Small Schools - Looking for some positive experiences…

[Cato9lives]

So we didn’t get our first choice of primary school for our daughter. She has be offered a place at a small village CofE primary with approx 80 kids in the whole school. There are only 5 kids on her intake so they will put reception, yr 1 and yr 2 all in the same class. The school is rated Ofsted ‘Good’ and it is a nice school, currently running at half capacity due to intakes dwindling over the years.
My concern is the very small friendship pool - particularly as she is only one of 5 in her intake! Can anyone offer me some words of reassurance? I’m feeling quite low about this, as obviously I want her to have the best school experience :(
Has anyone got any good experiences with similar schools?

Lots of people will tell you they have had great experiences in small schools but personally that's too small for me and unless in a very rural area with nowhere else for miles around, I would be looking to see if there's anywhere else I preferred (as well as finding out where my child is on waiting list for no 1 preference). Was it your second choice so you have already done a lot of this thinking though?

If the intake this year is five and that continues I doubt the school will be viable in a couple of years, in six years the school would be down to 30 something pupils, it would barely be covering staffing costs. It will probably be fine for a couple of years, as friendships are often fairly fluid until then but I would be looking to move her somewhere else before Y2. Activities like sport and drama will be seriously limited with such small numbers.

Make sure you stay on the waiting lists for all other possible schools, other parents will be doing the same so it might be a bit of a lottery.

Yep, not being filled with joy here! 🙁

Years ago but I was one of only six in my year (five girls and one boy). With hindsight it wasn’t great, but was normal to me at the time. The age spread was very summer heavy and I was autumn born so quite a gap between me and the rest of my year, and I didn’t really gel well or form good friendships. I mainly spent time with the year above so year 6 was pretty grim when they all left. The main problem was when I started a huge comprehensive at secondary and the culture shock was awful. Lots of kids came from a small number of bigger schools and honestly I found it terrifying and overwhelming. My tiny school was very girl heavy and these large groups of lads who already knew each other and were so much more confident and worldly, frightened the life out of me.

I don’t want to be negative but am being honest. I would think hard about the transition to secondary and perhaps look to move your child if possible before then.

My son had a positive experience at a small school with mixed year groups. He made friends in the year above and below easily and felt very safe, secure and well nutured.I don't think it did the best it could academically but I actually think being secure is worth a lot.

Generally I prefer bigger schools for funding reasons and variety of staff expertise and would put my child on the waiting list for elsewhere in your shoes.

but that doesn't mean the day to day experience won't be good.

Could be great or could be awful for your child
You won't know till you try it

My eldest and middle attended a tiny village school (in a remote village) the friendships became more like extended family it was nice. the kids bonded and really accepted one another like cousins.
But my dd was the only girl in her class of 5, the year ahead had only 1 girl as did the year below.
We moved to a bigger center.

I have taught in small schools with just 2 classes. Friendships are really different because they make friends with children outside of their own year groups easily and the school is far more like a family.

This suggests financial problems to me if they are losing dc. I would avoid tbh

My now adult DC went to a school with a total of 40 something pupils for most of the time. I wouldn't have moved them anywhere else if I had won the lottery. In fact I moved my eldest from a private school to this school.
Of course their are challenges to very small schools just as there are to very big ones and I think the quality of the staff makes a huge difference. Mixed age teaching worked really well for my children but I do think it is important to note that this is a school where it has always been the norm and the teachers were very good at it. I'd be a bit more concerned if classes are being mixed for the first time.
I don't think my DC missed out on anything. When we were there they participated in everything that was going and if there weren't enough kids in our school we combined with others in our Small Schools Cluster. Over the course of the time I had children there they won multiple borough and county sports competitions and did all kinds of things like judo and orienteering as well as the more typical school sports, won the county Junior Rock Challenge and were top 3 in a national STEM competition going on to represent England in the internationals where they were the youngest team to qualify,from the smallest school. The Head was determined that being from a small school wouldn't limit the children's opportunities.
I've just had a look at the website as it's a long time since I have had a child there and I see they still have awards including Arts mark Gold, Music Mark and the School Games Platinum award.
In fact I think my DC did more as a result of being in a small school. There was no issue of not being good enough for any kind of team, everyone had a go at everything and as a result mine tried all kinds of things that in a bigger school they might not have had either the chance or the confidence to have a go at. They even turned out to be quite good at some things that I suspect they'd never even have attempted in a different environment. Plus they went on residentials from year 3 onwards and did all kinds of stuff that friends in bigger schools weren't offered until year 5 or 6.
For such a small school there are a lot of ex pupils on the county and regional teams in at least 4 sports I can think of, and they are always over represented at the annual prize giving at the secondary school that most go on to. Most of my DC's former classmates have gone on to be successful academically too. I honestly don't think they could have had a better start to their education anywhere.
Obviously we were blessed with outstanding staff. The TAs were also incredible, talented people with a lot of quite unusual skills and there was a huge amount of parent and community engagement. Not every tiny school will have that I know. But nor are they all miserable places where nothing bar the basics ever happens, so don't assume the worst.

