Which school for Reception?

[Banoonah]

So DD has been offered a place for Reception at a primary school, but there is another primary that has places that she could attend. Both schools were equally slightly undersubscribed until the school she was offered (school 1) got its outstanding rating, and both are single form entry.

The school she has been offered (school 1) is oversubscribed and is in a particularly affluent village (they literally have no free school meals children there at all). I suspect most of the kids going there will be local kids, whereas my DD and I do not live in the village. They have lots of extracurricular clubs.There would be 30 children in the reception class.

School 2 is in a slightly more socioeconomically mixed town. About 10% free school meals kids, slightly higher SATs results than school 1, they have a big forest school and pets, but there would be 20 in the reception class.

Which school would you pick? I am a single parent after experiencing domestic violence, so I worry about DD being looked down on at school 1, but equally I worry that a year group of 20 rather than 30 would, as would be the case at school 2, would limit DD's friendship options. I would welcome advice

Personally, I'd pick school 2. Small village schools can be very pressured socially. If she's from outside the village, she may find that the majority of children already know each other. The same would be true of you as a parent, but more so - breaking into the social circle of parents may be difficult.

I’d pick school 2 - assuming the class size means it’s financially viable. DS is in Year 1 and there are 22 in his class and it’s a really nice number, enough that everyone has plenty of friends but small enough that they get a fair amount of individual attention.

Are you nearer to school 2. Don't underestimate being able to walk to school, pop round to neighbours for 'play dates', met class mates in the park etc.

School 2.

Unless all the other 19 pupils are moving into reception from the same nursery and all have complete freaks for parents who take the 'Dont speak to strangers' mantra to the extreme of including any child in their class that they haven't known since birth, and / or either they or you push the line that girls can only have girls as friends and likewises boys, boys, and there is only one other pupil of the relevant sex in the class, then I'm sure that to the average 4 year old, a group of 20 probably seems just as big as a group of 30 to find friends in.

If school 2 is more local to you and there are no reasons such as proximity to work that makes school 1's location more desirable, then like others, I would go for school 2.

DD was in a group of about 22 for Reception (it was a 45 PAN school and they split the reception intake into two small classes). It was actually really nice for her and a lot less of a shock than going into a class of 30 would have been, I think. She was quite shy at that age and I was glad she had a gentle start to school.

Unless there are compelling geographical reasons for picking school 1, I'd definitely go with school 2. And the forest school and pets sound brilliant. Agree that being close to school is really good in the primary years.