Families are leaving our primary school. What can we do?

[Gruffalowings]

Does anybody have any experience of significant numbers of families leaving a primary school? And is there anything we remaining parents can do about it?

It seems that 10% of our year group left at the end of this term (to neighbouring schools), and I think there are others to follow.

It is two-form entry. Gets very good results - the best in the area. Is long-established in the community.

I am feeling a bit shocked about the movement. Is there anything those of us remaining can do to support the school community?

Why are they leaving?

Well what’s their reasoning for leaving ?

Op this is very nicely written but doesn’t include key information. A certain amount of movement is normal, but you don’t tell us why they’re leaving or whether other kids are joining, so hard to respond. Ultimately if the roll falls sufficiently it will close, but doesn’t sound like you’re there yet.

That happened at our local school. It was because one group was very much favoured over another by the head teacher, and resources meant for the whole school were used just for this group. This lead to a lot of bullying because the favoured group were not disciplined, and the bullying was not dealt with.

The favouritism would have been irritating for most parents, but the bullying is what made people leave. Unless your child is actually being bullied, you wouldn't necessarily know it was happening, so it might seem like a mystery when all these other families take their kids elsewhere.

It's interesting that you want to support the school community, rather than finding out what is so intolerable that people are leaving. Your first efforts, if you want to help, should be to find out why they are leaving. Most people don't change schools on a whim, or because they want to do what their friends do.

We moved. The high achieving well regarded school wasn’t great for our kid with SEND. We moved to a smaller more nurturing environment. Some schools suit some children better.

I moved my children due to a poor attitude to their SEND. I know a number of other parents moved from same school for same reason.

A lot of schools are struggling with the amount of SEN children and the impact that has on the class. Maybe, these parents have found a school with a lower SEN ratio. However, I suspect the grass isn’t greener on the other side.

Alternatively, it could be the feeder school to secondary is different. If your secondary has a poor reputation but the other primary’s has a better Ofsted report, they might be getting in early to guarantee a place.

I don’t know why each one is leaving. My dc are happy there. It is not a school where anyone ever complains about anything (as in, in a WhatsApp group, nobody would say anything negative).

I first of all thought that there might be a bit of snobbery - the posher end of town has expanded so has new places (although its KS2 results are nowhere near as good as for our school).

My worry is that it will trigger a flight, and then the school will struggle to recover.

It is nowhere near closing due to low roll, but it feels terribly sad.

I don’t agree with your last paragraph at all.

My children are well-served by the school. It is the sudden exodus that is the biggest threat to that.

Children in our school leave all the time and new ones come in all the time. Im used to it its common in London.

We are in London @AlertEagle . It might be exactly that, but it has been a lot of movement this year (and to neighbouring schools).

A third of the children in DS' year left around Year 4, in a period where there was constant leadership change. A poor inspection just before we joined led to a trust takeover, and things were up and down for a couple of years as they tried to introduce stability. I lost count of the number of interim heads; it seemed someone new appeared every few months.

We stayed as DS was happy and doing well, and his core group of friends weren't leaving. He had a good form teacher too. If DS hadn't been thriving, or had we felt things were likely to continue on the wrong track, I suppose we might have moved, but it didn't seem necessary, and towards the middle of Y5 it had settled down.

I'm not sure that there was anything significant we as parents could have done, other than to kind of agree we'd be staying, and reassure others that we didn't feel there were unresolvable difficulties. There were some of those hesitant, "are you thinking of taking DS out?" type conversations. I guess no-one wants to be the last ones left behind, with potentially no spaces at other schools to go to.

A lot of schools are closing in London due to housing costs, how certain are you that they are all moving to the other school?

Is it due to trying to get into a different feeder school for secondary, risky as catchment come above feeder in a lot of places?

Anybody going private to prepare for 11+ or 13+?
Maybe the people live nearer the other school and your school wasn’t their first choice?
Do they know something about the y5 and y6 teachers?
London is very mobile so I think lots of people move around.
Is it about getting into a specific secondary with feeder status ?

I’m surprised that you haven’t asked tbh.

Maybe your catchment has got too expensive to live in.

I live in the LB of Southwark and a few schools have closed.

My DD has left school now but if I were to have PS age kids I would be moving away. Rents are ridiculously high now.

The expanding school seems to be the reason, nothing you can do about it, if that is the cause. Not that it lessens any impact on the school your children are at.

If it is then that is a misconception because while the other school is in the same Trust as the neighbouring school that a few have moved to, the admissions criteria doesn’t prioritise the Trust’s primary schools.

It all depends on how closely people read admissions documents.

At our leafy cofe London primary, by Y6, there were often less than a third of the original intake in reception. One year it was 6! Usually families with a strong faith with an almost guarantee of getting into the high performing girls' cofe secondary.

It was London, people moved geographically and the DC trickled out to the independent sector at 7, 8, 9 and 10. Their places were filled with children from the wait list. The school was always full.

If your child is about to start year 5 then any repercussions like shrinking to a 1 form school will happen after your child has left.

Parents in our school move because:

cant afford their mortgage so they move to a cheaper area

move to a place where their child start secondary

personal issues with the school

p.s we have more new comers than leavers

10% of a two form intake is what, 3 children per class? That seems fairly normal I think. Families move (maybe within roughly the same area but it's no longer the closest school), children get transferred to special schools, the school wasn't the right fit, they got a place at the school they wanted originally.

I feel like over the course of the first primary school years around 50% of DS's original reception class left the school, but the classes were always full because people move into as well as out of an area.

This is probably my route through as well. There isn’t the instability that yours experienced, though - it’s all been pretty solid.

The school won’t close, I don’t think. This is partly because school around it have closed and have bolstered the roll (which could possibly be a factor) - it’s undersubscribed, but will replenish, I think.

So do you lose the cohesion @CocoPlum ?

We live in a smallish commuter town where most people settle. 3 or 4 kids leaving from a class of 30 at the end of reception would be unusual, unless there was significant issues with bullying or leadership.

But when we lived in the middle of the city a lot of movement was normal. Out of my NCT group (who still live in the city itself) 3 out of 5 are moving and changing primary schools at the end of reception.

As you live in London I wouldn’t stress about it, I suspect it’s probably normal. They may simply be moving schools because they have more friends and family at others. It might be easier for work or to get to from home. You may find the places are quickly filled if it’s a good school.