Just curious- was having a discussion with a friend about this today- would you send your child to a school that has 12 students total? Why/why not?
The school has one teacher and offers individualised learning plans for each student.
I went to a very small school. I hated it. Tanya Calkman (sp?) who was the headmaster's daughter was a bullying mean girl from hell and there was no escaping her. With such a small pool of students for her to torment we all got tormented. it didn't help that her father always helped out - she stole my book and wrote her name in it and then when I took it back she told her father and I got in told to return it to her
I guess it could have been good if Tanya had been kept locked in a cage.
I wouldn't only because to me social skills are very important. And I don't think small schools are a good indication of how to cope with high school or university. Unless of course you are in a rural area iykwim?
I recently spoke to a friend who went to a small "alternative" school as a child. She said when she went to uni, she hated it. She had no idea about social interactions, found the structured learning hard to get to understand and so fourth. She still really struggles socially as a result.
Yes I would, but we were only considering it because of remoteness. I was then really concerned with keeping her out of school activities up so that she had a wider circle, not just the kids at school.
When I was a kid a couple of my friends went to a local school with only 15 kids and both of them went through high school/uni successfully, so I guess it does depend on the child. That was a regular state school though.
DH and I have had this discussion many times.
The people that he knows that went to a small school for primary and then mainstream high school were really well balanced and confident people.
But my brother went to a small rural school, about 20 kids, and he got passed over. Not intentionally, but he memorized all the books on the first read and then repeated them by rote. By the time anyone realized that he wasn't actually reading he was nearly 9 and it took a lot of extra tutoring to catch him up. I attribute a lot of the problem to the teacher being spread between all year levels, so if a kid seems to be doing all right they got skipped for one that needed more help iykwim. But I guess that happens no matter what the size of the school.
There are two small schools with only a dozen children at each around here, but there is a teacher at MG that does a day a week at each of them and it seems that a lot of the kids that are going there that have behavioral issues. I would make sure I spent a decent amount of time there before enrolling to check out what the other kids were like because the smaller class size can be attractive for more challenging kids - you don't want them to be stuck with a Tanya Calkman.
Nope, No way known would I send a child to a school that small. It might seem brilliant on the outside that they get one-on-one teaching etc, but the whole 'big fish in a little pond' thing comes to mind. Where I live, there are several small 'satelite' towns with small schools. Then there is the big public school (where my kids go). They all end up at the same high school. A lot of the kids from the smaller schools (we're talking 40 or less students total) really really struggle once they get to the high school both academically and socially. Say for example you send your child to a really small school and there are only 5-8 kids in that year group (perhaps even less). you child might be the top of that class, but when you send them to a larger school and grade them among 50 other kids, you might find that they are actually not that 'bright' at all kwim? That happened to one child I know. His parents went completely berko at the high school principal because their son started struggling with maths once he got to high school and claimed that they weren't teaching him the right thing because he'd been doing so well at his primary school, but then the principal had to tell them that no, they were teaching him the right thing alright, it was just that their son wasn't as smart as they thought he was because the teachers at his small primary school never pushed him to work harder and advance.
These really small schools just do not have enough 'competition' from other children to make children strive to be better ITMS. Even our next door neighbours have started sending their DD to my kids school becuase of bullying at her small school. There was only 3 girls in the entire school of 14 students and she was so miserable. I was talking to my neighbour about it once and they were going to persevere with it, but it got to the point where it really affected her emotionally so they moved her to the larger school and she is just thriving. As a parent, that would be one of my biggest concerns. if children are happy and adjusted and have friends, then they will learn easier than if they are emotionally distressed over not having friends etc.
I send my DD to a small school, and yes I am sending DD2 to it next year as well....
I have found it to be an amazing place for us. DD1 needs it small, she wouldn't cope in a mainstream school, but even with that I found it to be more than I could hope for. Yes, sometimes there are some social issues in the playground. The teacher helps them work through the social issues, they are encouraged to continue trying and work it out together. So in amazing ways, my DD1 is learning more about social schools than she would if she could just move on to another group... she's forced to work it out.
The children in this school who have moved on to high school within a larger setting have all succeeded. Amazingly so, one last year had some issues with being a little fish in a HUGE pond, but by the second term she was fine and happy.
I have talked with other parents who have social concerns about their children, but they generally come to the conclusion that the difficulties have to be resolved so therefore it seems that they do have to learn skills needed. I suppose if there was a bully, than it would be hard.
There are 22 kids in the school this year, and next year there will be around 20. Its kindy to grade 6.
I started school at a small primary school of only about 40 kids and I really really loved it. Then went to a bigger school (well I thought it was big) with 100 kids and still liked it alright. Then when we moved and I went to a huge normal sized school I absolutely hated it. Everyone seemed to be way less friendly and I felt so unimportant.
I'm still undecided whether the small school was a good idea or not (although we had no choice where I lived). I loved it but it didn't prepare me for the 'real' world iykwim.
It also depends on the child's personality a lot. I know it would be a disaster for DS. Yes, he would love it. He wouldn't have to extend himself in social situations and could just coast along with a dozen other kids, making friends by default because there aren't many options in a small pool. But it would destroy him socially in the long run. It might be harder for him to join in a bigger group now, but it is a skill he needs to learn rather than hiding away and suddenly hitting high school with no means to make friends.
The kindy here only has about 25 kids on the roll atm, but at least they are all in the same age range and not spread over 6-7 year levels. Then the primary school has about 180 kids, so not too big but big enough.
thanks for all your replies.
we have the option of two local public schools (both are about 3 minutes drive from each other). one has 205 students and the other has 12.
tbh, i had never even considered putting ds in the small one- mainly for lots of the social reasons mentioned. i was actually completely shocked to find out yesterday that two mums that i know are putting their kids there (so the population will go up to 16!) lol
i listened to their reasons, and while they made some good points, i was still really struggling to understand their decision.
i was considering maybe doing a tour there but I'm not going to bother. I'm going to go check out the big one and then go from there.
thanks for all your thoughts everyone!!
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