ks1 classes with 30 + kids

[mommachambers]

can anyone tell me if their kids are in a class of more than 30? my sons year group is 34 students and they have just anounced that next year because they cannot have more than 30 in one class they are putting the odd kids in with the year 1s. its a really strange split and would love to hear from parents who have experienced this before.

The law is that infant classes (reception Y1 & 2) can only have more than 30 pupils to 1 teacher in "exceptional" circumstances children admitted as "exceptions" remain so for one year only

Regulations (the Education (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 1998 as amended by the Education (Infant Class Sizes) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2006) prescribe the limited circumstances in which pupils may be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit. These exceptions are:
a) children with statements of special educational needs who are admitted to the school outside the normal admissions round;
b) children moving into the area outside the normal admissions round for whom there is no other available school within a reasonable distance (the regulations require that admission authorities must check with local authorities before determining that a child falls into this category);
c) children admitted after the initial allocation of places because the person responsible for making the decision recognizes that an error was made in implementing the school?s admission arrangements and a place ought to have been offered;
d) looked after children admitted outside the normal admissions round;
e) children admitted where an independent appeal panel upholds an appeal on the grounds that the child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly implemented, and/or the admission authority?s decision to refuse a place was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made;
f) children who are registered pupils at special schools and who, by arrangement with another school which is not a special school, receive part of their education at that other school;
g) children with special educational needs who are registered pupils at a school which is not a special school and are normally educated in a special educational needs unit attached to that school, and attend an infant class in the mainstream school (i.e. not in the unit) where this has been deemed as beneficial to the child.
In the case of f) and g), the child will remain an exception for any time they spend in an infant class at the mainstream school or outside the special unit. However in all other circumstances the child will only remain an exception for the remainder of the school year in which they are admitted. Measures must be taken the following year to ensure the class falls within the infant class limit.

which is when schools move children into other year groups

I teach a split year 1/2 class. Children are not being 'held back' or 'pushed forward'. The children don't take any notice of age difference.

It works just as well as a straight year class. From a teachers point of view 30 children will all need careful planning for regardless of age factor.

cheekypickle the OP's son is in a class of 34

my sons year group is 34

Do you mean that he's not currently at school, but when he starts Reception in September-there will be 34 in the year, so some will be in a YR/1 mix? Or, is he currently actually in Y1 in a class of 34 and when he goes into Y2, some of the children will go into a Y1/2 class?

I know of KS1 classes of 31/32 as children have been allowed in through an appeal, but never an infant class as large as 34! If you're saying he hasn't actually started yet, but the school are dealing with an intake of 34 by having composite classes though, then that is pretty common.

Maybe they got in on appeal?

There is only one possible explanation that makes sense and that is that the school has a published admission number which is 34 or above and that they are not upto the published admission number. In that context the school have to admit all who request a place but they also have to abide by the infant class size regs limiting the class to 30. Hence they are putting 4 pupils into a year1 class that is presumably not going above 30.

If the PAN was 30 and the 4 had been admitted under appeal (because a mistake had been made) then they would have been excepted pupils for the whole year and the school would only have had to get the class down to 30 at the beginning of year1

My son went to a tiny village school with only about 50 children so the circumstances were different but they also split the year group to balance the numbers and they kept four of his year group in reception whilst the others moved up to year 1. My son was one of the children left behind and frankly it was dreadful. It crushed him and the other three in terms of their self esteem, split them from their friendship groups which they were never really able to re-establish when they moved up to year 2 and he made no progress that year. In the end we moved primary school in year 3 as these kids were left with a bit of a stigma really and never quite fitting in as they had in their first year. So dreadful experience for him and for me and if it's your son they are suggesting they leave behind I would resist it with every bone in my body! Thankfully my son thrived at the school we moved him too and made great friendships there ( everyone loves the new boy!!) so we managed to salvage a very poor outlook for him.