70 metres squared for a 30 pupil reception classroom - is yours?

[DoraJo]

I'm feeling really disappointed at the small size of my son's reception classroom. We didn't get to see it before term started as the reception year has been moved from another part of the school so the rooms we visited previously are not the rooms being used now. I really can't imagine how crowded the room will be when 30 children are in it! It looks as though there are no statutory requirements on space per pupil, only guidelines. The DfE 'Building Bulletin 99 - Briefing Framework for Primary School Projects' refers to a "standard classroom at 70m2 for 30 reception pupils" (P35). So just wondering, is yours? Anyone else concerned at how little space their DC has in their reception class?

If you look to page 63 the size has reduced to 66m2

My Ds class is tiny too at present I think there are about 15 children in I dread to think what it will be like when its full with 30. The school had to take on a 30 bulge class this year and I think my Ds got the short straw and is in the tiny room.

TBH I am not loving the school at the moment including class size , teacher and other things :(

Does that area include the outdoor learning area? My sons spent most of their Reception day in the outside learning area.

No there are separate guidelines for outdoor areas

fat chance... but as they only play lip service to the sen code of practice as well I doubt they are going to do building work to fix the yr class room hen they can't be arsed to tallk to parents about iep reviews... ,bitter>

DoraJo,
You are correct that there is no regulations only guidelines and even these guidelines might be going shortly.
I think that when new classrooms are built that in most instances they are built to the guidelines you refer to but the 70 sq metres you refer to is the maximum expected, the minimum is 63 sq metres for what is deemed a large classroom and it is no surprise that many will be built to the minimum size.
Previous to the above guidelines the minimum figure was 48 sq metres and I suspect the majority of schools will have classrooms that are somewhere between 48 and 63 sq metres. There is no requirement to upgrade and the honest answer is that to upgrade would mean in many cases knocking down and starting again. A new classroom is generally considered to cost somewhere in the region of £150K to £200K and given there are 22,000 schools, rebuilding all small classrooms is just not a financially possible proposition.

Hi everyone, thanks very much for replying to my message, thats v kind, and informative. Yes, I'm estimating that ours is rather closer to 48 than 70! Its a real shame but I guess if that's the previous minimum then that's how it is. Thanks again.