send your child to a school with only 8 kids in the class?

Dolly Welsh

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:49 pm

It will be fine.

You have no reason to assume she will not be friends with everybody, all of them, in such a calm, non-pressured, excellently taught place. You say it is good chinuch.

Eight friends is a nice number. A fine party.

She will also be friendly with their siblings and cousins.

Lifelong connections are made in small groups. Nobody is going to get lost in the sauce. Wonderful.

Peanut2

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:55 pm

While it can be amazing it does have challenges.

Bullying exists everywhere. Also, if one child is a little bit different and everyone else is on a totally different wavelength it does not work. I know a class of about 9 girls or so and one was a big different and her own free spirit and she left the school. With so few girls there wasn't that one other girl who was like her and who you might find in a different class or school.

But it can be a really amazing experience to grow up like that.

newkallah

Sun, Aug 24 2014, 10:59 pm

amother wrote:

I know. I'm just a little nervous. That means she won't have too many friends.

What grade? What's bad about having a few good friends?

spring13

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 12:36 am

I had classes that size (or siblings in them) and grew up totally normal, with close friends. My best friends today are still the ones I knew from elementary on. I hung out with a couple of people from my grade, a couple from the grade below, and even a few from the grade below that. At my very small high school the grades mingled constantly.

I think a small school gives kids an advantage in this regard: people learn to be friendly with a bigger variety of people than they would in a larger place where it's easier to pick and choose who you associate with.

boysrus

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 12:38 am

I think it is great for your child to be in such a small class if it is elementary. it gets more complex if it is middle or high school though, becasue the teachers cannot split the classes by ability which is pretty vital in subjuects like math to help keeping the faster kids working at the right pace, and to slow it for the slower to grasp it kids. socailly sounds fine to me...

Ruchel

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 7:02 am

Wait wait, just thought of it: if your child will be the only of his/her gender, or even one of two, it may be more complicated (in a school where they don't socialize together so much). So, ask.

amother

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 7:09 am

This is reality in some of our schools in our town. some parents worry but from my own experience (I was one of six girls in my class) it was great!!! I changed schools several times (my parents moved ) and I can compare it to classes where I was one of 20 or one of 30 kids. All classes were fine and I had friends in all of them. It is differnet but not worse to be in a small class. Id go for it.

wanna add: im not super social and need time to befriend , im rather shy etc. still I never had issues in the classes (I mean not more than what would be concidered as normal )

mdpa

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 10:14 am

I grew up in a city with a small frum community and was one of 3 in both 7th and 8th grades. We were combined (when I was in 7th we were with the 8th grade and when I was in 8th with the 7th). I did fine. However we are switching my children out of the school they went to for the last 3 years to larger schools. My daughter only had 2 other girls in the grade and my son ahd round 4 or 5 other boys but none live close.
Bullying definitely can exist in such a small group! My daughter had a rough few years until this girl switched schools. Bullies can be manipulative and do things to avoid teachers' notice and be subtle so it's hard to bring it up with the teacher.
Also when there are such few kids per grade it may be harder to find kids whose family's hashkafa is in line with yours. This is the main reason we are changing schools now.

Chayalle

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 10:20 am

How old is your child?

I went to a school with small classes. I hated it. I think I would've been ok when I was younger, but at age 12-13, I hated it. Couldn't wait to go to a big high school.

Dina_B613

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 10:31 am

As long as there aren't just 3 girls including your DD - because that can create an awkward triangle, I'd go for it! It might not work, but kids also get "lost in the crowd" in larger classes - there are advantages and disadvantages to each. As another poster said, as long as the teacher is competent, they can learn a lot more than in bigger classes. I used to work in a large public school that had 30 kids in a class, even though most of the kids were pretty well behaved, they barely got any attention unless they were seriously misbehaving.

amother

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 10:49 am

OP, I went to small private secular school from grades 1-12, and one of the huge benefits were classes with 12 or fewer students. Your child will receive an incredible amount of personal attention, and yours will never EVER fall through the cracks. All students will participate, there is so much opportunity for personal attention! Plus, I found, that as a small group we became each others' "team-mates" in a way: we helped each other succeed together.

I think this is an amazing opportunity, and I'd nab it asap.

Beyla

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 12:14 pm

I was a teacher for a class of 7 kids and bh it was great, they were friends, and they received so much more attention than when I had a 30 kids class.

amother

Tue, Aug 26 2014, 9:51 am

Chayalle wrote:

How old is your child?

I went to a school with small classes. I hated it. I think I would've been ok when I was younger, but at age 12-13, I hated it. Couldn't wait to go to a big high school.

My daughter is 7 going into second grade

Chayalle

Tue, Aug 26 2014, 10:16 am

amother wrote:

My daughter is 7 going into second grade

At that age she should be fine. At a later age, it's a good idea to reevaluate. As others have posted, some kids thrive. For me, I felt stifled. Not everyone thrives from all that extra attention. Keep an eye on your child's needs.