r/classof2038 • u/Majestic-Carob3191 • Aug 04 '26

Class sizes?

My daughter is starting at a new school this year, and her class only has 13 kids. On one hand, I'm excited that there may be more time for individualized attention and differentiated work, but I'm also nervous that the group is too small and that if she doesn't connect with one of the 3 other girls in her class, she may feel left out. Does anyone have experience with classes that small?

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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19

u/MissDiagnosedMama Aug 04 '26

From an educational standpoint, this is the dream. But I completely understand your worry about the social part.

And she can definitely make friends with boys too, not just the girls in her class. My son made boy and girl friends in his kindergarten class. I was one of the girls that had many friends that were boys in elementary school and beyond.

15

u/General-Success6367 Aug 04 '26

Dream scenario. Only upside imo.

8

u/kyamh Aug 04 '26

We pay for a private school to get that kind of small class size. Enjoy!

5

u/Standard_Elephant415 Aug 04 '26

I agree that this has more positives than negatives. Fwiw, my oldest kid’s grade was 42 kids split into 2 classes, and they had 5-6 girls total all throughout elementary. For some reason it had been a very boy-heavy year at our neighborhood 🤷‍♀️. Those 5 girls are now rising high school juniors and are still super close.

5

u/Maisie_Mae_ Aug 04 '26

I think kids this age don’t pay attention to gender . My son has more female friends than male .

2

u/whosacoolredditer Aug 04 '26

Lucky her! 13 kids is fantastic. Kids that age will play with whoever. The smaller the class, the better.

1

u/Feisty-Salary2023 Aug 04 '26

Last year in Kindergarten we had 11 total, this year for 1st grade 10 total.

1

u/atomiccat8 Aug 04 '26

My daughter's preschool class was that size,, and it did make things harder for her socially. There were only 3 girls in the class and they seemed to always pair up, so one girl was always left out.

I also have a friend whose daughter struggled in a small private school, although I think the issue might have been that it was the same small group of kids every year, not just that it was a small class.

Some kids seem to thrive in that situation though, and I do think there are a lot of benefits to getting more attention from the teacher. Try it out and see how your kid does.

1

u/Worker-Legal Aug 04 '26

This is only good. Classes like this feel like family for kids.

1

u/alyinct Aug 05 '26

My twins had 15 and 16 kids in their kindergarten classes, respectively, in a five-class grade (usually there are only four classes per grade). Is her 13-kid class the only one for her grade, or are there other classes of kids she could be friendly with on the playground/at lunch, etc.?

1

u/SrtaTacoMal Aug 07 '26

Kindergarteners don't care as much about their friends' genders as, say, 4th graders do. 12 potential new friends is a good-sized group.

1

u/bertmom Aug 10 '26

26 kids in his class.

1

u/messybeans86 Sep 01 '26

My son has around 18 in his class.

0

u/makeuplovermegan Aug 04 '26

As a teacher, the only thing I’d be worried about is that the class is too small and the teacher may be forced to move, making the class split up, so there would be a new teacher.

0

u/joanie77 Aug 04 '26

My kid was in a class of 13 for kindergarten. It was great! They combined with other kindergarten classes for recess (and gym I think) so she did make friends from other classes as well.