Would you choose a 'middle class village' primary over a 'town, mixed demographic' one?

[Flum]

If you considered yourself to be 'middle class'. THis should get a few of you going. I know the class thing always gets blood boiling. But I mean with the assumption being that the village school MAY expect to have pupils who may behave better, conform to rules eg be a bit more biddable and a more protective atmosphere perhaps.

Whereas the town school will have a more mixed group of kids from all walks of life,,,,, not that mixed if truth be told it is a VERY white part of rural England where we live.

Our nearest school is the town one. DH is very keen to move kids to the village one and I am not sure if they will get any benefit from that. They will all end up at the same comp age 11.

There does not appear to be a lot between them educationally and standards wise.

Would it be fair to say if you are going to end up swimminng with the sharks is it better to know em! Maybe there won't even be any sharks!

Opinions of any nature welcomed!

Oh dear!

How sad for your kids that they are exposed to such an appalling attitude.

What sharks?

If the town school is nearer choose that. Choose the school where they'll get the best education, and hopefully will be able to walk or cycle. Sod the rest. Just as bad to choose a school for its mixedness as its non mixedness.

Do you know we are in this exact scenario, I could have written the post myself. We live in a very "middle class" rural village, whith a CoE school in the locality, but our kids still go to the "town" school down the road as that was closest to where we used to live. I have been 50/50 about moving them and here are my advantages/disadvantages, this might help you I hope!

Advantages & disadvantages of the town school:

1. lots of mixed children and behaviour does suffer. DD1 has learnt a lot of bad manners and bad speaking, we have an ongoing fight to address these, I'm afraid.

2. Lots of mixed children also though means that she has learnt and will learn to deal with all sorts of behavious/attitudes and ways to communicate, so she will also be more street wise

3. It's a very large school so she has a lot of friends to pick from

4. Less privileged school so teachers seem very dedicated and work very hard; school is outstanding though and seems to have stacks of initiatives, clubs like orchestra, very creative and there's a bit for everyone.

5. DD1 and DS1 love the school and there is a dynamic/vibrant atmosphere, very inclusive too, ie there's space for everyone

ADVANTAGES and DISADV of the local middle class COE school

1. major disadvantage for me is that it's religious and we are not

2. kids are all lovely and largely well behaved, school gets fantastic results with a lot of focus on the academic

3. not much going on in terms of clubs and extra stuff, as I said very focussed on the academics and if you are not that way inclined tough

4. everyone knows each other, which can be a big claustrophobic and school is very much like the local community; safe, small and a bit cliquey ;o)

For all the reasons above, we have stuck with the town, mixed option. It is a bit annoying sometimes as there are things we don't like etc but so far gut feeling seems to say it's a good choice for the kids.

Will be following this post with interest though ))))

I'd be more interested in class sizes than town vs village tbh and if they end up at the same secondary school then they will mix with everyone else whichever school you choose..
fwiw my dcs are in a village school but that's because we are miles form any larger towns but the pros are that they are in classes of 18 and they have a nice environment around them that lends itself well to nature walks

Good and bad behaviour occurs everywhere regardless of socioeconomic circumstances.

My children go to an urban primary school with a mixed demographic, albeit with a significant middle-class intake. Speaking as one who ticks most "middle class" boxes, I can confidently say that many of the most disruptive children in my dcs school come from affluent, middle class homes. Accent and money is no guarantee of good behaviour!

I would visit both and see what "feel" I got.

I personally like smaller schools, so would also look at that factor also.

The ethnicity of the children, if mixed, would not be an issue.

PS our local village school is hugely oversubscribed, with classes of 30 (1 teacher and 1 teaching assistant) whilst the town school has 56 kids with 2 teachers, 4 teaching assitants and lots of helpers ;o)

when we moved I put my child in the local middle school in town (we live on the outskirts of town and it is equal distance). DS was horrified by the language that some of the children used, I felt that because there were some really disruptive children in his class he was not getting the education that he was getting previously and I found that he became quiet and withdrawn. Children threatening to kill him and teachers saying that it is only kids being kids .

After a term of him gradually going downhill I moved him to the local village school and he has come on leaps and bounds. He is happy, outgoing, they have lots of space to run around, he feels safe in the community and he is completely different to the boy that left the town school.

Before placing him in school I looked round both schools and found the facilities of the town school to be much better than the village school and like you felt that they all go up together so he should at least be friends with the problem children.

I also found that in the town school no one would communicate with me, I was a new parent at the school and was ignored by the other parents in the playground whereas in the village school I was included in conversations and introduced to all the other parents. This is really important as you spend quite a lot of time standing at school gates so you have to feel comfortable with the people you are standing with.

Personally for me the village school was absolutely the better option and I feel that by my children growing up in a safe community environment it will give them the self confidence and self esteem needed to deal with any problem children when they go up to secondary school.

Sorry about the essay!

No. though my children moved from a city primary to a mixed urban primary and then to a "nice" village primary. But only because we moved there. I preferred the city schools, really. I don't have a massive preference, the dds have been equally happy at all 3 schools and their progress seems to have been similar at each.

But, all other thigns being equal, I would have preferred them to be at a bigger, urban school. More children, more social and cultural mix, more after school clubs and facilities in a bigger school. I just happen to like bigger schools.

I think you need to look at a lot more than that - class sizes, whether classes are mixed, after school activities, SN policy etc etc.

FWIW my DD is in a 'nice' village school, but then it's our catchment school.

nobodyisasomebody, oh for Xst sake, go cry me a river!
This über PCness is absolutely nauseating.
To OP, send your children to the village school, by the time they are old enough to join the secondary, they would, hopefully, given the likely more nurturing environment of the village school, have turned into self confident teenagers and thus better equipped to deal with with the rough fruit from the rough parts of the town.

