thanks for the replies - it isnt that big for a School database but we wanted to get it down in size and make it more manageable for training courses.
We only use a few pupils in the current year for training purposes - so wondered if anyone had any clever way of removing redundant data (eg all pupils with surname not beginning with A, old years of attendance etc) and then compacting? The database has built over the years and we just wanted to streamline it!