Big School VS Small School

You wish to choose a school for your children but what is better, big schools or small schools? This video will help you decide.

TRANSCRIPT

Good morning, this is Jason Ursino from Learning Space, and I'm driving to school.

Today I'm going to be talking about the difference between a big school and a small school. I have worked in both. The first 15 years of my career were in a very large school, and from there, I went to a very small school. I can mostly talk about secondary schools because that's my experience, but speaking to Primary School teachers, I can say that the primary school experience is very similar.

So, if you're in a situation where you want to choose between some schools, and one or two of them are very large, and some of them are very small, this video could probably help you out with deciding which school you want your son or daughter to go to, regarding just the size of the school.

Both big schools and small schools have their advantages and disadvantages. For a big school, the biggest advantage is that it needs to have set systems in place for it to operate. These systems are related to pastoral care, the way they run their academics, and everything the school does is in a fixed system. This means that you know what you're going to get. The other thing about a big school is the consistency; the culture is consistent, and HSC results are fairly consistent. You can do a bit of research, talk to people in the community, and it gives you an idea of what it's going to be like for your son or daughter because of the consistency.

The biggest advantage of a small school is the fact that it's very much like a community where everyone knows each other. As a teacher in a small school, not only have I got to know all the kids, but I've also got to know all their families. You become very much entrenched in the school, a lot more than in a larger setting. There's this idea that it's a tight community.

The disadvantages, of course, are the opposite. In a small school, there's less consistency from one grade to another; each grade can be completely different. You can have a grade that has a culture of academics and another grade that has a culture of sports, and they're both completely different. Whereas in a big school, the disadvantage would be that as a teacher, it's very difficult to get to know every student. I got to know the students I taught myself and the ones I was in charge of, but it wasn't a situation where I got to know every student.

So, those are the sorts of things to consider. Big schools are more consistent in their culture and academics, while smaller schools are more intimate, and we get to know the community a lot better.

If you like my videos, there are more of them at learningspace.net.au/driving-to-school. Have a good day.