To think there should be more adults in reception class??

[TellerTuesday4EVA]

I'm really not sure on this one so wondering if I can ask how many adults there are/were in your child's reception classroom?

DD has just started reception, she's the oldest having just turned 5 but on the whole it's a very 'young' year group with the majority being summer born so not turning 5 until Easter onwards.

There's 29 in the class (boys heavily outnumbering girls). The classroom is large, very much free play approach with an outdoor area that's accessible all day but gated from the main playground. Luckily the toilets are within the classroom so they don't have to leave for that but I just feel they could do with another adult, even if just a student or similar.

Currently there's one teacher & one Teaching assistant

I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable because I'm comparing to my nephews class, he's in year one a another local school but there's 1 teacher & 4 TA's admittedly 3 of the TA's are each designated to a particular child with SEN but there's still extra sets of eyes & hands around the classroom.

How does that compare to your child's class?

Last year we had 31 children (it was summer born heavy) one teacher, one TA and toilets in cloak room.

It's hard work in the Autumn term (lots of people think being a TA in Reception is just playing it really isn't!) but perfectly doable if no children have undiagnosed SN.

The Y1 or nursery TAs are called on if there's an issue such as first aid, or a child needs changing.

When I last taught reception (it was a while ago) I only had a TA in the morning. In the afternoon it was just me. The school could not afford to fund afternoons. I did my best.

Why does a nursery have 6 kids to a worker or whatever it is but schools are allowed 30:1?

It’s normal apparently but I don’t think it’s enough. It equates to your child having 2 minutes of a Teacher’s time an hour.

I’ve found a small local private school who’s fees are the same as full time nursery and includes before and after school care. 5 in the class but it’s capped at 12.

This is the same as our school, but we also just to have a parent helper pretty much every afternoon in reception, usually helping with a craft project or something

I taught reception 3 years ago. Class of 30 and one TA for 50% of the time only.

In Scotland we have a cap of 25 in p1 classes (children are between 4.5-5.5). Most classes are within the 25 but fpr the schools i have worked in it is normally just a teacher. A pupil support assistant may be shared among 5 or 6 classes or have a certain number of hours with individual pupils. Many pupils with learning difficulties or distressed behaviours have no support aand after early years will be in classes of 30ish. There just isn't enough budget around to pay for what is needed.

It's normal but you're right it would be much better to have more adults in the room with kids so young.

I'm a 1:1 TA. The funding to pay for me is tied directly to the child I am supporting and has to be reapplied for every year.

Obviously I wouldn't ignore another child but it is very rare that I am actually able to be of any help to the class in general and I don't count in ratios or supervise other children as I'm there for the 1:1 child. Between child not coping with situations, interventions and medical needs I am in the classroom maybe half of the day, often less and because of their needs I can't take my eyes off them for a second - I actually have to pay closer attention to my 1:1 than I did my own children!

To get a 1:1 at reception age the child has to have quite a lot of needs so its likely the extra TAs in your nephews class don't spend much time with other children in the class either.

24 kids, 2 teachers, 2 TAs . We went private for a reason. Our oldest is a polite, gentle child, he would get zero attention in a class of 30 with at most 2 adults (yes, we tried)

Schools are funded for 1 teacher, 1 TA for a class of 30. You could fund raise for the school for an extra one, but that’s a lot of bbqs and fetes.

No they are not. The funding for a reception child is the same as a Year 2.

Th legal staffing requirement is 1 qualified teacher. No requirement to have a TA.

1 teacher to 28-35 kids in the norm in Ireland. It honestly just seems utterly, utterly crazy to me. I do some work in schools and children's groups and I honestly don't understand how teachers manage to stay sane after just a few weeks of it. I don't think that it's fair to either teachers or kids to have those kinds of numbers. It really limits what the children can be allowed to do and means that teachers have to be much stricter than they would otherwise be as it's the only way to manage such a huge number of kids by themselves.

Yes that's very true trance. But we have a different system to the UK - the free flow usually isnt done. Kids generally come in older too afaik (especially with the free preschool year) and that really helps. They are much more school ready.

Mind you Junior Infants until at least Halloween is madness.

Eliza - because the children are older
1 adult couldn't physically look after 30 babies so the ratio is 1:3.
For 3 year olds it's 1:13 with a teacher.
For 4&5 year olds in Reception it's 1:30.

16 children per class (a 3 form intake) with 47 in the year. 3 teachers. 3 TAs and a 'floating' TA between the three.

You get what you pay for.

I think that materials, training and motivation of staff etc all aside, these ratios make a massive difference.

Not in UK

Aged 5/6

33 children
1 teacher.

Schools are funded for 1 teacher, 1 TA for a class of 30.

For now. I doubt school funding will continue to provide for that for much longer. TAs in class are going to die out I think, a lot of schools are getting rid of them.

In Ireland, it's very normal to have 30 plus pupils and only the teacher unless a pupil requires the assistance of an SNA which even at that might only be an hour a day.

This is the norm but in DCs school they try and get as many parent helpers as possible to do 1 session a week ie just a morning or afternoon to do reading which gives extra 1-1 but also means extra eyes and ears.

We have a teacher and a TA to 26 children in the nursery I work in, toilets in the cloakroom so we are having to borrow a reception TA every time a child needs changing, averaging 3 changes an afternoon but did 7 changes the other day and regularly asked by children for help with wiping or just to go with them because they're not confident going on their own. Up until around February half term I feel like I'm abandoning the majority of the children in favour of sorting out toileting issues but that's the reality with the current funding situation.

I work in a primary school.

There's no money.
There's no money.
There's no money.

Tories have gutted education spending. Take it up with your government.

1 teacher and 2 TAs in my ds's class, 30 children. Toilets are seperate so they have to leave and take a key fob with them to get back in. Only access to outdoors at set times. The teachers are good though and the kids are very sensible (I volunteer in a different class so get to see) so less teachers wouldn't bother me.

Its a huge reason I preferred our local preschool than some of the schools with a nursery year. Preschool has much higher number of adults to children. The school nursery is basically reception a year early as they simply have to behave differently with less adults.

This I just your school op

Dd has 8 adults for 60 children last year

I'm a 1:1 TA, I work A LOT with the rest of the class. It's circumstances. And it's a great help with intervention groups