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?

Local secondary (11-16) - 420
Local 6th form college - over 2000 per year ( yes in excess of 4000 students in one college )

say Hants?

We are 420!

I was a HOY and it was not appreciated that it was like being head of a small school really!

Was 14 forms; reduced to 13. Budget cuts...

@TeenTimesTwo - yes

sayhello
Symonds is indeed massive, but both my kids loved it there
and the resources and pastoral care were fab as far as I am concerned.

Most of the comps round here are around the 300 per year mark (but they do not have 6th form)

I went to school with two classes and only 40 per year at 6th form.
THe resources and opportunities offered by the big schools are definitely better IMHO

220 this year previous years have been 180 im not sure where they are supposed ti magic the extra space from.

I do feel better now thank you.

Ta1kinpeace The resources are indeed excellent although I’ve heard spaces for independent study are often hard to find. I hear mixed reports of the pastoral side. There are good and bad sides to everything I suppose

sayhello
Studying space - Oh yes, there are social media accounts joking about the lack of seats. Its always worst at the start of the academic year.

Pastoral care - if you work hard they will support you. If you piss about and do not hit grades they will kick you out. Its pretty brutal on that front (and they know that the other colleges always have spaces) but when each of my kids needed pastoral support it was there.

OP
In the state sector, big schools have economies of scale so can support all abilities and interests
comprehensive schools support every kid who lands at their door
selective schools do not admit the ones the comps have to support :-)

My DDs school, London comp, PAN in her admission year was 360 but we’ve since found out that there are 405 in her year (8). I think there are 13 forms in the year.

Back in September her HOY told them in assembly, that they were no longer the largest year group - the new year 7 were bigger.

The school keeps classes for core subjects (Maths, English, Science) at 24 or less, and in some of my DDs year 8 MFL classes there are even less students than that, because at the end of year 7 the school gave students the choice to give up one MFL. I think there are 15 in my DDs German class, and 10 in her Latin class.

I think the school must run the year group as two - I have heard mention from other parents and my DD that ‘a certain child/friend is in the other side of the school’.

I heard from the SLT that the main reason for increasing PAN is to get more money from the government because of funding per student

It used to be the school to avoid as it was really poor in just about every area, but it's had a massive turnaround in the last couple of years. The Head told the DC on the transition day it is now over-subscribed. Unthinkable 5 years ago!

Up to 360/year so 12 forms, semi rural comp.
Each year is split into 2 halves, set in all subjects, except RE and citizenship, which is in form groups.
In maths, English and science there is 8 or 9 sets, so can cater for all levels.
On size, its great everyone can find a like minded group of friends and easily avoid people they dislike.
Teachers, apart from Yr7, where they have pictures to remind them of who each child is, we have never known a teacher not to know either of our kids where. Even now teachers stop us to ask how eldest is doing, some haven't taught him for nearly 5 years.
The sixth form only has 60 students in year 13, for his year. Miles to small and we should have let him go to the local colleges which have between 300 and 950/year

It’s gone up this year to 265. That’s more than DD has in her entire primary.

DCs primary was single form entry .... 200 kids in whole school

Secondary was 300 per year

6th form was 2000 per year

they coped

Dc’s Secondary school has 10 form entry

Their junior school is/was 6 form entry

Their infant school was 3 form entry.

My nieces live in a village - the entire primary school was smaller than a year in my ds’s infant school. The year intake is usually 10-15 but has varied between 6 and 20. Their secondary school is a similar size to mr ds’s junior school.

For the most part, my dc have had far more opportunities at their bigger schools at each different age group and there was less bullying. Not sure how much of that was a girl/boy thing - but certainly my nieces all experienced ‘queen bee’ type bullying to varying degrees where because there were so few girls that if you didn’t play nice to the queen bee she would go out of her way to encourage the rest of the class to bully those that didn’t fit in or kowtow to her, making life a misery from which there was no escape. For my dsthere was the odd bit of low level bullying but as soon as the teachers were told it it was easy for them to sort the bully out and separate them - and for ds next year I know that his lovely teacher has already made sure that ds won’t be in the same form as someone who niggled him through the year, even though it’s pretty much stopped now (albeit having taken repeated telling off).

Being in bigger settings has also given the dc more resilience and confidence and enabled them to move up to the even bigger schools much more easily than those that came up from smaller schools.

Also the big secondary school uses streams (with setting within each stream for those subjects that have it) within the schooo to effectively run it as two schools for easier timetabling and then have vertical tutor groups as a way of mixing up the age groups. Does seem to work.

We have 3 local schools. 2 of which are bigger than 10 form and one I'm not sure what the capacity is but they usually operate on 3-4.
It has been the local sink school and the one people say "anything but", but now is quite reasonable, but still hasn't lost the reputation.

I guess a lot of this depends on the individual school. DD is at a huge school and I think it's great - there's so many opportunities and it does seem easy to find friends. One of DD's friends is one of the "quirkiest" kids I've ever known but has found a nice supportive group and is doing well. But it obviously means the school has to be well organized, plus events often allow only one ticket per family.

Two of the girls at her sports club go to an nearby tiny girls private. Apparently one loves it because it's so cosy and nurturing, the other hates it because she finds it claustrophobic! So nothing will suit everybody.

thanks - yes that is a good point, nothing will suit everyone and experience depends on the individual child to a large degree.

DD1's school has a pan of 294 (295 for her year) Our then catchment school has a pan of 270, but I think it is reducing from 2019 as despite being a pretty new building they have now realised that the fancy pants layout doesn't work, and so they are having to change it which will have an effect on space.

DD is at the biggest school, the smallest had an admission number of around 130 (under subscribed) but it isn't a great school (though improving)

Our alternative choice was out of catchment, that has a pan of 218 but took 196, the larger pan vs admission number is because it covers a pretty rural area so needs to allow for the slight changes in birth rates. Had it been our first choice we would have got a place for her.

Secondary school = 150 per year.

Dd is (hopefully) about to join a sixth form that's 1000 per year.

Wow some are huge !

DD is going to a school with an intake of 180.