Primary School Matters

[JoJo]

Two pieces of advice from the learned p45ers if you will:

[1] Which School?
There's 3 primary schools in the parish in which we live.
One has 740 pupils, one has 91 pupils and one is a Gaelscoil
They're all mixed and all approximately equidistant from the house.
I haven't applied for a place for the SPO in any yet for September 2009/2010 (See question 2 below), but assuming I can get a place.. to which one should I send her?

The small school only has 4 teachers and doubles up on classes.. so junior and senior infants share a classroom and teacher, 1st and 2nd class share.. and so on. They only take in 10 students a year, so the class size is pretty small, even though it is shared. In addition to the 4 teachers, they have 1.5 permanent resource teachers (or whatever those teachers are who give extra help to kids that need it) on staff.

I haven't been to see the big school yet, but it would have 1 teacher per class and probably have 5 classes of junior infants etc. It probably has good facilities and grants/budgets because of the number of students. It probably also has resource teachers on tap.

The Gaelscoil is a gaelscoil.

I like the idea of the small place. Would the bigger school be better though? Woud the gaelscoil be better again?


[2] What age to send the SPO to school?
She will be 4 in May 2009. The small school and the gaelscoil only take children who are 4 in March 2009, so she would have to wait until September 2010 to go to school, when she would be 5. I am not 100% sure about the big school, but I think they would take her in 2009 at 4 years of age.
So.. do I send her to school at 4 or 5?

All advice welcome !
(JoJo - parenting by internet since 2005 )

[Eeeek]

4. Big school all the way.

[Pógxsmuhowney Pohl]

You are not going to call her Small Pink One in front of her classmates--right?

poor kid

[JoJo]

Originally Posted by Eeeek

4. Big school all the way.

Why do you think so?

[JoJo]

Hmm.. just found out that the big school won't take her until 5 either.
That's mad Ted.
Her birthday is in May.. and the cut-off for the schools accepting pupils in the September is March/April. Another 2 years of Montessori to go?

[Eeeek]

Originally Posted by JoJo

Why do you think so?

Because the kids from very small primary schools always, always, always have a more difficult time adjusting the high school. The sheer size, amount of teachers, amount of kids, etc is just too much for them.

[Griffin]

5 is the better age to start as she'd seem too young otherwise at the other end, G will also be 5 starting (by about five days).

The gaelscoil (as much as I hate Irish) would probably be the better option as the numbers would be low without shared classes although the big school will have far more social interaction

[Sleepy the Dwarf]

Originally Posted by Eeeek

Because the kids from very small primary schools always, always, always have a more difficult time adjusting the high school. The sheer size, amount of teachers, amount of kids, etc is just too much for them.

Speaking as someone that went to a school similar to JoJo describes, I had no difficulty adjusting to a large second level school.

To answer your question JoJo, I'd avoid the small school that doubles up on classes. We often went days without being taught anything, as the class we shared a room and teacher with were particularly ... erm... challenged, and found certain concepts hard to grasp. Our "timetables" were purely fictional, and we only ever had one PE class (that I can remember). I'd lean towards the gaelscoil myself, tbh. They have a good reputation.

[doyler]

wait till she is 5.

and send her to the small (91 pupil) school.

in that school EVERY teacher will know her, will know her name, will know her family, will know YOU! and she will know everybody, in 3rd class she will know, and play with, 1st class pupils as well as 5th class pupils,

what chance that in a 700+ pupil school?

[scruff monkey]

Originally Posted by doyler

in that school EVERY teacher will know her, will know her name, will know her family

[Pete]

Originally Posted by doyler

in that school EVERY teacher will know her, will know her name, will know her family, will know YOU! and she will know everybody, in 3rd class she will know, and play with, 1st class pupils as well as 5th class pupils,

So she will know everybody, but what will she know? I personally think that the bigger school would be better for the simple fact that the classes aren't double up. These are very important development years and do you really want what sleepy described?

[Rob]

The Gaelscoil all the way, teachers are paid more and are bound to be that bit more enthusiastic

[Mugsey]

just because you are paid mroe doesn't mean you are gonna be more entuastic take most of the civil service managers for instance

Originally Posted by Rob

The Gaelscoil all the way, teachers are paid more and are bound to be that bit more enthusiastic

[SlapHead]

Originally Posted by Mugsey

just because you are paid mroe doesn't mean you are gonna be more entuastic take most of the civil service managers for instance

It doesn't seem to apply to English teachers anyway.

[Burger Rare]

I went to a school like the small one you describe - 120 pupils, 4-5 teachers depending on how many students in a given year, and I don't think it did me any harm. I kept my head down for a while when I went to secondary (700 pupils) but I think that was more me than because I came from a small school. I still tend to keep the head down and observe for a while when in a new place.

I think you'd really have to go and interview the head teacher and the infants teacher(s) in both of the schools (assuming you've ruled out the Gaelscoil based on what you've said above), and get a feel for the place and make your decision based on that.