To wonder how on earth reception teachers do it?

[HungryHippo11]

My oldest child is starting reception this week and I just have no idea how her teacher is going to manage 30 four year old children! At nursery their ratios are 1:8 and now it suddenly jumps to 1:30?!

Ours have an LSA in the morning but not in the afternoon. How is the lone teacher supposed to do anything in the afternoon by herself? One kid needs help with the toilet or hurts themselves, are the other 29 just left to their own devices. I just don't see how it is possible. Plus they're not just supposed to be supervised but actually learn stuff as well!

AIBU to wonder how on earth they manage? I'm a teacher myself but I teach in secondary school so at least the kids are self sufficient and mostly sit still!

Teaching assistants?

I have no idea how they do it either, they’re bloody marvels. I was left gobsmacked once when I volunteered on a school trip with Reception, when DD’s reception teacher got the whole class, while on a bus chattering, to turn towards her and listen and be quiet in unison simply by saying ‘1, 2, 3, eyes on me’ and they all turned as one to face her, said ‘1, 2 eyes on you’ and then fell immediately silent so she could talk. The woman was something else. She got fabulous results too and they all loved her. I could have kissed her at the end of the year!

It takes something really special.

@vodkaredbullgirl

Teaching assistants?

They have one LSA but only in the morning.

@Totallydefeated that's amazing! I wish she would teach me how to do that with my year 11s 😂

Eyfs teacher here. The first thing we do is get the children comfortable and solid in the routine, boundaries and expectations. Next we put a huge amount of (our own) time and effort into making sure the environment reflects the children’s interests and stages of development) If everyone is happy and engaged it frees us up to scaffold learning or teach.

Lastly there is not one EYFS teacher who would not jump at the chance of having additional adult support in their classroom. A toileting issue/ medical emergency/ child without support for behavioural needs can severely impact the whole group dynamics.

And outcomes!

My not yet 2 yr old is starting nursery, we did a settling in session with her class teacher and she got my DD sitting down as requested (only had to ask twice) and doing an activity quietly and with concentration.

Am going to be honest, I left that session and felt like my parenting needed some serious work. Anyone getting a bunch of little ones to listen and do on request is extraordinary. Should gather them up and send them to the UN.

If the children have been in a good preschool the Early Years Practitioners will have focused on getting them "school ready" by teaching them boundaries and independence. They lay the foundation for reception and a level 6 EYP can have a ratio of 1:13.

My daughter is just going into year 1 and both the reception and tear 1 classes have a teaching assistant full time. I think it would be really hard otherwise especially as our classrooms are quite big with the outside areas so it would be impossible to have sight of all the kids at once.

Teachers would be able to say more but the way they ran it seemed to be short sessions of whole class teaching of 15-20 mins, lots of free play stations and then small group input with the teacher. Despite covid we still had parents volunteering with reading and forest school so there were extra adults around. I’m in awe of early years teachers. I find my own too hard enough let alone 30.

I thought by law an EYFS class had to have a full time TA in addition to the class teacher. Is that not true?

I went to a session a few weeks in after Reception started a few years ago and it was amazing. Clear signals from teacher (hands up, kids followed suit, they all looked at her and stopped talking). It’s a bit like Pavlov’s dogs but they love the clear expectations and routine. I’m a secondary teacher and I was so impressed at what she got those 4 and 5 year olds to do.

My DC school had a TA in each class until year 6.

Eyfs teaching is witchcraft.

Bloody impressive witchcraft but I know for certain I couldn’t do it!

If you can volunteer, it makes the world of difference having parent helpers.

Yanbu.
Although I bet it's hilarious.

I’m surprised there isn’t a TA. Mine has a full time TA and an LSA for one of the children.

DH has been class teacher in a full nursery class (in a school) for about 4 years. There are 2 other adults in the room. Kids are aged 2 to 4, high % start with no English, even higher % start with significant developmental issues.

The 3 adults perform miracles.
But the job has aged him by about 10 years!

They are trained professionals, you know! I just wonder why it often all goes to pot at secondary school.

MIL taught Reception. I got to see her in action when I brought baby DS in to meet her class. The change in personality was amazing- she had a special teacher mode.

I'm a reception teacher and whilst I can "manage" 30 children the majority of the time on my own for the reasons you've listed; first aid/toilet emergencies I can't imagine being without a TA for half the time. Also, it would often just be managing the children in the case of having one member of staff in the classroom set-up I have i.e. supervising them rather than having good interactions which support their learning. High quality early years style provision of this sort probably wouldn't be manageable long term with only a teacher and 30 children and more formality would be needed.

Gosh that does sound chaos. 30! I work in primary 1. We are capped at 24 but try to stick to 20 for p1 class numbers. Have a teacher plus TA for each class plus an EYP. It's still chaos as there will be dc that need 1:1 support but it takes time to identify and recruit and due to covid we are already critically understaffed so can't find cover in the meantime. No idea how one teacher with 30 would manage safely.

Our reception class has two full time TAs, and an HLTA who covers PPA twice a week.

I have worked in reception and thankfully I only had a class of 17 that year, but no TA on an afternoon. The kids were either inside and outside, I couldn't see them all if I did both.if I had a toileting issue I had to send for an adult from another class.
It wasn't easy. I was also pregnant for two of the terms, which didn't help either.

I taught reception without a full time TA. It was very difficult when there were accidents or anything unexpected came up. I felt very unsupported by the school and left. Reception should definitely have a TA per class, if only for broadening the range of experiences that the children can have.
I would feel very sorry for her teacher. (Perhaps you could raise a concern with her school?)

In reception classes you legally only need a ratio of 1:30 when there is a teacher there. It's insane though and even the schools with the fewest staff usually prioritise putting any additional adults in reception. Also best practice is for the children to be able to go in and out of the classroom to the outside area when they want to, with only one adult that's going to be tricky.

Thank the government for cutting school budgets back so much (we lost 350k each year for at least the last 3 years) that schools can't afford the basics and children's education will suffer despite the best efforts of schools.