Y2 teaching 2 classes in one room

[GreatAuntLucy]

DS has just started back in Y2.

There are 46 in his year group, split into two classes. Both classes are being taught in the old infant building school hall, which for the past couple of years has been used for the nursery class to play in.

They have 2 relatively inexperience teachers (one new graduate and one with two years' experience)and a teaching assistant. The different classes in the room are separated by a tree - a paper one made by the teacher! You can't go past the tree because that's the other teacher's classroom!

With it being a hall it has high ceilings (lots of echo), large windows (very few that open, so it's hot and stuffy) and the kids are either using the nursery toilets or the adult toilets.

They do have a small spare classroom which they keep saying they take groups into to work but not sure this is happening!

DS has complained to me about the noise this week, I've spoken to the teachers who say everything is fine! Other parents have done the same.

Does anyone have any experience of something like this?

KS1 at DS's school is entirely open plan (small curtained off areas for different classes only). So there are 120 children in the same area. I agree the noise seems overwhelming but all the children and staff seem to cope very well. Plus it is a bonus for DS as his best friend is in the "other" Y2 class but they sit on next door tables .

Thank you, it's good to hear something positive. I keep thinking I'm over-reacting but went in today and it was so noisy!

Are you a teacher TeamEdward?

I get the feeling our teachers are putting a brave face on things as directed by the head as it seems far from ideal. So far they've retained a united front. I don't envy them it must be difficult to keep everyone interested when the other class is being taught at the same time!

Are you in Wales? If so the foundation stage goes through from reception to year 2 and the basis of everything is learning by playing, which almost inevitably means more noise.

No, I'm in England. They've had lots of play through nursery, reception and year one but head teacher said today that they are more ready to learn formally at this age! So not sure why she's decided to put them all in one room with lots of distractions! Sorry I'm ranting now ...

There's one small/normal size classroom that they could use (using now to take groups into apparently) for one class. Leaving the other class in the hall!

I think the main issue is that there are too many children and not enough classrooms. We've had no communication about it and only found out on the first day back! I think if they spoke to the parents and tried to reassure us it might help. Every comment from the staff feels very defensive at the moment.

My Mum taught in a school in the 1960's where despite (very large) classes everywhere (hall, library, infants in church hall up road etc) there was still one class without a home.This meant every class had to give up their classroom for a lesson a week to house the "homeless" class and be taught in a cloakroom. She says if you have never taught 56 children in a cloakroom on a wet day, you have never lived!!

I know this doesn't help much in your situation though!!

My sons went to a primary which had a hexagonal shaped large central open area where the art resources were stored and on every side of the hexagon were open classrooms. The noise was horrendous. I changed schools

Thanks for all your replies.

It does feel a bit like they're the 'homeless' classes!

The school has had a higher intake for the past couple of years, reception and Y1 are now 3 mixed year classes taking 3 classrooms. Apart from the hall there's only the one other small spare classroom they say they'll use for taking groups in but none of the kids have been taught in yet!

I spoke to the head yesterday as did a number of other parents and DS brought a letter home in his bag tonight, detailing a number of changes to the Y2 teaching arrangements after concerns raised by parents.

When teaching maths and English one group will use the spare classroom and the other the hall to minimise distraction.

There's a meeting for all parents next week where it will be discussed again.

The real problem is that there's too many kids and not enough classrooms and they need to address this.

I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment! I have other children who will go through the school, the other local schools are full so not sure moving is an option!