Reception class of 33

[timeplease]

Hi, due to a long, complicated chain of events, ds is now in a reception class of 33 with one teacher and one classroom assistant. I know the law says one teacher per 30 children (max) so not really sure how this is justified. I'm also completely sure that the school will not provide another full time teacher, which seems to be what the law demands.

So... I'm assuming there are others in this situation and just wanted to gather some info about how other schools have dealt with it? Extra classroom assistants, for example?

And if anyone has been involved in pushing the school for extra support, how did you go about it?

To my knowledge (school governor.but not had this situation) the school would need permission from the lea to go over numbers in the class, if this is given then it's allowed though obviously not ideal. We have to take over 30 in an intake at my children's school and have got mixed age classes to juggle the ratios to fit, not always popular either but seems to be working very well.

If the additional three children were admitted as "exceptions" then a second teacher isn't needed this year. Technically (legally) there doesn't need to be a classroom assistant as the ratio is 1 teacher to 30 children (plus exceptions) I'm afraid.

"Excepted pupils
In extremely limited circumstances, an infant class may have more than 30 pupils.
Pupils may be admitted in unforeseen circumstances, e.g.
? Where a child moves into an area outside the normal admissions round and there is no other school within a reasonable distance (for advice contact PSU).
? Where a child receives a statement of special educational needs naming the school, outside the normal admissions round.
? Where an extra place has to be offered because an error has been made in the admissions process that leads to a pupil being refused a place incorrectly.
? Where an appeal panel decides that an admission authority has made an error which denied the child a place or has acted unreasonably in initially refusing to admit a pupil.
Pupils admitted for the above reasons are classed as excepted pupils. The class may remain in excess of 30 pupils only for the remainder of the academic year. The following September the school will need to agree arrangements with the LEA to comply with the limit."

My DS is yr2 and has never been in a class of 30 or less.His class is 32 already this year with the two extra having joined halfway through september. His class has one teacher, one TA and a 1-1 helper for one of the pupils.

As I understand it, the law on max class size is over-ridden if children have to be accepted due to successful appeal. The only school I know of that actually had this problem ended up with a teacher, TA and nursery nurse with the class - borrowing the NN from its own nursery.

Isn't the law on class sizes changing soon anyway?

If a church school, they can do as they see fit.

wyorksmum - A church school cannot do as they see fit. They are bound by infant class size regulations in the same way as other schools.

timeplease - There are a number of situations in which pupils are "excepted", which means they don't count towards the infant class size limit. Mrz has listed the most common reasons for children being excepted - there are a couple of others. The most likely reason for this class having 33 is that the LA made a mistake as per the last two bullets in Mrz's post.

If the class still has more than 30 children in September the school will need to employ an additional teacher or they will be breaking the law.

sobenobu - The government is planning some changes but they won't come in until 2013.

Whilst MRZ has explained the more obvious reasons for possibly having 33 in the class, I am wondering whether the "long complicated chain of events" around your son has a direct bearing on there being 33 in the class?
If it does not and if you wish to take this further then I would start by asking the head teacher why there are 33 in the class when you understood that the maximum is 30. Hopefully they will give a reasonable explanation along the lines stated by MRZ but if the head is not very forthcoming then there might be other more worrying reasons. For instance is the admission number more than 30 for the year group (say 40 or 45) and the number of pupils who wanted a place was 33. If that is the case then the situation is not one that exception is appropriate for and they should be employing two school teachers or finding another way around the situation.
I think to be fair to the school and to school teachers, I would have to say that there is no reason why a class cannot operate with 33 in it and give every child a good education if the teacher is good. But under the infant class size regs it is illegal other than with appropriate exceptions.