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?

Common reasons for moving also include not liking mixed classes, bullying, poor teaching, nearer to work, linked secondary, smaller classes and dislike of other dc and special needs not met.

What you have mentioned sounds familiar to a fairly large and sought-after primary in my neighborhood. 15% children left to other school in a year group within a year due to a bully gang not dealt with.
That bully gang leader was very violent and so did his parents. At one point, police were involved. The school leaders for some reasons did not exclude the bully, many children lived in fear of the bully gang, led to an exodus of students to a less academically well-performing neighboring school. It happened when the school change into the new leadership team. And the story is still evolving as the bully has 2 more years to stay,

Most parents do not move their children on a whim, and most prefer to stay as to make it less disruptive to their children, until their children become emotionally distressed. It's normal you don't feel it because in the same school, learning environment can be vastly different from one class to another.

I’m someone who has withdrawn a child from a state primary in a year where multiple others did so. For me it was behaviour, the impact on academic attainment and wellbeing. Once you’re in a place where you’re about to withdraw, your attitude towards the school community tends to shift a little. I think that is only natural. I haven’t moved my other child. There can also be a bit of a domino effect when the numbers are significant- people don’t want to be the ones left standing.

I do think there is an impact on those who stay when it happens. I can see some of my friends who are staying are concerned about the effects of losing the children that have gone on the overall class dynamics. However, that isn’t my problem as such. My job is to do the best by my children as individuals.

People don't think about it this way. This is how policy makers think.
I am aware of all research showing grammar schools can have detrimental effect on attainment of children who go to comprehensives. Will I care? Nope, I will sign up my children to 11+ instead.

I think that you're expecting too much from the parents here OP. Most are only going to have the capacity to consider what's best for their own children when it comes to schooling.

Sorry, not read the whole thread but , though I am going back to the late 90s here, this happened at my eldest DCs school .

Some of the parents moved their DC because the other school had space and was on the estate they lived on, and others moved theirs as they had had various supply teachers and some parents did not like that.

They were all in Year 4 at that stage.

Unfortunately London is becoming too expensive for people so school rolls are falling. There’s nothing you can do sadly.

For what it’s worth, I think there are plenty of things that parents can do to shore up their school community in the face of some increase in movement.

My plan is to continue supporting the school. DH and I are both already teacher governors in our own settings, so we can’t take on another governor role, but we both volunteer in different ways to support our DC’s school and build community.

The next is communication. We need to make sure that we communicate in a timely manner to the school if we see that something is wrong (and we really don’t at the moment - our DC’s books are marked beautifully, they have lovely healthy friendship groups, enjoy a broad range of activities and love learning. I also go in to their school regularly as an extended part of my own teaching job, and I am often impressed by the work, the relationships and the atmosphere).

There may be some cases of the ‘grass is always greener’, and I think the scenario described by pps is very likely to be relevant here, where individual classes can be negatively impacted by understaffing or by unsupported children awaiting EHCPs, but any classroom is vulnerable to this at the moment. Moving schools can’t mitigate the recruitment and retention crisis in teaching, nor the increase and backlog in SEND diagnoses (nor the funding crisis for TAs).

But thank you to those who posted about having experienced this situation as a family that didn’t leave. As a parent, we are important stakeholders in a school and our support and encouragement surely makes the difference for those who spend so much of their day caring for our children. Parents can ruin a school as much as poor leadership or poor classroom management. It’s better not to be one of those people.

@Gruffalowings Parents won’t give blind support if they are not happy though. You might be deliriously happy and not realise others are not.

You or DH could be governors at your DCs school and actually have strategic input. Both being governors where you work is a bit odd when one of you could do more in your own school. Having been a governor of three schools, I’ve yet to see a teacher governor do as much as I did! Turn up at meetings but not much else. I’d suggest one of you gets to know the gb at your own school. Although even more teachers on if possibly isn’t good!

Why do you think parents want to shore up a school community. You don’t. You are too busy. Some parents won’t care about dc leaving. What effect is there on their dc? Yes, less money for the school but it only bites when classes are merged or a TA isn’t replaced. Some of the parents wouldn’t even notice the latter.

Schools don’t like input of good ideas from parents unless they run a parent forum. If you ever stand outside a school, you will hear 25 ideas and half of them the direct opposite of each other!

Why did you write this @TizerorFizz . What’s your point?