Would choose the village primary... and in fact I have done by moving to a nice quiet leafy 'middle class' village with children's ed in mind.

Go shoot me.

village schools do not necessarily have better behaviour. Nice suburb with mainly middle class people or traditional village with mainly farm workers etc. A lot of the village people round here have been there for generations and are often poorly educated and lack ambition. You can't make assumptions.

Our village school has extra naughty kids shipped in from the nearby city, by parents who find their children aren't settling well in their current schools or preschools.

Quite a few people seem to choose it specifically because their children are already not fitting in well.

it is a cosy nurturing school, very friendly, but certainly not full of perfect biddable chilren.

Choose your nearest school, whichever that is.

The only primary school I was unhappy at was a village school (but this was a long time ago)so not relevant to any discussion now.

My dd is at a school with a mixed intake and her behaviour is still as good as it ever was.... (there are some problem children but they aren't allowed to disrupt the others.)

As as aside, the worst behaviour I've ever witnessed in an educational environment was that of public school educated boys at Cambridge. Background and wealth doesn't guarrantee good behaviour.

Thank you, some really great thoughts on the issue so far. I have definately got very het up about it as my gut feel is to keep them in the town as it is so close and DD1 already settled. Also know lots of parents there who are happy with it.

They both have a lot to offer, my husband feels quite strongly about the behaviour eg table manners etc will be easier if they are around other kids that are constantly hounded about it by their parents.

It is not even an inner city school simply that its catchment has a wider demographic span. Not just Socio groups As n Bs. Which the other is basically.

Neither school has a playing field . And both are old under-resourced buildings, which I have no problem with. There are some amazing new primary schools around here, with lovely big class rooms and great gardens and fields and stuff, but not ours. Still reasonable schools though.

The class sizes are quite different, the ones in town are low 20s, and upper 20s - 30 in the village one.

The town school also has a brilliant Special Needs unit and I think that affects its Ofsted a bit negatively as the SNs kids often don't meet the Key Stage requirements.

I'm amazed at all the people whose kids go to mixed all=inclusive schools where there's no disruption from badly behaved kids

there are several kids in dd's class (y2) who cause major problems for the well-behaved majority (mix of middle=class/working class perpetrators btw)

she's constantly getting annoyed because they have to wait for x to get down from the table, or y to line up nicely, or z to stop pushing people on the carpet, or w to stop shouting - it seriously impacts on the amount of learning that can go on in their class, and I can't believe her school is an isolated case (in fact OFSTED always praises pupils for their behaviour)

to the OP, I'd go with your gut instinct about where your dc will be happiest. Small classes aren't necc a big advantage esp socially as you go further up the school - by the time they get to y5/6, they're all sick of the sight of each other and any little disagreements and personality clashes get magnified out of all proportion. It's a relief for most of them to get to secondary, where there's a much bigger social pool to fish from

Mmmm loving the shipped in naughty kids, I think this school definately got one or two who were expelled from the town school, not sure they lasted long there either.

It should be pointed out that the town is a very small town and really full of lovley people and the village school is only a bit over a mile away so we could walk/cycle on nice days, the people on the otherside of our road are in its catchment so all their kids go there, so they would still have local friends. Otherwise there is a bus. So it would not hvae to be drive all the time.

Flum, I think you've made your mind up for the town school but need to convince DH !

I change my mind about 3 times a day. I KID YOU NOT!

Everytime I speak to someone else.

I am very torn. I quite like the idea of the cosy village school and know lots of the mums.

But it will be an upheaval for DD1, not DD2 as she hasn't started yet and not DS as he is still a baby.

DD1 got a place at the village school too but I went for the town infants as it is lovely but now we are getting closer to junior school time, I am a bit more concerned.

Not that it matters what I'd do but I'd probably go for the village school assuming that it hits the same academic standard as the town one. That, though, is because I went to village schools and I think my education was pretty good (although since I started school in 1970 it's hardly relevant).

My DD is only 2.5 and I'm considering leaving her at massively expenisve Montessori (where she's at nursery but I don't know if I can really afford it); sending her to our village school (on edge of big town) which is "outstanding" and we're in catchment, etc; or even moving back to Suffolk (from Yorkshire) where I'm from so that she is able to mix with my family more and has better chance of getting into good school etc once she's past Primary School age.

Sorry, meant to say that I can't believe how much this stuff ties me in knots. I hope you manage to get to the decision that's best for all of you.

One factor with village school is def class sizes, my ds ended up in mixed year group of 30 children and in our similar town primary he would also be in a class of 30 (max) but single year group
I did think abour the opposite move to yours ie small village to driving into larger town school which seems better resourced but this year he seems to have lucked out with his class teacher and is finally settling in
She has been teaching for years and says his year group have the worst spelling of any she has come across
Behaviour is not so fantastic either!
there are so many different factors to consider and things can change in schools overnight with staffing moves (after I viewed school head changed and reception teacher also so the school was v different once he started with a lot of restructuring and muddle tbh)
If your dc are happy and motivated, I'd stick with the devil you know

I'm a big city street-wise girl myself and the idea of a small village perfectly middle class always well-behaved school makes me feel claustrophobic, tbh.

As it is, DC attend a 'mixed' social-class but almost entirely white primary school, and the mono-ethnicity of it I find quite depressing.

Actually, this thread has quite cheered me up in a way; I value social diversity in my children's upbringing.

However, I am probably being a hypocrite. . DD says her Yr3 class is perfectly well-behaved but the other Yr3 class at her school is appallingly behaved. Must admit I am grateful for her being in the class she is.