Advantages and disadvantages of a large school

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Sorry, another school application question!

I would be very grateful if you could help me decide by telling me what the advantages and disadvantages of a small school (intake about 140) vs a large school (intake about 320) are.

Thank you!

Not sure sorry Burn. Do you have a choice of just these two?

The major advantage of the big school at the moment (DC's school currently has an intake of 330 which will rise to 480 over next few years, albeit over 2 campuses) is that they can weather funding cuts better due to economies of scale. It's also more likely they will be able to offer a wider variety of subjects at GCSE level and more after school clubs. I would imagine the disadvantages might be that it is more impersonal, though that's not been the experience of my DC as the school actively organises the DC into various groupings so they are not so conscious of the vast size of the school.

Thank you RedSky. How does friendship work- easier or harder to make friends do you think?

Everyone- yes, sadly that appears to be our choice! Massive or tiny! Outside chance of a normal sized school, but probably not.

My kids have been to a small school and a huge school

My experience is that with small schools there is an assumption that they're cosy and nurturing, but in reality that doesn't always correlate!

The big school made a CONSCIOUS effort to make spaces and groups feel nurturing and cosy to compensate for the scale. The small school didn't bother as much with the pastoral side because they had the selling point of being small, but in fact it has less of a sense of community etc than the big one.

Thank you Tinsel. That's an interesting thought!

Advantages of big school
There's more of a chance to meet friends just like you
Falling out with one or two people doesn't mean you fall out with the whole yr group. A wider pool of friends to choose from.
Smaller schools tend to be more clicky.

Sorry I can't think of any advantages of a small school at the moment, but experienced both.

is 320 a typo? do you mean 3200? otherwise both sound tiny to me.

bigger is better in secondary. more chance of finding likeminded kids.

Ummmm, the op said intake of 320, not while school population. 320 is 10 or 11 forms per year group so pretty big.

so she did! sorry op. I should have read better. I still think the bigger school, but the smaller one isn't small enough to be awful so don't worry too much.

advantages of bigger school, more option choices, more potential friends, easier to get put in another form if needed, teachers will have more experience with different types of pupils, less likely to be closed down, easier to hide from bullies, better choice of food at lunch.

I think some of the disadvantages of large schools can be counteracted by them splitting them further.
I went to a small secondary and, for example, issues would go form teacher, deputy, head.
My dc's very large secondary is split into years and upper/lower school (10/11 & 7/8/9)
so issues go: form teacher, head of year, head of lower/upper school, deputy, head.

It's all very well to say there's more likelihood of finding like minded children in a large school, but they may never venture far enough to find them-or they may just pass like ships in the night, particularly if shy.
The cliques tend to be the same, just more of them.

Some large schools are great at SEN as they have a good department to support them. Others find they can basically ignore them until they get so bad they either drop out voluntarily or they have to do something.

There's usually more extra curriculum things at a large school-the large juniors mine were at have 3-4 clubs run by the school every day.

Things like teams can be better-but you've less chance of getting in. So if you're interested in playing for a winning team, and you're good, that's great, if you just want to have a go you may just never get a chance.

I went to a huge school and now I teach in a small school.

Most of my teachers didn't know my name never mind anything about me till I was in the exam years.
Many of the teachers were dealing with pupils who couldn't read or had serious difficulties, but not enough support for the number of pupils. This left the able pupils to fend for themselves, again until exam years.
Exam years, we had loads of choice of subjects. I got to pick exactly the options I wanted all the way through. It was better in the exam years.

In my small school of 700 kids I have worked there for ever now and I truly know all the kids i teach names and a bit about them. There is enough support for those who need it.
Option choices always leave someone disappointed.

Thank you all! I like having some disadvantages from Witchend too.

It's great hearing all your opinions based on experiences.

It seems to boil down to
Small schools are more personal vs Large schools more opportunities.

I need to think about how my child fits into that...

I teach in a big school and I know all my students well. Down side is that even after years I don't know 50% of the students.

I think attitude if staff and the ethos is more important than size of school.

