Small school = less opportunities?

[luckyJess]

DS (year 2) goes to a smallish school (30 per year) in on the outskrirts of a town. It has previously had a good reputation for being a lovely, caring school. Results and ofsted ok, but not brilliant.

A new head started last year and since then there have been lots of comings and goings of staff and the previously strong team now seem to be replaced with lots of long term supply etc.

Now (quite suddenly) a good friend of mine (our DS's are best friends) has decided to move her son to a more local, much larger school on the grounds of teaching issues and the fact that the larger school offers so many more activties and opportunties. The school previously had a bad reputation, but now seems to be improving rapidly.

Do bigger schools have bigger budgets per head? Why does this school offer so much more?

DS is very happy at school and I am happy he is well cared for. To move schools would be a huge issue for him as he is very sensitive (gone to bed in floods of tears becasue I told him his best friend is leaving) and for that reason I couldn't consider moving him.

Please tell me good things about small schools. I am feeling very emotional tonight and want to reassure myself that I am doing my best for him.

Personally I think small schools offer lots of opportunities. I know that in the local school to mine (ours is quite large) there are children there that have represented the school in lots of different things, as they have such a small amount to choose from, where as when we have to take children to things, we often have to share it out among the class, so usually the children get one opportunity per year.

I like small schools at primary,

Small schools don't have to mean less opportunities either, Clubs and activities can still coour a plenty - and as less children, they have more chnce of being involved.

My DD is in a school of approx 90-100 children in the whole school (YR to Y6). I work in an infant school where there are 9- in a year group.

Although I think the school i work out is a lovely caring school I do feel that DD gets a really good deal, esp in terms of individual attention, in a small school where everyone knows one another and the teachers know all of the children by name, inc the head.

Well 30 per year isn't a small school. DD goes to a school and there are 8 in her year!

She used to go to a primary school which had about 45 in each year.

I think she has more opportunities in her new, small school than in her old one. The new school seems to have more money than her old one and when we moved her the HT at the new school said that one thing they were not short of was money!

At her new school she does a term of swimming (free) a year. At the old school she had 6 lessons a year that we had to pay for.

She now does French/Spanish in alternate years. Her old school does no foreign languages.

She does guitar lessons now for free and also violin (paid for). She does street dance after school one day.

There is also after school club one day a week (crafts/cooking), drama after school club, choir after school and recorders at lunchtime. They had an after school basketball club for a term (special coach came in to teach this). Only thing old school did was choir and recorders.

They are in a federation of local small schools and often get togetehr for things like cricket festivals and orienteering.

there are plenty of smart boards and IT equipment.

I guess it depends on the school, if you're happy and ds is then don't let someone else worry you.

I would second what everyone else has said

We moved DD1 and DD2 to a very small school (50 pupils in the whole school)

They get loads of opportunities to do after school clubs either free or for minimal outlay (like £1 per week for cookery club)

The school feels like a family, and although DD1 has only gone for 2.5 years she cried and cried when they finished.

And it has been brilliant for DD2 who has really blossomed.

If your DC is happy then don't move IMHO

30 per year isn't a small school!

My DC go to a school where there are 15 pupils max in each year, some years only have 9. I think there are about 85 in the whole school. That is a reasonably big school by local standards... the school in the next village was closed a couple of years ago as it had fewer than 10 pupils. My own primary school only had 24 pupils in it.

There are plenty of opportunities at their school, they have sports teams (football, rugby, hockey, netball, tennis, swimming, athletics etc), have a school choir and compete in Eisteddfodau, have a weekly Urdd group, weekly craft club... They also have a peripetetic music teacher for violin and trumpet.

As there are fewer children in each year every child has more opportunities to compete in sports events etc. There are only 4 boys in DS1's year, and only him and one other boy are really sporty. So they get to compete in everything, which they certainly wouldn't if they were in a bigger school!

Also, as there are fewer sets of parents, people tend to help out more with fundraising etc.

I would hate to have to send my DC to a school with 150+ pupils!

Thank you for all the positive replies. It has made me feel a bit better.

Hulababy made a good point about everyone knowing each other. The head does know all the children by name and knows all the parents too. DS seems to know people all the way through the school and all the years play together. Whereas at the other school all the year groups are segregated.

DD goes to a 90 intake school so there are over 600 children in the infants and juniors. I would love her to go to a school like yours where she would be nurtured and known as an individual. In her school I feel that because whe is quite quiet and generally well behaved, she gets largely ignored

30 per year isn't small. I'd say it's probably just about right - perhaps 60 would be OK, too. Or larger if the school handle it well. DS's school has 30 per year and the size feels spot on. The head knows all the DCs by name, as do all the other staff from what I can see.

I don't feel there's a lack of nurturing.

There are disadvantages with v.small schools - at least in a larger school the chances of there being another few DCs you get along well with are increased. There are a few tiny schools near us - friends with DCs there seem to have had more issues with their DCs feeling exlcuded from friendship groups than friends with DCs at larger schools. Also the big personalities at these tiny schools (nowt wrong with a big personality BTW) seem to have been able to dominate too much, at the expense of the quieter types.

Tiny schools though tend to combine years so class sizes are still around the 30 mark.

What everyone else has said.

dd's school is small. 15 or so per year, and smaller further up the school (it's an independent school). I think it's great - I really notice at school events (Christmas concert, sports day etc) that the children have more, rather than fewer opportunities. Because it's small, they all do everything, regardless of whether or not they excel. There's no option to give speaking parts in the play to the talented ones - everyone from year 3 upwards has lines. They all take part in all sports, they are all in the football team, and so on. And that really helps their confidence.

The other thing I have noticed about smaller schools (compared to my nephews' school which is significantly bigger) is that the children seem to develop much closer bonds across year groups. dd has really strong friendships with children outside her year group, and the older children are encouraged to look after the younger ones. There's a strong sense of family, which I think is great for everyone.

Smaller schools don't have the resources for huge and elaborate IT centres, or multiple different games teachers, but I think at primary level in particular, you gain more than you lose.

my dds have been in a 30-a-year, then a 60-a-year, now a 15-or-less-a-year primary. We moved twice. I liked the bigger schools best really for the range of facilities and clubs (especially the swimming pool at the biggest school). But the dds (now 10,8,6) are very happy in the little school and it makes great attempts to offer a range of activities. My most energetic one who gets bored easily insists she likes the little school the best.

It's very cosy. Lots of cross-year friendships, everyone knows everyone, there's a very strong sense of community. what we lost in range of after school clubs we have gained in the close knit community experience.

Wow. Thank you brilliant Mumsnetters!

I now feel so much better about our school.

DS is very sensitive and I can see that being known as an individual is a huge advantage for him.

Thank you all so much for the reassurance.