How big is your secondary school intake?

[ifIonlyknew]

We seem to have some massive intakes planned locally for the next few years and I am just wondering if 10 form entry is normal nowadays?

120 students in 4 forms which split down into smaller cross form groups for specific subjects (languages, humanities) and when subjects are setted.

5 form entry. Boys Grammar.

They also have two halves (E and H - no idea why they are called that) and you only have lessons with people in your half). They have vertical forms and so less easy to tell by form intake.

240 children, 8 forms. 2 bands though as EllenJanethickerknickers said.

thank you - we are only a town so it seems enormous to me. I think the smallest is 180, most are 210/240 and then seem to be going up to 300 in one or two. it seems too big to me, especially as it is a rapid increase in the school we are looking at with them going from 210 to 300 in one year. It does put me off if I am honest.

Three form entry, all girls, in the top 2% of schools in the country. Can't actually believe our luck that we got it.

mind I am finding the whole secondary school application looming quite daunting!

Bigger doesn't need to mean it's not personalised. I can assure you all my teachers in HS knew my name!

Large schools have many advantages. DC school seem to have a never ending number of sports teams, dance and drama evenings and a range of school bands. They have more gsce option choices than smaller schools in the area, too.

It's all down to space in the end, trying to cram 10 forms into a school designed for 7 isn't going to work, but if the school is equipped for many children, it can work well.

I looked at a local school this week with "only" 6 class entry and it seemed small. 1 music room, 1 drama room, small sport department, tiny library.

The bigger school we prefer had a whole art area, proper library, language block, 6th form block with work area and cafe etc.

Battleax l went to a 1.5 entry PS and 10 entry HS and the bigger HS was so much better. The PS was suffocating and I couldn't wait to leave.

TBF, three things have probably influenced me;

1. I myself went to a 1 form entry primary and a three form entry grammar and those seemed good sizes to me.

2. I’m from a teaching family, and have heard plenty of preference for small-medium schools from off duty teachers, with various persuasive rationales.

3. Dyspraxia and aspergers run in the family, and I tend to think that for D.C. with any SpLD, smaller is, on the whole, better. (Bearing in mind that when you’re choosing a primary school, SpLD haven’t necessarily been identified or diagnosed yet).

Snap baroque. The smaller school certainly had less subject options too!

400 in dcs Secondary school. Admission number gets bigger every year.

120 4 form for my son this year.

I also think that large schools can be good for children who aren't average. If a child is really good at a sport, they are more likely to have others in their year that are good too. This gives them to opportunity to form teams and train with other who are just as good and enthusiastic. Same with children who aren't very good. I was always thankfully that no matter bad I was, i could always find someone as hopeless as me at sport. In a smaller school my lack of skills may have made me stand out more.

My eldest's school when he started 7 years ago was 4 form entry (120 pupils)
A couple of years they increased to 5 / 150 and last year put it up again to 6 /180. With no extra space or classrooms though. Lord knows where they'll put them all by the time every year has 180 kids!!
My younger two's school was 150 but has this year gone up to 170. Always had six forms so there must just be more in each class now.

230 children

10 forms

Have looked at the admissions numbers for all the local secondary schools and they range from 178 to 240 with one going up next year to 243 for 2018/19 and then to 270. My DCs school is 240 intake it turns out

thank you - yes those are very good points about possibly more options available and having more chance of finding others similar to yourself etc. At primary my school was 26 in a year and secondary was about 80-85 a year. Their primary seems quite big to me and it is only 64 a year so these secondary schools are unimaginably big to me!

I do like the school as it is, I suppose I just need to ask the question about where do they plan to accommodate another 90 children a year over the 5 years as it feeds through to every year. if they have planned building works etc and plans to expand labs/art studios and so on to accommodate the extra then I will probably be happy but if they will be expected to manage with the existing facilities with just a few more classrooms I don't think I will be. DD likes technology and is desperate to get into various labs and so on so if time in these could potentially be cut because of a huge increase in pupils then that wouldn't be good (now watch her decide she actually loves geography or something instead!). Perhaps I am overthinking it all. It isn't a great school, has some of the lowest results but we felt when we looked round it had the nicest atmosphere and her mental health and wellbeing are more important to us than her academic success even though she is probably capable of grammar school. I want her to enjoy her teenage years (within reason) so activities and opportunities on offer are important to us so she can develop as an individual not just get lots of exams in the future. Thank you.

PAN of 240 so 8 x 30 per year but that is split for anything pastoral, the school is run as four schools in one under a house system with a deputy head teacher heading up each house. This makes it feel like a small school but with the resources of large school.

It is good that there are a range of sizes and types so hopefully people can go where they think suits them best, I know it doesn't always work out like that though.

yeah there isn't really any choice here, a couple of Church schools, a grammar and then whatever is nearest which if you are lucky has places and isn't too bad.

Going from 210 to 300 in one year is a lot. Have they got some new buildings etc to accommodate that?

In my county (quite rural), most schools are based in a larger town, then serve the town and the outlying villages/farms etc. Some are quite small, but most intakes are 240-280. Many of the children come from tiny primaries with 1 form entry or composite classes, but they usually thrive at secondary school.

Personally, I think anything under 100-120 is too small and claustrophobic. As a teenager, you need to be able to find your tribe.

Larger schools can also usually support more subjects/options at GCSE and A-level, provide more clubs and extra-curricular (because there is an interested teacher to run them) and can have better facilities.

In most secondary schools, teachers will teach the same number of pupils/classes, so still have the same number of students to get to know. Forms will be the same size. Larger schools often have assistant heads of year/head of house to help with pastoral care. Pupils may not know teachers who never teach them, or all the SLT, but do they need to?

9 form entry here and around 250 to a year group.

DD's is usually 8 form entry but has 2 years as 9 form.
They split into 2 mixed ability halves to start with, and then are banded/streamed in y10/y11.

I think the size is good, as it allows for a good range of extra curricular activities, and good flexibility over GCSE options. Also, for less mainstream characters, it enables more choice in friends (if they can find each other).

that is what worries me the most I think Ladylance, I haven't found any mention of building works being planned but of course that isn't to say there aren't any plans. More classrooms is fairly straightforward as you can always use portacabins - a large amount of my school was made up of old portacabins and they were fine but I do worry about the more specific facilities. The head has been very approachable though so I will ask when we go to the open evening in September. If it was just an additional 30 then I could see them fudging it all a bit but 90 children is a lot to gain in one year especially as that will then be the PAN going forward too.

I am starting to feel happier about the overall size reading your comments. I don't think they stream or set at all for anything from what they said when I asked last year (we looked around a year before we needed to to start getting a feel for the different schools) so unless something has changed I think they are just taught in houses but i might have misunderstood. I do feel if they have 300 children they would be better at least partially setting them and maybe they do but in an unofficiall way?