Illegal class sizes?

According to figues that have been released today thousands more children are being taught in large primary school classes this year.    According to the data the BBC have analysed the figures show the number of classes of five to seven-year-olds with more than 30 pupils has risen from 740 to 910.  This suggests that about 29,000 pupils were in classes that broke the legal limit of 30 - 5,000 pupils more than last year.

How are your schools coping with the legal class sizes?  There was some interesting research earlier in the year that suggested that large class sizes didn't have any affect on the standards of the children. The report by the Institute of Education said that analysis pointed to "a clear conclusion":

"There was not found to be any evidence that the size of class had any impact on progress in maths or literacy in Year 4 or Year 5.  Nor was there any apparent effect on progress in maths or science in Year 6.  There was "a positive relationship" between class size and Year 6 literacy: pupils in larger classes made more progress."

That may well be the case, but smaller class sizes make a big difference in the how easy the classes are too manage.  I'm all for 30 being the legal limit for class sizes in KS2 as well! 

Comments

[Judy Clark]

My eight year old daughter's class size will increase from its year three size of 24 to 37 in year four.The school justifies this by citing the fact that two pupils each have special needs teachers.Will my daughter's education suffer and is there any action that parents can take?.

I would very much appreciate your comments.

[RossA]

Hi Judy,

Class sizes in KS2 do vary a lot. Within KS1 the children are limited to 30 in a class, but unfortuanatly that's not the case in KS2. My first class had 38 in it and I've worked with teachers who have taught upto 40 children!

Large class sizes do not instantly mnean that your daughters education will suffer. Having two extra teachers in the class will help bring down the ratio of adults to pupils. I know that the other adults are supposed to work with individual children but that won't be the case.

I'm sure that the decision has been well thought through and proper measures put in place to make sure that no children's education suffers.

As for action that parents can take - the first step is obviously a discussion with the class teacher, followed by the head and then the governors. Make sure that you speak to the teacher, you may be surprised at how they plan to work with such a large class.

Hope this helps you.

Andrew