Are pupil numbers rising or falling in your school?

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

I work in a primary. We, like nearly every primary in the catchment area, are going to be losing a teacher to redundancy if there is no natural movement for other reasons, purely due to the fact that we have nearly half the number of nursery pupils coming in in Sept compared to the number of year sixes that are leaving.

We're getting bigger.

My LA have reduced the number of classes at several schools and shut one infants down. Despite this, there’s still quite a few schools with less than 20 in a class. Not sure what the long-term plan is, I guess to keep cutting classes.

Falling. I think we have 17 in reception in sept, compared to 26-29 in year 5/6

Falling!

Numbers in our local primaries are falling - it's a trend replicated across much of the country

We've got a waiting list for every year group. Full R list for Sept plus a couple of EHCPs on top to go over PAN.

Falling, we are losing a class next sept.

I work in a special needs school. I'll give you one guess.

Rising - which wasn't expected. We also get a lot of in year transfers.

rising - have added an extra class every year for the last 5 years

I have one in year 8 and one in year 9. Both years were oversubscribed. There are 32 in their classes, that are meant to have a maximum of 30. Since then, the school has not be oversubscribed so maybe there was just a bulge in 2010/11/12/

Rising. We were 3 form and now 4 form in 3 out of 4 yr groups (junior school) plus a SEN hub.

This is despite. A new primary opening around the corner for a new housing estate and there is talk of a second new primary as well.

We are getting bigger!

Rising we've gone from a 3 classes per year to 4 and have had an extra building built to accommodate

Primary school... They just completed the expansion from 1 to 2 classes per year 2 years ago. Apart from that initial double year being at 63 children, its usually about 55. However more housing being built...

Secondary school full in each year, with Yr8 initially taking 15 extra to account for all children in the priority area.

We are oversubscribed with long waiting lists for most classes.

Not that far from us, though, I’m aware of many schools reducing classes & losing teachers because of falling rolls.

Falling at ours! This is the first time in pretty much forever there have actually been places available in reception. It's a small number and they're likely to be filled by September as people move around but previously the distance requirement has been 0.2 miles or something bonkers. They have little enough cash as it is so very worrying!

I should have said, all schools in our LA are falling, some schools have literally a whole class unfilled/fewer children than previously!

Secondary....increasing. There's one Jess secondary in my town now and ours is seen to be the best atm. I hate it tbh. I'd rather we weren't so popular it's too crowded and my classes are all 30+

One less... not Jess!!

DD is year 4 - started as a class of 16, grew to 28, reducing this week to 25. Seems to have been far more movement in her year than in her older sibling’s. I actually have no idea about other classes, I’ll have to pay a bit more attention on the playground.

Article about falling birth rates today:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72p2vgd21no

Falling, only 15 confirmed places in R, and 20 in Nursery. Whereas Years 5 and 6 have 30 and 32 respectively.

It means that we are having to lose two good TAs who have only been in post a year and replace one of them with a TA who is great with the tinies, but isn't going to cope higher up the school.

Rising. Every school oversubscribed and with a waiting list.
Members of a minority community have larger families, plus a lot of people moving up from London and the South East.

Ours is a small school with an attached nursery. In most years half of Reception seem to be siblings and it's oversubscribed with nursery and other applications. Most years there are some applications from the nursery that don't get an offer.(they are not prioritised).

A school nearby is two form entry and has been the only Ofsted outstanding for years and the most oversubscribed school in the county. Basically unless you lived on the doorstep you stood no chance of getting in. It changed to Ofsted Good last year and the Head retired - it is now undersubscribed and only filled two thirds od its places last year. Suspect some of this is due to birth rate and randomness of sibling places but it is scary how quickly it has changed.

Bigger, but we have a tiny school