A litle vent & a question

Ok, First of all my vent in lead up to my question.

Last friday our school had their athletics carnival (well it was Thursday & friday but only kindy's took part on friday).
The day was horrible as far as the weather was concerned. It was cold, drizzly wet & windy.
Now when I say cold, I mean no more then say 5 MAYBE 7 degree, we live up in the mountains.
BUT instead of cancelling, they held the track events in this weather meaning the kids (as in the whole school (that turned up, say about 70 out of 110) had to sit out in the middle of an oval on tarp that was on the grass in this cold, wet, drizzly weather!

Come lunch time I took Evan home, he had done his 2 events fairly early in the day so was basically running around in the cold & wet while other kids did their events. Once I found out he was finished I said ok, well I am taking him home to get warm.

Come Monday at least half the school was off sick! No bloody wonder! Evan kinda class is made up of about 14 kids, Monday, tuesday & wednesday their were between 6 & 8 kids that attended, yesterday I thick there were 5. His teacher mentioned how she can't really do anything with the class when so many are off sick because then those off miss out if she moves on to the next topic.

One of the afternoons I was standing up at the gates waiting for Evan, talking with another Mum & the principal of the school. She was saying how it was lucky the managed to get it done, agreed the weather was horrible, so I piped in & said yes you got it done but now half the school is off sick. She kinda of just laughed it off & said "Oh I know! hahaha" I just stood there thinking, I'm not f**king laughing women! But didn't say anything as their was kids all lined up for the bus.

So now for my question. It concerns me that Evan will miss out on things, maybe be a little behind because the school is so small & when kids are sick class work comes to a halt. Just now I pulled out 5 sheets of paper from his bag with scribble & drawings on them, which makes me wonder, did he just spend the day doing this?

Im not prepared to move him to a bigger school as I do like the school but I am just having some doubts about the size.

Am I crazy for thinking it may impact his learning? I mean come high school will he be as far ahead as other kids from other schools entering yr 7?

Should I mention that I am not happy about the carnival going ahead in such bad weather? They had to do it then apparently as the small schools carnival was held yesterday (& today I think) so those who came first & second last week move on to the next round.

But seriously shouldn't the health of the school overall be more important then making it to small schools?

who the hell holds atheletics during winter!!! ive always done school stuff like that in summer or laste spring, i think you have every right to be upset and should the other parents!!

I think you should definately say something.

Arrange a meeting with the Principle and raise all your concerns. I really think it is important for parents to mention things when something bothers them, too many people just let things slide when it comes to things like this.

I hope that you get the answers you need. If you didn't want to move him to a bigger school, maybe you could get some information about what he should know this year and go over it with him to see where he is, then you can make an informed decision from there.

Good luck!!

my sister and I went to a small (max 100 students) primary school we had a great sense of belonging as kids we knew everyone it was great when I went to higschool where there were 120+ grade 8's :lol: it was a bit of a culture shock but the only thing I was behind in was long division and thats because I couldn't master it and the nuns who taught as were happy with the way I did it.

in other subjects i was ahead becuase we had more one on one help... I think small classes rocky

Rach, I agree with the sense of belonging, Allthe kids know each other & Evan often plays with the yr 6 kids, its a lovely school I am just having some doubts from the recent events.

I would possibly be asking why the carnival was held so late in the year. Although I do remember attending small school sports days when I was little and they always seemed to be on the coldest day of the year (and it was worse because you had to get up really early in the morning because we had to travel hours to where the carnival was being held).

I don't think that it is going to have any effect on his progress. Primary school (and especially infants) is so much more about learning how to get along with other kids and interact socially and learn how to learn. There is so much redundancy built into the system in the early years because sometimes it takes classes longer to understand concepts.

And there are so many advantages to attending a small school because you know the teachers and the students and the classes are generally smaller as well.

My primary school i attended, when i was in year 6 we had 17 kids....and in total the whole school had 80.

It was great, but i struggled when i hit high school where there were over 1500 students!

well I discovered today that the small schools carnival was actually CANCELLED due to weather! So our poor kids had to sit int he rain for nothing!

The two athletics I've been to - since leaving school - were in winter. Around June. This year was OK, but the school we were at last year was only 12 kids, so they have a small schools carnival as the only one.
The oval we usually had - 30 ks away in Dubbo was booked & they couldn't do it any other time due to hols coming up etc, so we had to go to Wellington. Past Dubbo on the way to Orange, where it often snows. It was similar. Cold, windy & wet by lunchtime. But they had to keep going as everyone had travelled so far. I certainly wasn't willing to do it again!

I think that in kindy missing a few days work won't hurt. Its very slow & basic work which is why she can't do much til the others are back.
Once he is in the older grades they will more than likely keep going, just a bit slower, so when the others come back theres not too muchfor them to catch up on.
I think other than the size of classes, small school kids do pretty well at high school as they got more attention in primary school.
I wouldn't worry too much.

Yep I get the not cancelling due to having to travel so far but we are lucky that we have an oval for use accross the rd from the school. All else fails I am sure they could use the school grounds also. They did for the cross country run a few months back.

The school should have done it before the school holidays I think. I don't see the reason why they had to have it so close tot he small schools one. I mean if they held it back when the weather is a little more friendly, its still going to be the same kids that get to go along to the small schools & chances are half the kids who won a spot were probably to sick to go! I know of at least one event that they had to ask one of teh runner up kids to go along instead.

If they held it earlier then the kids who won place could practice & "train" for the small schools. As it was the school athletics carnival was in the news letter that came home the monday & it was held thursday/friday of the same week.

I have heard a few parents complaing about the weather it was held in & that is the same every year. I go along to P & C meetings & the next is on Tuesday. I think I will bring it up & say that I think they really need to think about holding it earlier in the year.

eta - just for the record, Evan didn't get sick nor did he win a place in the SS carnival