Year 2 Class Size

[ClassSize]

DS's class was 27 at the beginning of the school year. Since then a further 4 pupils have joined, with another starting after half term - taking the class to 32 with one teacher and one TA.

The school have no choice but to take more children as the PAN (? think that is right) is 38. So the 2 extra are jsut regular admissions, not excepted children (again think that is right phrase)

It is a small village school that due to the PAN often has split classes/mixed year groups. But there are not enough classrooms to split DS's class - all the classes are taken with other year groups.

I guess an additional 2 children will not provide the budget for an extra teacher? But should the school be doing this anyway? Is the law still that no KS1 class should be bigger than 30?

The PAN is 38. Across every year of the school. I know this for a fact. Not the class. The year.

And neither the 31st or 32nd are excepted. They and 28/29/30 are jsut standard in-year admissions.

Only one qualified teacher.

So the pupil/teacher ration is still legally no more than 30 if no excepted children?

What could parents do about this if there are 31/32 (or more) and only one teacher?

If this school is in England the only way they can have a PAN of 38 is to run mixed classes. If they have 4 classes covering Reception, Y1 and Y2, for example, that would keep them below the class size limit.

They cannot legally have more than 30 in a class with a single teacher unless:

• some of the children are excepted, or
• the majority of the pupils are in Y3 or higher

So it is possible to have a mixed Y2/Y3 class with more than 30 pupils provided the Y2 pupils are in the minority.

If they attempt to run an infants class with 32 pupils you should complain to the head. They cannot ignore the law.

My daughter had 34 in her year 1 class! 4 of the children were on year 2 register and a pupil used to deliver the register into year 1 once the year 2 teacher had finished with it. And this school was rated outstanding under the newer ofsted framework! They had one teacher and a part time TA.

I am sure I read though that this 30 limit had been abandoned - or allowed in "exceptional circumstances".

I have spoken to the head - she has no extra space/class room and the 1-2 children over does not allow her the budget to provide an extra teacher. Is she ignoring the law? Should the budget go hang? What are the consequences if she ignores it?

Found it. www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/13/primary-school-large-classes

Am really trying to find the part of still valid legislation that means head is breaking the law - but I can't - and the above article seems to suggest she does not have to do anything. Am not overly worried at the moment -as 1 or 2 above the 30 is not great but not a killer - but one or two more again? And again? And yes - is normally mixed or split classes.

It was fine as a single, non-mixed/non-split class back in Sept - but clearly all the in-year admissions have had an detrimental impact!

Just want some data/ammo to go and talk to the head again as last chat was an informal, on the playgound catch up - am not sure if I am happy with the "No budget for a new teacher" response tbh. But if she can do it then can I argue?

How many classes are there in the school OP? 38 is an unusual PAN, and if most years are full, would seem to indicate that the school needs 9 classes (or at least 4 infant classes - the junior ones could be larger I guess).

I would have thought that they need to juggle the classes around so that each of the infant classes is under 30 by mixing years.

I am assuming, that the PAN of 38 means the school usually runs mixed classes. But is should mean that none of the classes are over full, as they should juggle the mix over the year groups so that each class is a suitable size.
I suspect that the year groups are under PAN and so she has got single year classes for some year groups.

The concern would really be if she went up any more in the year 2 class.
But her solution probably won't be to employ a new teacher, if her hand were forced, she may have to re-organise the classes to create y2/y3 mix classes, which would be quiet disruptive for the kids

Yes, usually mixed classes. Often there is a couple of smaller years (ie under 30) and then a couple of big ones - so the poor head has a nightmare each summer terms juggling classrooms, teachers, mixing ages. She always aims for small Y6 classes (2 classes of under 20 in each) to give them the boost before secondary. They are benefitting but DS is in a massive class. He will benefit no doubt in 4 years time.

This Sept y2 was small enough for one class. As was Y3 (v small- about 23) - so there is room for adding some there without detriment/ making Yr3 too big - but the fuck-up of the new National Curriculum certainly makes this a challenge! And as step says I am not sure if the positive from making the class size smaller would outweigh the disruption mid-year.

