Looking at the whole school, I'm talking about the overall environment - not really good being that big. Kids are anonymous. You may have done fine, I felt a bit lost in the big consolidation. Look up Thomas Sergiovanni who wrote some books about building community in schools - difficult with large schools. I actually interviewed him once for a semi-documentary I worked on. Smaller schools also work better in areas that have gangs and such - gangs become some kids community, their family - that's why some kids join. Too much anonymity, too little community and it starts with overloaded schools and teachers. I don't think 10 kids per classroom is optimal - not enough interaction and variety, so that's not what I said. I think about 20:1 - 30:1 is optimal. Teachers need to know the kids...but I could go on and on about bullying, cliques, etc. The best school I ever saw during my career was in a town of 5,000 where the teachers had the luxury of working together, taking the kids down to the river for science experiments, having interdisciplinary/integrated learning, presenting their work to the town council. So don't diss my ideas missy!
