Tiny school Vs larger school

[Stryke]

Hi

We are relocating and I need to look at schools in our new area. I have been advised that there are places in two schools.

The children will be going in to Y4 and Y6.

We have come from a school of two-form years. So 60 kids per year.

School A has one form entry, and is currently extra undersubscribed anyway.
School B has four, with currently only two places in each year we require.

There is no in-between.

They are near enough equal in other aspects. Provision for after school activities looks neat enough equal (larger school has slightly more choice, but I am hearing waiting lists. Both kids keen to do extra curricular dance and/or singing/choir).

Based on year size alone, which would you pick?

Small is closer, large adds between 10 and 15 minutes' walk, depending on how slow DC decide to drag their heels.

That’s not tiny! Primaries here have less than 100 children total, our village takes 8 per year with 58 total.

I’d go for the most convenient if there’s nothing else between them apart from size. I’d consider them both to be large schools.

@Stryke Glad you found my post helpful. I have to say that 95+% of my local friendship group is via primary school parents and they are lovely and helpful - lifts to cubs / football / rugby etc. We had a cocktails night last week.

I knew straight away that this was my tribe vs the other school

I would definitely have this as a consideration.

We're yr 6 in a small half intake school....I would not go for a small school again. Purely for the lack of friendship groups it allows.

Such a small group if there are falling outs there's not much choice of playing with anyone else not involved.

It's been a bit of a minefield for friendships.

I currently teach in a school with 5 pupils across 3 year groups. This will soon be 7 pupils across 5 year groups as we have new pupils starting.

Friendships for the smartphone generation are tricky to negotiate, as screen time takes away from the social circle and childhood bonding doesn't happen naturally the way as for previous generations. Gaming is bad enough, as wired kids will often snap at each other when spoken to during gaming. Discord chatrooms are even worse, they are hotbeds of cyber bullying, which carries over to real life and the kid with responsible parents and without a smartphone (thereby missing from the discord chatroom) is the one to be first ridiculed, then eventually bullied without adult supervision or even insight. So if the school doesn't operate a strict smartphone policy, then there is no way out and it is a race to the bottom of the abyss.

A big school will not protect you from this, as there is no per capita limit to the size of the chatroom. In fact it could be worse, as smartphones (discord chats, etc) can turn bullying into some sort of an organised movement across year groups. We've seen it in Y7 it is truly terrible and really very sad.

Which should give you an idea OP. Why don't you check smartphone policy at each school. Personally I would simply choose the one which bans smartphones outright, without exceptions... it is much more important, than the size of the school!

Both my children went to a small primary ( 12 children per year group). I loved their small primary and would definitely choose over again.
No issues with friendships, and my eldest who is now at high school and in year 9 is still close friends with several from primary.
All the teachers in a small primary know all the children. All the children know each other. There is a real family feel to it.

@Floreathlon surely no phones at primary school is a standard policy?

My daughter is in a small village primary. 15 intake per year group and they have 4 classes with two year groups per class. It’s a brilliant school and my daughter is thriving. Lots of opportunities available to her. No friendship issues and because the classes are mixed years they have friendships across numerous year groups too.
It’s oversubscribed for reception intake this year.
I note that you said it was the Head who showed you round the smaller school. Our Head showed me round when we moved to the village and I was looking to put my daughter in nursery. She is extremely visible at the school including in the playground at the start and end of the day. I think it’s really important and she’s very approachable.
Go with the school that feels right for you and your children.

It sounds like from your responses that you want the smaller school to be the better choice. If that's the school you prefer then go for it, even if you can't quite put your finger on why you think it's better. You can't predict the future and can only make your best guess you can. Most of the time the choice people make works out well enough and in the unlikely event it doesn't, you can do something about it then.

I agree with this.

DC2 is the one who will spend longer at the school, so if he and your prefer the smaller one and DC1 is indifferent, go for the smaller one.

Maybe stay on the waiting list for the schools that don't currently have spaces (I think you said they're 2-3 form entry?) then if it doesn't work out at the smaller school and/or if a space becomes available at one of the others, you could consider moving DC2 then.

How lovely. I love small schools, we don’t have any big ones here (rural county), but yours is definitely tiny!