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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To worry about primary class size of 22

137 replies

hooochycoo · 28/03/2014 20:11

My DS starts school this year and his primary school has an unprecedented intake and his class will be 22. Reassure me that that's ok?

OP posts:
JerseySpud · 28/03/2014 21:10

22??? God. There are 28 in my eldests class...

CumberCookie · 28/03/2014 21:10

22 is amazingly small number.

JollyGolightly · 28/03/2014 21:12

Im in Scotland and next year's P1 class in our school will have 33! There will be two teachers. 22 will seem huge if you're somewhere rural but it's a great number and your dc will be fine.

mustbetimefortea · 28/03/2014 21:17

whispers ds's state school has a reception intake of 9. Reception & Yr1 in one class of 18. Loads of attention but not much diversity.

bobot · 28/03/2014 21:22

Where I come from (very rural), it's a big class. There were four of us in my primary class, but it had its drawbacks (in my case I think the other 3 were cousins). Culture shock when I looked into schools for my children down here, thinking "they're full, so there must be 30 in a year", to find they are all four form entry with huge waiting lists. The op is getting a hard time for not knowing this, but if she's from a very rural area, tiny schools might be the norm. To me, until now, 30 to a class was a huge school.

bobot · 28/03/2014 21:23

But I think it's a great number. I've found my ds a village school with 15 in his class. I think 15-25 is great, enough attention, not too overwhelming, but a choice of friends.

TheGreatHunt · 28/03/2014 21:28

How did we get to the state where we accepted 30 in a class as being OK? Gove talks about wanting better education akin to private. Why doesn't he have an aim to reduce class sizes? waits for the chorus that there's no money left. Bollocks

Original poster
hooochycoo · 28/03/2014 21:34

Thank you all.

It's a state school in a semi rural area that has suddenly got hugely popular for young families. So the intake is a surprise to the school apparently

OP posts:
indyandlara · 28/03/2014 21:35

I teach in Edinburgh. Think our P1 will be between 22 and 25. My daughter starts p1 this year and she will be in an intake of 60 made up of 3 classes of 20. In p2 it'll be 2 classes of 30.

ImAThrillseekerHoney · 28/03/2014 21:35

I'm not surprised that the OP doesn't know what the norm is - nobody is born knowing everything. But I am surprised that nobody you've talked to knows what the norm is - just how isolated is this village?

GlassCaseofEmotion · 28/03/2014 21:37

Our private school has a max of 20. I would think 22 is excellent for state

LindyHemming · 28/03/2014 21:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MoominsYonisAreScary · 28/03/2014 21:48

Ds1s had 20, thats really good. Id say 30 is more the norm

PenguinsEatSpinach · 28/03/2014 21:51

22 is a tiny class for a state school. Most will either have classes of 30 or mixed year groups (so maybe only 14 YR children, but in a class with another 14 Y1). If people are up in arms, they don't have much experience of the realities of schooling for most of England and Wales.

Original poster
hooochycoo · 28/03/2014 21:53

I knew the max in Scotland was 25. I knew last year was way smaller. I knew that this school has good reports and is well loved. I was just surprised by the intake and class size.

Prinary teachers, what do you think about flexi schooling. Due to special needs the school are offering us the idea of DS being home schooled afternoons. Do you think is a good idea? This is not the only research I'm doing by the way, but do find mumsnet interesting and useful for the range and consensus of experiences

OP posts:
ilovepowerhoop · 28/03/2014 21:56

the maximum class size in Scotland for P1 is 25 so 22 is fine. Composite class sizes in our school are also limited to 25 regardless of which primary school year it is.

BlueSkySunnyDay · 28/03/2014 21:57

Both of my children were lucky to be in small classes like this (one teacher told me how wonderful it was to be teaching such small classes) They have subsequently chased a higher intake as the school was struggling financially.

PenguinsEatSpinach · 28/03/2014 21:58

Sorry, I missed the update that you were in Scotland. The point still holds though, 22 is not something or them to be up in arms about. In fact, I read research somewhere (can't now find it) where someone analysed that under about 18 had its own major disadvantages in terms of the social side, ability to carry out projects, etc.

Sparklingbrook · 28/03/2014 21:59

DS1's Reception class had 15 children with a teacher and a TA. It was great.
I believe 22 is not a large class at all.

Marcipex · 28/03/2014 22:00

We have a class of 33 in KS2 as school lost and parents won an appeal for a place when there was no place.

HolidayCriminal · 28/03/2014 22:05

DC have often been in class sizes of 22 (state school in lowland England). I expected OP was moaning that it might be too small Blush

Original poster
hooochycoo · 28/03/2014 22:11

All very interesting, thanks x

OP posts:
Cataline · 28/03/2014 22:17

Holy crap- there are 22 in my DS's class.
22 boys that is Shock There are also 9 girls!

mummytime · 28/03/2014 22:22

Does your DS need flexi schooling? Can he cope with a full day? Are they offering it because they only have part time TAs? Or do they think they can't cope?
When do they expect him to do full days?

You could also post on the Special needs area.

My children have all been in reception classes of 30 (goes up to about 33 in KS2, year 3). The biggest class I was in was about 40. 20 is a good number, 15 would be a minimum for me - I'm surprised they didn't combine years if they had only 15 though.

simpson · 28/03/2014 22:22

DD was in a class of 90 last year in reception. 3 teachers and 3TAs but all in the same room.

She is now in a class of 28 (yr1).