@Gruffalowings Why? I see you volunteer but the point I’m making is that one of you could be a governor and make much more of an input. You seem to think everyone is like you and, bluntly, they are not. You don’t really acknowledge why parents might move and if you knew the school better, you might know but you are too busy at other schools. That seemed a bit of a cop out to me because it’s not necessary for both of you to be governors elsewhere and my point also stands that teacher governors don’t do the full whack of gb work as some of it clearly is not appropriate. I guess it’s more of a cv thing but that can be gained by being a governor at your community school and serving that community as you think it’s so vital. Is that clearer now?

How utterly offensive @TizerorFizz .

@GruffalowingsOffensive? Do you always react like that to someone who has more experience than you and has seen all this before? You did ask! I said you think everyone is like you. Because I’m not I’m offensive? Maybe parents do not want to join your gang? Perhaps reflect on that and decent advice.

I have no idea why you should be so personal, and what you say about teacher-governors is absolute drivel.

It’s also nothing to do with this thread.

I moved dd in y1 EYFS was very strong, the expected year 1 teacher went on maternity leave and new HT, the PPA cover took the class. Her reputation was bad that's why she no longer had a class the reality was worse. A new school opened the HT had an outstanding reputation we moved there others followed. A third of the class left in all. The new school had to have an extension built within 18 months such was demand. Are the children leaving from one year group? If so it's likely the teacher. Is there a new school, more places elsewhere that could be a draw as well.

I think the truth is that every school in the area is undersubscribed, so movement is a fairly easy option.

If it was a choice between home educating or staying with the status quo, I can’t imagine that anyone would be withdrawing to home educate, for example.

It’s a shame that there’s not much on this thread in the way of suggesting how to build back community within the school for those of us who are staying. The majority of posts are about reasons for leaving a school.

@Gruffalowings Teacher governors cannot take on certain roles within a GB. It’s that simple. If you gave one of these up and bacame a governor of your DCs school you could look at strategic direction and possibly make a difference. I’ve been on three governing bodies and chair of one and a governor trainer. You probably have limited experience of any GB and you certainly won’t be a Chair. You complain about others a bit too much.

Please get off this thread @TizerorFizz. It is a thread about what parents can do when their their school is losing students.

You seem like the least likely person to be elected a Chair of Governors, so I am assuming that is nonsense, too.

Surely if it's three kids per class...that's just normal in London. If it's more than that, there are issues at the school. Not sure what you can do about it as a parentm maybe tell the head that there are problems. Our school has a new head and they are weak and poor at leadership. SEN kids are poorly supported, which in turn impacts not only on them but also the other kids. Half the teachers keep leaving every year. I guess if your kid is unaffected, keep at it. If they are, maybe best leave.

Yes. My children are unaffected, so I don’t have anything to tell the head, but I do hope that parents have done exactly that before moving their children.

I have wondered about whether to host a social for parents or to up the fundraising efforts, but there is a danger that in trying to build cohesion you actually alienate people.

I would assume that if there is a nice community around the school, people would know why others are leaving. If not, then maybe this community was never there in the first place. Plus by the time kids get to KS2, isn't it a bit late to build any sort of new community. By then, kids have their own groups etc, it's not like they are in reception and will play with anyone.

Well, my point is rather that people leaving changes the dynamic of the community so it needs some effort to rebuild.

I also wouldn’t conflate community with gossip. If I was dissatisfied then I wouldn’t make that public knowledge, but I would communicate with the school.

Parents underestimate the damage they do to their children’s perceptions and experiences of school by reinforcing negative opinions.

Ok, my kids have been at two schools and so far, I have known the reasons for every child who's left the schools. That's not gossips. It's just knowing people i.e. having a community. I appreciate that people leaving changes things, but if you don't even know why people are leaving then you don't really know people i.e. no community. A community is essentially a group of people who usually have a larger idea that brings them together to build a sense of cohesion and shared sense of togetherness and knowledge.

I think all you can do is be positive yourself, support and attend school functions where you can and communicate well. The tricky thing with community is that it can never just be about what you do but what others do. You have to do your bit but it comes with no guarantees.

Op I would ask yourself what precisely you are attempting to achieve in “building cohesion”. Are you trying to make the teachers feel parents support them, are you trying to (perhaps subconsciously) make people feel they are part of the whole and thus should not remove their kids to other schools?

It’s a genuine point btw not a snark at you. I was certainly part of the “community” of parents at the school I took my kids out of - I was friendly with lots of parents, I had done more than my fair share of volunteering and fundraising. But none of that was going to be enough to keep my kids there when one was quite unhappy and the school couldn’t or wouldn’t deal with it. And if kids are being withdrawn from other classes at your school because of disruptive kids/unsupported SEN/rotating door of sub teachers etc notwithstanding you feel your kids are well supported, a cheese and wine night isn’t going to change anything.