‘There’s no reason for most schools NOT to be “primary-sized”, eg. around 200 children.’

Ooops!

I would argue that schools should (and, with networked communications) can) become even smaller than your 750. There’s no reason for most schools to be “primary-sized”, eg. around 200 children.

If school’s (and I’m using the term to describe a community of learners) worked together more effectively, and weren’t competing for SATS results, they would be able to share specialists and use centralised admin teams. This would allow administration to work at your optimum 750-800 pupil size, with teaching & learning working at an optimum 200 pupil size.

The next one was a 5 class primary – so probably not more than 120 children.

Then I went to what seemed to me a *huge* school – it was a Convent – with two groups in most years – and classes of perhaps 20 in the Juniors, and 30 in the Seniors.
It *seemed* massive after the village school!

The only really “large” school I went to was the Comprehensive that I went to for the 6th form, but, by then, of course, many had already left, and in any case it was a split site school, so only the 5th & 6th forms were on the site that I was on. So again, not many students, albeit most of us were similar ages.

Even teaching; my first teaching practice was in a 2 class primary (23 kids), and the second in a Middle school – again, with two class entry.

My kids school is part of the community. Walking distance from the house. Including a leisure centre, extensively used by the community. Running loads of adult learning sessions. Combining the lessons of some of the older kids with those of the adult learners. The campus is always buzzing – right up to 10 at night, and over the weekends, when several church groups meet on campus. There are also regularly animal shows and sports competitions of one sort or another, while the theatre is extensively used.

BUT

There are 3000 kids in the school. An unmanageable size that means that the teachers dont even know each other – let alone the kids! When I talk to my sons tutor about a problem that has arisen in connection with, say, drama, she has to send an email to that teacher, because she has never met her, wouldnt recognise her in the corridor in the unlikely event that they would encounter each other, has no idea where she is usually based. If (which happens often) that teacher isnt IT savvy enough to keep up with emails, the attempt at communication dies on its feet.

I like the idea of a school being big enough to be able to field a reasonably competitive team for most sports, and to be able to put on a production of a standard that the kids can be proud of. I dont know what sort of number that requires – I would guess at between 600 and 1000, but any bigger than that seems to start generating problems as the cover of anonymity means that certain behaviours arent addressed. On the other hand, any smaller than that, and staffing may becomes a problem, while facilities may be in short supply.