class of 45 in reception with 2 teachers?

[FrameyMcFrame]

Just that reall, how will that work?
My DS is off to reception in September with a class of 45 with 2 teachers...
Won't that just be horrendous?

I really don't understand.

How are they? I'm not thinking about ratios, just the sheer amount of kids in one room.
It must be overwhelming for a 4 year old who is only used to being with a few people at a time.
I just want to understand the logic of it.

There are more adults to take small groups away from the rest, more action stations (or not more maybe but bigger) because there is more room.

They are still taught about "classroom voices" etc and no running inside so it does not seem any louder than a class of 30 (impression from the few times I have been in there).

but if they were divided in to 2 classes there would still be the same adult to child ratio wouldn't there?

Just wanted to know what the advantages are?

We are always told big class sizes=bad
Small classes=good

When did that all change?

or perhaps they would be one pure reception class and one mixed reception/Y1 class ... there are lots of ways to organise classes.

DS2 has just finished P1 in Scotland, and had 50 in his class with two teachers.

I wasn't sure about it, but it seems to work as the school do it every year with P1. They have a big double classroom.

Honestly I was you this time last year (really worried about how it would work) especially as DD is very bright and I thought this would be neglected however I could not have been happier she has truly thrived and there are more adults in the classroom which she loves especially like today where the theme was "India" and the teachers were wearing saris.

that's good Simpson.
I guess i just wanted to understand the theory behind it...

I think the last paragraph of Periwinkle's post explains it well. Basically if you have 2 classrooms and 2 teachers with 23 kids in each classroom, the children are always divided in that way. If you have 2 teachers and 45 kids then it is more flexible - they can be split in any number of ways depending on what seems most appropriate at that time.

My Mum is a TA in a reception class like this. There are 90 children with three teachers and 4 TAs. She was cynical when it started but it has worked well. The children all know which teacher they 'belong' to and the reception classroom is actually three linked rooms plus outdoor space. There are times each day where the children work in classes of 30 with their teacher and other times when it is free flow. The TAs have lists each day of the children for reading and small group work so no one is forgotten.

It's too many imho.

Ds1 started school somewhere with 90 children + and there were 3 teachers/TAs I think, you could never get hold of them to talk to either before or after school, they took children out of class in small groups just to meet legal requirements, ds never ate his lunch, didn't have a drink all day, or go to the loo and he got his head bashed on the ground by some of the other kids, supervision was hopelessly inadequate.

We switched schools and ds2's experience of reception was fecking marvellous compared to that. The little ones NEED more help. I wouldn't send a child there - sorry OP

My dd was in a class room of 45 with two teachers in one room when in reception. There were two separate classes and they had separate parts of the room for certain things e.g. register, stories, pe but were mixed up for others. It seemed to work ok and it didn't seem to affect dd in any way, it was just what she knew. although there are more children in a room together the class ratio is less than in most schools. It think the reason for it was lack of classrooms.

Ds2's infant school is like this but the reception area has 3 classes of about 34 each in - there's a big shared area and each class has a little bit sectioned off as a base area.

It gets worse for years 1 and 2 though - they are in one long room with a bug shared area in the middle with all the desks in, base areas along one side (just big enough for them to sit down on the carpet, a cupboard for the teacher) and things like the library and a messy art area and store cupboards on the other side. There's barely enough space to get all the desks in and seems horribly crowded and noisy to me but it's all they know and what they are used to so they just get on with it. But almost 200 kids plus staff in a room plus staff - not sure I could stand it week in week out!

OP small classes are generally considered to be good because of the staff:pupil ratio.

In the situation you describe the ratio is actually better than a standard of 1 teacher and 1 TA to 30 pupils.

For me it all hinges in the competency of the staff and the design of the room. In principle it sounds like a good idea.

thanks all.

I will just have to see how it goes with DS in Sept...

I'm not so worried about how his education is tailored specifically to his abilities to trade off a smaller amount of kids in a room. (but we have no 'choice' as this is the only place offered)

To me, playing and making friends and learning to be confident in his own skin is much more important than reading or writing at this stage.
The formal stuff will come, he's a bright boy.
I just don't want him to be stressed in a noisy and impersonal environment...
Obviously, it could be all fine. I'm just worried :(

It's an old school...1960s so I can't see it's going to have mod cons like sliding screens and that.
I'll reserve judgement until I see it in action.