Teachers call for smaller class sizes

[MillyMollyMoo]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8601437.stm

Interesting as that was our main motivation for private eduction I always felt it was quite stressful for the children to be in such loud, busy classrooms certainly for reception and year 1 and 2. To go from a nursery with 1 to 3 care to being 1 to 15 just didn't seem right.
And the teachers agree that further up the school 34/36 is unacceptable and yet is the case in both the primary schools locally.
Personally I cannot see this changing anytime soon though.

The government insist that class sizes don't need to be small. As a parent and a teacher I believe that small classes are the one thing that makes a big difference-it would definitely be the thing that would make me willing to pay for private education (if I had the money).

I found it easier to teach my class of 7 year 10s (and with whom I had 4 TAs), than a class of 34 year 10s who didn't have SEN or EBDs.

Smaller is better - you can give more attention to the students and have time to pick the bones out of any problems with the work.

1 to 15? I'd like that in my class. Most the week it's 1 to 31. I had 1 to 34 in yr 2 one year for the majority of the week.

I had 18 year 5s once and it was bliss. For a start you have to time to spend more time on marking, the other good thing was after doing the marking, there was chance to catch up with mistakes at the beginning of the lesson. The all got much more individual attention.

1 to 15 is in reception though isn't it, I think most schools have a teacher and a TA to help with the first key stage.

The rot sets in higher up though. I once had a class of 35 enormous year 10s and not enough space in my classroom for them all. Difficult!

I would love to have smaller class sizes, I could be so much more effective.

30+ is ridiculous

class size was a huge factor in us deciding to opt out of state education

Smaller classes make a huge difference- DD's class is 1:9, and she is heard reading every single day- most primaries near us offered once a week in reception.

I have just managed to get my DS transferred to a special needs school from mainstream.

I am afraid his teacher got pretty defensive when he found out I was moving him.

I had absolutly no complaint about Ds's teacher and never expressed one. But how on earth can ONE teacher and ONE TA be expected to meet the needs of 29 pupils including those with SN and a fair few with English as a second language plus the bright kids and the ones that need day to day teaching?

DS's new school has classes of around 10-15 and obviously more 1:1 for somne pupils.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am.

I dont know how you teachers do it.

CaptainNancy - that sounds like the school DS1 goes to. Each reception child is heard reading every single day. Its FAB. There is so much space for them all and they get individual attention. The classes are no bigger than around 20ish all the way through to year 6. And it is a state school as well - bonus!

In my school the 'lowest scoring' reception children come out for 2 hours ,3 mornings a week to a small group setting (8 children) where we can really target their language gaps, listening and sitting, and fine motor skills.

But these kids aren't even ready for school in most cases. Or have missed out on early experiences at home before starting school