Small schools have benefits but it's different when a school is shrinking because of the funding model.

80 is quite large compared to a number of schools in my area!

Falling roll due to birth rate is a nightmare for schools, and can then have a knock on effect. Do you know how many children joined the school last year?

How many other schools are around, as obviously your first choice school was oversubscribed so another school has to be available for the surplus children

80 children in the entire school, isn't 'small', it's tiny! I work in a school that's classed as 'small'! We're a First school, so years Foundation to Year 4 - one class per year group, with approximately 30 children (some are less) in each class. My school is fabulous, and the children are nurtured as well as taught by the staff. I would personally be concerned about the intake year on year, as this is likely to steadily drop. The friendship groups are going to be really small. On the plus side the teachers will probably have smaller classes, will know each child really well and have more time for each child.

My ds's primary school had 121 children across all 7 years.

It was really good up to and including year 4. Forms were R/1, 1/2, and 3/4. DS was able to make friends, enjoy his learning and make good progress.

Years 5 & 6 were not good. The only teacher and the TA focused on bringing the less advanced ones up to scratch for SATs, and ds ended up bored, frustrated and angry.

I'd look closely at staffing levels, and don't be slow asking for anything specific your child needs.

@Sassybooklover you obviously don't live in a small rural village! schools with 40 or fewer pupils are not unknown

@Cato9lives does the school have links with other Primaries?

The school doesn’t have any links to any other schools. It’s not in a network.

We live on the boarder of two counties but for some reason we aren’t in the catchment area for any of our nearest schools. I made enquiries but it’s not sounding likely we’re going to be able to move her. The other two closest schools are oversubscribed. I’ve put my daughters name in their reserve lists but being as we’re not even classed as their catchment I doubt she will ever get a place at either.
The only plus I can think of is that there are some new houses being built in the village where the small school is, so hopefully they’ll get more kids at some point soon!

Many single form schools are having to bring in mixed year classes in the coming year, due to falling roll and horrendous budgets.

Many small rural schools will have 2 - 3 classes.

Are the houses reasonably affordable, so not pricing out young families?

My kids went to s primary with 25 ish kids.3 in dd1s yesr 5 in dd2s and 6 in dss year. It was brilliant and they are all doing very well now also socially.

Interestingly the secondary school it feeds into says kids from their school are at least as good academically and much better socially than the other kids....

I did juniors in a 25-30 pupil school. The same size as plenty of other local village schools. I made lifelong friends, liked that you got to do everything and could work years ahead if advanced (though I'm very average now!) Was very ready to leave at the end but it was a very positive experience.
My own child is now going to school and I have no idea how they learn in a 30 child class!?

@Cato9lives if the oversubscribed schools have a place you may get it if no one else is above you. Have you phoned every school in either county that is a potential?

My DC went to a village school.
At that time there were around 100 pupils across the 7 year groups.Most of the classes were composite so DCs were in classes with older children. The staff were all lovely and it felt like a tight knit community .I don’t think DC were disadvantaged at all. Their friends from across the road and in the next street went to the school too.They had sports days,day trips ,school camp, inter school cross country running and all the other activities a bigger school would have.
Both DC went to a private school for secondary education and were in the top sets for English and Maths.

There's 14 in myself daughters class and it's great. She gets on great with all the teachers and everyone knows each other. She actually got into preschool the year before as they had room. She's came on loads and is miles ahead of my nephew who is the same age but in a massive school in England.

17% of primary schools in my local LA have less than 50 pupils.

The lowest number of pupils is 8, with a few more schools around the 13/17/22 mark.

I've worked in some schools like this. Generally the children seemed very happy and the schools were very friendly with everyone knowing one another.
When the classes were mixed with other years it could sometimes feel a bit less 'reception friendly' because of the need to accommodate all the children at once, although the reception children did get to play a lot more than the others.
Usually the schools were not as diverse as the large primaries. On the plus side, they often got more freedom because it was easier to keep an eye on them being so few.
My children went to large schools and I would personally prefer that, but I think they would have still got on well at small ones.