Advantages of small:
Able to know everyone in your year/ all the teachers.
Perhaps smaller class sizes when options begin to be chosen as less children may choose a certain option.
Disadvantages of small:
Often harder to deal with fallouts and more gossip.
Less options regarding subjects (which everyone else has said)
Often facilities not quite as modern/good but that more depends on the school than its size.
Advantages of large:
Easier to deal with fallouts.
More likely to make a good friend group as there's more choice, and more likely to have different groups of friends (my kids go to a school with 1800 children and have friends from various lessons and activities as well as their friends at lunch).
Disadvantages of large:
Anonymity - won't know even nearly everyone or all of the teachers.
Large, intimidating building perhaps.

I'd say the nurturing thing is more about the school than its size - or just depends on how the school works really.

And of course for advantages of large there's the options/activities but that's been reiterated many times!

DD has just started at a small village school (100 pupils). Big advantage is her reception class is 14 pupils, with full time teacher and teaching assistant. You don't even get that for private around here! It's very easy to figure out what's going on - office staff know everyone, teachers are available at pick up and drop off because they aren't being mobbed. DD needed to go to A&E on her second week and whilst she was waiting in the first aid room for DH to pick her up, she said all the first aiders and staff who sat with her knew her name and she at least knew them by sight already. We are lucky in that our school manages an after school club and some really great after school clubs, but I think that's quite unusual.

Disadvantages- funding, obviously. And I do worry that her friendship groups are quite limited - even though further up the school they have combined year groups, there are only so many people to choose from in a school that small!

VeryPunny - that sounds brilliant for a little one starting school. I've found as our DC have grown up that they need more space to be able to flex their wings and figure out who they are. That can be really hard when you are basically with the same 13 kids you knew when you were 4/5.

A big school has the scope for more opportunities for a range of abilities: eg it can have a proper orchestra because they have enough students to play a variety of instruments to a decent standard, plus a beginners wind band; they can have an A stream football team who are competitive and win their league, plus a B stream team who enjoy playing but don't bring home the trophies.

Big schools can also have better facilities (such as a theatre and a variety of playing fields, to carry on my examples)

There is also often space to avoid teachers as well as other students that your DC don't get on with

Can they offer a good range of GCSE subjects, OP?

OleannasWimple I totally agree that what's nice for a reception age child is not necessarily what suits a Y6 child, especially socially! People around here seem very fond of small village schools - there are three small primaries under 2 miles of us. To my mind it would make more sense to have one central one, which would be easily walkable to by everyone.

This is secondary school? So these are the size of the year groups?

My children's school takes 120 in years 7 and 8 which rises to 140 from year 9. I've never thought of it as being small (admittedly they went to a primary school with a total of 120 children).

I work in a school with 180 in a year group. 320 sounds just massive!

How does friendship work- easier or harder to make friends do you think?

The school deliberately timetables most lessons with the same class and all lessons within the same group of 3 classes. So although the school is big, the DC spend a lot of time in the same group of 30ish, and less time in a group of 90ish. This slightly backfired with DS who took ages to gel with anyone in his class, and would have ironically liked a bigger friendship pool, and has worked well so far for DD (she's Y7 so started last week!) as she was able to quickly get to know others. The point is, I guess, that the school is big, but the DC aren't exposed to all of it at once!

Sorry meant to say that I don't think the size of the school necessarily links to the opportunities offered. The extra curricular activities (sport, dance, music, drama, academic societies etc etc) at my children's school is amazing and they offer a really broad range of GCSEs.

Which school does your dc prefer?

I wouldn't like a school with just 13 in year group. Kids don't automatically make friends with whoever they're chucked in with and I imagine a class of 13 could get VERY lonely if you don't happen to click with one of the two of three friendship groups that makes up the other 12. My eldest was very lonely in the small school as the friend groups were TIGHT and there was no fluidity of other groups to mix with

I would say that in a small school the teachers are likely to know each child individually, It's easier to fly under the radar in a large school. A small school can be less scary for children that are more anxious. It might not be for every child but my preference is for a smaller school.