She has provided an extra couple of days TA support (already one full time). From what tiggy says "she has until the end of the academic year to fund an additional teacher". Tbh by then they will be Y3 and undoubtedly in a Y3/4 mixed class situation.

Ah well - I think it is much as I thought - she is doing all she reasonably can. Not actually obliged to employ an additional teacher until the next year (by which point it is in all possibility a moot point - she will be looking at the whole school picture).

Thank you for your help . Stupid LEA to be honest increasing the PAN from a sensible 30 to stupid 38.

You seem to have misunderstood Tiggytape's post on the need to fund an additional teacher. If the class goes over 30 and none of the children are excepted they have to fund an additional teacher NOW. They cannot wait until the end of the academic year.

Tiggytape was referring to the situation where an excepted child is admitted. The law was originally that an excepted child was only excepted until the end of the academic year. Thereafter the school had to employ an additional teacher or take other measures to bring the class size down to 30. This has now been changed so that an excepted child remains excepted throughout their time in infants, so a class that is over 30 because excepted pupils can remain oversized. However, if there are no excepted pupils in the class the school MUST take steps to reduce the class size immediately.

The relevant legislation is the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 S1 and the School Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012.

(Cross posted with tiggy)

And just for complete clarity...

According to your OP, the additional children are being admitted simply because the school is under PAN. That means they will NOT be excepted. So the school must sort out the class size issue NOW, either by employing an additional teacher or by mixing years so that the relevant classes have no more than 30 pupils.

OK. This is really useful and interesting. So the fact her hands are supposedly tied with budget issues is irrelevant.

Either fund new teacher or split classes. The 2013 slipped through change to class sizes does not apply in this case because none of them are excepted.

Oh, and I know this is silly - but what actually happens if she does not do something? OK, so she is acting against the legislation (thank you for the details by the way) but what happens? Is there anyone/any body that can force her to do something?

Is the disruption caused by mixing up year groups half way through the year (especially this new NC year) worth it to get to the magic 30 or under level?

If you know the chair, chat to them first, explain you have been doing some research and think the school may be breaking the law. That will give him/her a chance to look at things.
I am a governor and that is what I would do, but I know the chair well.

The school has a PAN of 38 and therefore under normal circumstances the school has to admit to 38. However there are limited circumstances where the school could actually not admit up to the 38 limit and I believe that this could be one such case. The school could argue to the LA that as soon as it got to 30 that to admit more would break the infant class size regs as there is no alternative in the short term.

The fact that the school has admitted to 32 suggests that either they did not realise that or that they did realise it and the LA have agreed in the circumstances that the best way all round for the 6 months until they are year 3 is to run with 32 in the class.
There is one way that they could have admitted two under excepted pupils designation and that would be if the last two admissions were actually Looked after Children or previously looked after children. As they have absolute priority in admission criteria terms and they are considered an excepted situation, that could have happened.

The alternative is just that the school do not understand the rules. There is also the financial situation and that is that the funding for April onwards is agreed on the number of pupils in the school and year group on a date last October. From the posts I would suspect that most of these 5 pupils will not be funded to the school until April 2016, not April 2015.
As you are a governor at the school I would definitely use either partner to ask the question or if yourself go through the Chair, so that you do not ruffle too many feathers.

Thank you for this. Tbh at the moment I think I agree with her that the current set up of 32 in class with 2 TAs, plus other support (teacher and TA)a as required is a better set up than the disruption (socially and educationally) which would be caused by mixing year groups mid year.

What happens though - if the school is acting against the legislation - what could actually happen? Who would actually enforce it? I am guessing this is one of those "non" laws that doesn't actually mean anything iyswim?

The LA (or the EFA if it is an academy) can withdraw the school's funding. They can also ask the DfE to intervene which would result in the Secretary of State directing the school to comply. The school could be taken to court.

Many schools get away with non-compliance due to lack of enforcement. But it can be enforced.

Might a pragmatic option be to have a small group of say 6 of the more able Y2s working in the Y3 classroom in the morning on literacy and numeracy, and officially on the register in that class, but joining the rest of the Y2s in the afternoons for more topic-based work?