Would you go for a small village school with 90 children or a large school with 400 children

[PinkMimi]

We have accepted our first choice primary school which is a small village school, I’m panicking now that we should have gone for a larger school? Did you choose a big school or small school for primary and why?

Village schools usually mix years 1 and 2, 3 and 4 so that there end up being 26-30 in a class anyway.

Do you live in the village? Do most of the children at the school live in the village?
If yes I would choose the village school as that's your local community.
Which is the easiest to get to? (to be honest that's the most important thing with primary school).

My children go to a village school of similar size , joint classes do around 15 in each year group. Sometimes the sex ratio is a skewed and you could find that there is only 3 or 4 boys in 1 year group for example. I’m happy with my kids school though, it’s very friendly and nice to be part of local community and being able to walk to the school is invaluable.

We went for a larger school which is a 3-form entry primary. I would only consider a 2-form entry and over because there will be more children for DC to find friendships within. Also, a larger school will likely have more resources to share. My nephew has moved to a small school with 12 pupils per class, after previously being at a 2-form entry, and he’s finding it so hard to make any friends because there is simply such a tiny pool of children.

Happy small school experience here but as pp said it was 4 mixed classes - nursery & reception, 1&2, 3&4, 5&6

I would go for the bigger school. We moved our son from a school of 84 to a school of 315 and he’s gone from struggling to thriving in less than 1 school year. We thought a smaller school would mean more one on one time with the teacher but that wasn’t the case at all as it was a mixed class and the teacher was teaching 3 year groups at once.
Weve found the bigger school has helped him thrive socially as well

My dc have been very happy in a village school with 100 kids. 2 year groups per class, class sizes vary - my older daughter had 23 kids in her class but younger daughter has 30 in hers.
The school has a great school field, loads of play equipment and also gets to use some of the sports facilities from the university down the road so they aren't missing out on anything. They are within an academy trust of a few other small schools so they combine for school trips, sports teams etc.
There are lots of farming families and horsey people who all seem to know each others business which you probably don't get in a big school - but generally it's a friendly place and it's nice that the teachers know all of the pupils.

Mine go to a similar size village primary, classes and across two years so 30 in a class but with a teacher and 2xTA, school is well funded (huge PTA support), rural location so lots of outside space and a real sense of community within the village.

I think it depends on the child and the schools.

ds has complex needs, our options were a school with PAN of 45 and one of 8 for a lot of children the smaller may have been better but for DS he needed the facilities that came with a mid size school.

There are pros and cons to both. I work in a smaller school now (PAN 20) and it being smaller means everyone knows each other and helps the familiarity side of things but we probably don’t have as many resources as bigger schools might have. It’s swings and roundabouts

Your big school is about average sized round here, two form entry is typical. Ours is one form and I do worry about sustainability. None of our local schools offered all their places for reception this year.

Agree, though my kids had a fab experience, my friend at a similar school (on paper, in size) had a very different experience for her DC and they were happier when they moved.

I think you can't generalise and as ever the culture of the school is as important as the size, so the leadership plays a huge part in the experience.

My children went to a very big primary with 4 classes per year. There weren't any small schools to choose from. I would choose a big school again. There were lots of activities and my children thrived at it. They had a lot of friendship opportunities and if something went wrong there was always other children to play with instead. Having said that, I have worked in many village schools and the children seemed happy. They're often a bit more laid back as I suppose they can afford to be. It's true that the classes are usually mixed year groups.

I had the same decision to make 12 years ago and eventually picked the bigger school - 90 in each year versus 10-15 in the smaller school. I did really like both schools and both had their own different plus points. For my daughter she has absolutely thrived at both the bigger primary and then the much bigger secondary school. She's currently preparing for her GCSEs and is predicted 7/8/9s. She's got a lovely friendship group and has a lot of confidence and maturity that I sure as shit didn't have at her age!

