Mumsnet Talk

so what is the average?

DH and I are living abroad at the moment but I'm considering returning to the UK next year when DD would be due to start in foundation 1 (is it called that in the UK?)

Years ago when we were in the UK and were looking at schools for DC 1 and 2 the average in our local first/primary school was 30 +.

Is this still quite common?
What are approximate classs sizes in your area?

i think that the max class size at reception is now capped at 30.

in the town we live in (home counties), virtually every school is over-subscribed so every class has 30 children in it. I assume the situation would be different in other areas of the country where there isn't such pressure on school places. The town we live in has had a shortage of school places in the past.

Thanks that is really helpful. Good to hear they are capped and wonder if that is everywhere.
We will be in Sussex

The legal reception (Y1 &2) class size limit in England is 30

Two classes of 30 here.

Yes 30 is the national limit.

I know a (highly rated) primary that has 35 in reception and gets round it in some (imo) rather spurious way, but otherwise 30 is max and rather usual.

Our school has an intake of 80 so when fully subscribed we have classes of 26/27.

thank you ladies, very helpful

We're in Yorkshire and my son is in reception at an outstanding OFSTED primary. There are 30 in the class- one teacher (well two job-share but only 1 FTE) and two TAs at all times.

31-32 in our local school-both 'extras' got in on appeal

we are not at that school as at 800m away we are 'too far'

My sons school in teh next village is a 26 size class but 28 projected for next year

yep legal class size limit for all infant (reception year 1 and year2 ) is 30

if you go for a less popular school it may be less as they havent filled all their places

or if you go for a small village school reception may be smaller becuase they dont take 30 each year (ask what their PAN is - published admissions number). I work in a small village school and have 20 in rectpion (and that includes 4 SEN year 1's)

When my DDs started school there were two intakes of 30, but the school used some of their fundraising money to employ an additional teacher so that the reception classes were 3 X 20. I know that was probably unusual, but not necessarily unique. They also had 3 teaching assistants for reception.

30 is the norm, isn't it.

At the school ds1 will go to it is approx 16 per class, but this is a small school in a rural area.

The other school he could go to only has 29 pupils in the whole school.

We are lucky. School had intake of 45 so aroung 22 in eachj class.

We have 3 classes in each year, of 25 (ish).

All classes have teacher and TA and then additional SEN TA if needed.
x