How big is your dc's school? - Page 2

[bestjob]

Our older kids attend a school for French Immersion... for 750 kids from Gr 1 to Gr 8.

I mostly like the size of the school. I have been chair of the school supporters' assoc for four years. We have a lot of support from parents that translates in to big fundraising, which means lots of support for school projects.

That school has the best admin team in the region. They have the highest qualifications in terms of HR training, teaching experience, professional development, and they are true community leaders. They are able to support their teachers, the parents, and the students so the school is a great community.

Our youngest ds has been going to a much smaller English language (in this area, that means "main stream" school).

He's had some awesome teachers, but they don't have a lot of support from their admin team. The admin team totally doesn't support the parents, and I have to say I personally question the professionalism of the principal, who came to the Remembrance Day assembly wearing a shear leopard print blouse, drinking a cup of coffee and holding her dog on a leash.

I do think that bigger schools get better admin teams and I think that is a part of having a good school.

[annethcz]

My kids attend a tiny school. Last year there were about 85 students prek- 6th grade. This year it looks like it will be about 70-75 students.

I love the small class sizes. I love the community feeling of the school. I love that everyone knows everyone else, and no one falls through the cracks. I love that the teachers and staff go above and beyond to make the school a great place to be.

That said, I do see the advantages of a little larger school. I would love it if they had the funding for music and art classes with teachers who specialize in those areas.

[elmh23]

My dd goes to a private Catholic school that (last year) had 187 students, grades Pre-K to 8. The maximum number of students is 200.

The public school down the street has 566 students, grades K to 5.

I like the small school atmosphere. Everyone knows eachother and knows me and my kids. Dh attended the school as a child and a couple of the teachers and the principal are still there. In fact, dd starts K on the 20th and the teacher was dh's 4th grade teacher.

[Teensy]

My children's schools are bigger than I would like:

K-2 1,100 + students
3-5 1,000 students

The school doesn't differentiate as much as one would think they could. For example, all student in a grade learn from the same textbooks. I feel like I've had to twist arms to get my sons the math education they need. This year my oldest will be walking to the middle school (another 1,000 students, grade 6-8) each day to attend a math class, which will be a bit disruptive to his day, but hopefully will work out okay. But I know there must be enough other high-performing kids in his grade who could be taught at a higher level if they were grouped together for certain subjects.

Blegh. It's been a bit of an issue and frustrating to me that the large size doesn't seem to help.

Other than that, I think the larger size doesn't change too many elements (the car rider line is enormous, and they do have to split student performances into halves to accommodate the audience size) from smaller schools. In the primary school especially, you child's universe is mostly the one classroom and the rest are pretty irrelevant.

The school are pretty good, which is why families keep moving into this school zone and the schools keep growing and growing in size.