Calling classes by names - why?

[Fossil]

DS's class has recently become 'Kingfishers', and all the other classes in the school have been named after different birds. Notice from looking at other school websites that this seems to be a trend. What is the reason for this?

DDs school have recently introduced class names. I assume it is because they are in the process of shifting from having 1 class in each year (30 children) to having 1.5 classes in each year, with the resultant mixed classes (e.g. a Y1 class, a mixed Y1/Y2 class and a Y2 class).

The names actually reduce confusion because they describe the child's actual class, not their year group.

The children were asked to help choose the names, which I think it reflected in the slightly hippy overtones.