I think (for her) the smaller school wouldn't have been as good. It turned out she has dyslexia and dyspraxia which I'm not sure a smaller school would have been as well equipped to deal with. She's also geeky and I'm not sure she would have found people like her in a smaller school and might have felt a bit of an outsider. A lot of kids who went to my daughter's school have a lot of confidence about them. Something her elder siblings commented on as they went to a different (bigger) primary and the same secondary.

It's a difficult decision because what's best for one child isn't necessarily best for another. I'm not sure a smaller school would find it easy to either support children with learning difficulties or challenge children at the other end of the spectrum who need more challenging work?

Smaller school is my first choice every time.

I’d say the bigger school. My dc went to a tiny village school. 60 kids in the school. Reception - Y6. Some years had 4 children some had 10.

I thought it would be caring and a family feel. It was very difficult for friendships, only 3 boys in DS year.

think this depends on the send and the school. My child is autistic and went to a large primary didn’t get on at all and the head (lovely man) used to say to me “mainstream schools are busy noisy places and if a child can’t cope with that they shouldn’t be in one”. Small schools have less children overall so can be less overwhelming, chaotic and noisy. However I am sort of glad things went wrong for us as I got mine into specialist before secondary. I know of lots of children that get on well in their small village primaries and then things unravel once they go up to the large secondary school

Id have chosen bigger...bigger pool of friends to choose from. Often more opportunities and facilities in bigger schools too

You picked the smaller school for a reason, back when you did the application. Have faith in your thought process.

Personally, I'd have chosen the medium sized, 400 pupil school, but I'm not you, and I don't have your child.

Started in a small village school. Moved to a much bigger school. Regret not doing it years ago.

I went to both types as a child.
Started off in a larger primary in a city with 120 per year and then moved to a very small village school in year 3 where there were only 9 in my year.
I much preferred the smaller school. We had a lot more freedom, did lots of extra curricular activities.
I would say it was tricky with friendships as the girls were always falling out with each other but I was a tomboy so gravitated to the boys anyway and they caused no trouble. In fact, I am still best friends with one of the boys from primary school now.
I also did a lot of clubs outside of school so had friendships from there which helped.
I have chosen a small village school for my daughter and she has 10 in her year when she starts in September and I am very happy with my decision.

I would always go for large, especially if the child is shy or quiet - they are much more likely to be able to find a like-minded friend in a larger pool of children. Quiet/shy children can struggle to find friends in a small school.
There are increasing numbers of children with SEN in mainstream schools now, particularly small schools, and smaller schools can struggle to cope as they have less resources - this can lead to unsatisfactory educational experiences for both the SEN and non-SEN children. Larger schools are often better able to accommodate children with SEN and this helps both them and the non-SEN children to achieve and not be overwhelmed trying to cope with behavioural challenges.

We are in a small village school, about 18 children in my son's year, every year is seperate though no mixing classes.

Lots of PPs are talking about limited friendship groups but we have seen the opposite, children play together with different classes at break times and most of the children know each other by name. It's a really supportive environment for the children and they learn to get along with children of all ages.

Small class sizes have an obvious benefit for learning and teacher attention. The teachers still seem well-supported and happy to work there based on very low staff turnover.

Don't panic though OP, nobody really knows if a school is suitable for a child until they're in it, you just go with what feels right and you get your first choice so not sure why you're doubting yourself!

We started in the tiny village school but my daughter’s year group was not great for a number of reasons. We moved her to a slightly bigger school as a result. If she’d been in the year above or below we would have kept her there as the peer group was much better.

Id definitely try the smaller school and move if it doesn’t work out.

But the SEN child can often overwhelm the small school’s ability to cope, resulting in both the SEN and non -SEN children being negatively affected. Schools are not adequately resourced to cope with the numbers of SEN children currently in mainstream. Larger schools can mitigate this as they have more staff that can rotate round and may have staff with expertise in different areas.

The bigger one. I have three close friends/family members who went for the small one and lived to regret it. Two considered moving schools.
Not enough kids to be friends with was a big problem. And stuck with the not so nice kids because of such tiny friendship groups. One girl has to be friendly to someone who is horrible to her because there is just no escape. And their parents.. Less clubs and stuff too.