important to look at the specifics of individual schools rather than to generalise. There are good, bad and indifferent schools of all types and sizes and what works well for one child can be a disaster for another anyway.

Because the nearest school to me is an institution that I wouldn't send a rat to, which had its corrupt academy trust (Wakefield city academies trust) steal all the money!

Some of the schools where I grew up are so small they don't even have their own head! You'll have one shared across 2 or 3 schools.

@ingenvillvetavardukoptdintroja This is becoming more and more common even with larger schools, it used to be that heads taught too but this is quite rare now and they have become more like a business manager in many ways.

@HappyHappyHermit
Federating schools really does help keep them open though. People like their village schools. So federating under one head makes sense. A head of a tiny village school will have to teach. The head of a bigger school might do some supply.

Our village school has 20 pupils! 11 in the P1-3 and 9 in P4-7. When we moved, her dyslexia was put in for diagnosis after only a matter of weeks in P5.... I told her previous massive school of 3 x 32 classes that she needed to be tested.

I've seen the opposite happen in small schools more often actually. 2 children I know well weren't picked up at their tiny school and they just went under the radar until middle school, even though mum kept asking. (And they still rave about how good the school is 🙄.)

I don't necessarily think small is better or bigger is better.

My DD goes to a 2 form entry school and we still have mixed aged classes. She's currently in a mixed year 3/4 because current Year 3 has loads of boys and not many girl and Year 4 is the opposite loads of girls and not many boys so they've mixed to give a balance - so we have 4 classes of Y3/4 with roughly 29 in each, with a good mix of boys and girls.

I still feel it's the right school for her though and that's all that matters.

I feel like we have the best of both worlds as we're in a larger than average village school, so it is a two-form entry but not full, so 24 and 26 in my DC's classes (the year 2 actually started with 21!).

It actually used to be a secondary school so large buildings and lots of land for forest school and outdoor learning.

@Queenmarie
In the current climate, 10 missing DC is a lot of money if it’s repeated in every year group. Obviously I do not know what your school receives per pupil but it’s substantial.

It is similar in each year group.

Obviously I know nothing about the school finances, and as you say, the current financial landscape is not looking good, though they do have the funds for lots of extra-curricular stuff eg employ a full-time forest school teacher and sports coaches for PE...

They get pe funding to help towards pe coach. Schoolfunding works best on 30 per class. it’s a per child amount plus pp and other considerations like SEN. 10 missing per year group is a lot of money to not have in school. They might buy in forest school instead of covering supply externally. There are various ways of cutting the cake.

It is either a very good or a very bad experience depending on the other children who happen to be therein your child's year group, because u ou do not have a big pool to choose from.ny dds,went to a school of 45 and there were 3 girls in her year group.one tear group only had one child in!

My children attend a very large primary school and have multiple opportunities that I can’t imagine would be available in a smaller school

For example, my son has speech and language difficulties. The external speech therapist only visits the school once a week and only tends to see him once a fortnight. However, there is a TA who specialises in speech and works with him 2-3 times a week practicing the exercises

there are also numerous clubs that the children can attend at lunch or after school every day

My experience of schools like this (parent of 4 kids who have been to a mix of different schools)

1. There are the favourite children (usually the parent is on the PTA) who always get preferential treatment.
2. Not inclusive at all
3. if your child is bright with no SEN, they will be fine, otherwise not.
4. Children who were likely to pull their SATS scores down get managed out.

This may not be everyone’s experience but it certainly is mine.

I do feel children in small schools have way more opportunities for example every child is in every team! Many more school trips because transporting a year group of say 7 children can easily be organised. and accommodated at places which would balk at the idea of 30+ pupils

They also form clusters with other small schools for things which where a critical mass of numbers is required. So in summary lots more opportunities at a small school, but very very dependent on finding kindred spirits in a small friendship pool

Something that we’ve found so important is: where is the nearest playground? So our school has a playground opposite and a cafe nearby and what happens is almost all the children pop to the playground after school, while the mums grab a takeaway cuppa and chat. In this way, the children get to burn off steam after class and consolidate friendships, and the mums network and set up playdates etc. It’s so much better than the rushed stressful play that happens during school hours (and the annoying kids never come to the playground because their parents aren’t bothered about socialising) and has been key to our children settling in.

Another thing to look at is pollution. Some city schools are right by a busy road 😔 and the children breathe the chemicals in all day.

Otherwise there isn’t a huge amount of difference between village / non village, except maybe watch out for very big school years which a quiet 4 yr old may find overwhelming.