ET Patronage- more schools or bigger ones?

Brioscai

I think that I'd prefer that my kids went to a school with one or two classes at each level, than a massive school with 6-10 classes where the principal and other teachers would be unlikely to get to know the child. I think of school as being a step on from the family and want my kids to feel safe and important. I would imagine that's harder in a school of 600-800. There are obviously economies of scale, but at what expense.

Bandana boy

Brioscai wrote: »

I think that I'd prefer that my kids went to a school with one or two classes at each level, than a massive school with 6-10 classes where the principal and other teachers would be unlikely to get to know the child. I think of school as being a step on from the family and want my kids to feel safe and important. I would imagine that's harder in a school of 600-800. There are obviously economies of scale, but at what expense.

Why would a teachers relationship with his/her class change based on the number of completely separate classes there are ?

In fact having more teachers to support all the after school activities like pick up and drop off , would mean the teacher is less worked on non value activities to your child's education and more likely to support other activities.

The role of a principle in day to day communication with each parent and child is vastly over emphasized here, and in reality would barely exist in schools regardless of size.
In fact in many of these smaller schools the principle has to be a teaching principle which gives them essentially no time for the activities you describe.

2RockMountain

Bandana boy wrote: »

Why would a teachers relationship with his/her class change based on the number of completely separate classes there are ?

In fact having more teachers to support all the after school activities like pick up and drop off , would mean the teacher is less worked on non value activities to your child's education and more likely to support other activities.

The role of a principle in day to day communication with each parent and child is vastly over emphasized here, and in reality would barely exist in schools regardless of size.
In fact in many of these smaller schools the principle has to be a teaching principle which gives them essentially no time for the activities you describe.

Teaching principals (not principles) are only in very small schools, and would not apply to any of the schools mentioned here. Can I ask the basis for your understanding of the amount of day-to-day communication between parents and a principal? The basis for my understanding is as a parent and as a Board of Management member.

expectationlost

before the line of the conversation continues shouldn't somebody prove that ET are choosing to create more smaller schools then was ever created by the church/state in newish towns/estates?

Moonbeam

I went to 2 primary schools . The 1st was in Dublin ,we had 3 classes of 40+ at each level . We also had the most amazing teachers and they went out of their way for us with after school activities like Keyboard,tin whistle etc at affordable prices .
My 2nd school was a single stream school with about 40 in the class ,the teachers were fine and we did alot of sports .
It was also easier to get on Quiz teams etc because there was less competition .