Large v small

[PeakPower]

We're in the process of moving to a new area, around 100 miles so a significant change for our two boys currently in yr2 and yr4.

They're leaving a mid-sized primary of around 300 pupils, with three classes for every two school years (they're in mixed yr1/2 and yr3/4 classes).

We have looked round two pote tial new schools and both have their attractions. One is a large primary, around 500 pupils with two or three classes per year group. The other is a small village school with around 50 pupils in total, arranged into three classes. Obviously each school has its particular strengths and weaknesses, but in terms of overall size, I'd love to hear people's experiences.

Have your children attended either a particularly large or a particularly small school? What did you like, and what were the challenges or concerns?

We went for a larger primary to make the transition into secondary easier. Now Y5 and Y2 and I still stand by my decision.

I would always choose large so that your children have friendship choices. Hard to find your tribe from a tiny pool.

As a teacher I would also choose a large school to work in as there is naturally more going on.

Dc go to small village primary school and we love it, much more personal environment and I feel they're just getting a better childhood than they would in a big school.

but they are very confident, sociable and do drama and sports/dance competitions out of school so are used to big groups. For a shy, quiet child I can see the transition to secondary being more difficult.

I've taught in small schools and it can be difficult friendship wise. We'd maybe have a Y1/2 class with only 2 Y2 girls so if they didn't get on it could be lonely. At least in a biv school there were more options

Also in a small school a child might have the same teacher for 3years. Fine if they're good but we had a terrible teacher and parents removed their children instead of having her for another 2 years.

If your kids were Reception age or year 1 I’d say the benefits are balanced but as they are year 2 and 4 - and will be y3 and 5 - I’d definitely pick the larger school.

50 isn't just small, it's miniscule. Very little scope for friendships.

The larger school will be much more like what they're use to. Going from 300ish kids to 500ish isn't actually that different. It's much more similar than going from 300ish to 50.

I would always choose a larger school. I don’t see any disadvantages to them. Whereas there are many disadvantages to small schools.

Where I live people are always going on about how small schools are better and there's a major outcry if they try to close any of them despite them being at 20% capacity and a major drain on resources

I went to a primary school with about 50 pupils. I loved it. The mix of boys to girls varied year by year.

Ours are at a school of about 160 and I think that's too small and it's one form entry.
Hard to find your wolf pack.

How do they arrange 3 classes across 7 year groups? Is there any chance of them being in the same class as they can cover 3 year groups, and how would they like that?

Mine went to 5 Primary schools (as they are Military children) ranging from 16 in a year group to 120 in a year group. Friendships were more luck than school size tbh... there's more opportunity in a bigger school but its not guaranteed.

If you are living i or nearly in the village.m. Village school. Help them integrate into the village.
In town... town school.

The school we looked at is around 80% full, so although small, it's by design.

We're going to be pretty much equidistant from the town and the village schools, so unfortunately that factor doesn't really help us.

Went to a tiny village school myself sent mine to the largest primary I could find.

Given tour experience in both, why did you make the decision to go large with your children?

Tiny classes are absolutely dreadful socially. If you have literally two other girls in your class and you don’t like them / they are unkind you are stuck with them. For 7 years! Children need a nice deep friendship pool to thrive.

We picked to move to a small school thinking it would be better for ds2 who was at that point undiagnosed but school agreed autistic. Worst thing we ever did. Mixed year classes meant ds1 bored stupid in his last year because he was surrounded by younger ones. School then changed to 2 tier, so they stayed until end of year 6. DS2 bored stupid from year 2 onwards, sat at the back of the class with worksheets because the general level of the class was way below his learning level. In year 4&5 he joined the next year up for some classes as he just wasn't challenged enough, but that wasn't ideal either. They just didn't have the resources or the staffing levels of bigger schools.
For primary I would now always say go with at least one class per year if at all possible, if not, as big as possible. For secondary then it can be beneficial to go smaller, when smaller means 600 rather than 1500!