Is this even legal - 38 kids in a class ?

[Nclemonbaby]

My child just started at a new school and the grade above her (year 3) has 38 kids per class (our grade has 30). I thought the maximum was 30?

I'm not sure if you think I'm the other poster but I work in a large LA, not Rutland, and I have worked for 20 years in a range of schools of different sizes in different counties. I just disagree.

Back in the day they used the cane to keep them in line

Apologies if I tagged wrong poster.
I don’t think large classes were fine, great teacher or not. It inevitably meant some dc were not taught effectively. Neither did all dc reach their potential.

I used to teach music to a double class of 52... actually, from my point of view, it was great fun.

@slackademic Hmm not reading of maths though! How many hours a day did you have 52?

@TizerorFizz only 1hr a week - now and then more time was required if prepping for a concert.

We have now raised this with our MP. He said that the council is obliged to give every child a place and anticipates the problem to worsen as more private students are moving to state due to VAT. He will raise it further but sounds like there is nothing we can do to prevent more people joining when our child is in year 3. There has been open days for our schools and it’s all fully booked out ….

Local primaries are in an area with disproportionate number of children going to local private prep schools so LA have been complacent about lack of places needed till now when they are anticipating vastly more applicants for Sept 2025.

It’s very difficult to plan state places for prep dc. LAs don’t know how much money these parents have. LAs know about birth rates and new housing estates so new schools are built within the planning process but change of heart over preps is very difficult to plan for.

The big question is when is a class room full? I’ve never seen 38 in a junior class. Mainly due to space issues and parents are told they cannot get a space at the local school of one 3 miles away (or more) has spaces. They are offered a space at that one.

Schools can't plan for it - that's the job of the LA.

LAs cannot build new classrooms quickly and what schools should have them? It takes ages to plan for increased school populations and do all the planning prior to design and build for more spaces. Also - how much more space? Each class to be double? So 30-60? Or somewhere in the middle so mixed age classes? Or should it be a new school altogether? If so where? Is the move away from private permanent or temporary? Yes, you can have temp classrooms for a bulge year, but what if every year is a bulge year? Does anyone know what prep parents might choose? Do all prep school parents even want the same school to create a bulge year? It’s a nightmare but Labour won’t care.