class sizes...mixed age year 2/3?

[hels71]

Hi.
Does anyone know the actual regulations regarding class sizes when a mixed age class is involved. DD is in a 2/3 class of 30. 18 are year 2 and 12 are year 3. They are getting another year 2 child after Easter. The head is claiming this does not go against class size regs because they only apply to the numbers on roll on September 1st and also don't apply to cross key stage classes. Is this correct? If not can anyone point me In the right direction if legislation. The child is not an excepted child.

in Scotland composite classes are limited to 25, don't know if they have the same sort of regulations in England

The head is wrong. Unless the additional child is excepted they cannot legally be admitted to this class. The relevant legislation is the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This states in section 1(2) that "Any limit imposed under this section shall specify the maximum number of pupils that a class to which the limit applies may contain while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a single school teacher". It is therefore down to the numbers in any actual teaching session, not the number on the roll in September. Section 4 defines an infant class as "a class containing pupils the majority of whom will attain the age of five, six or seven during the course of the school year", i.e. any class where the majority of pupils are in Reception, Y1 or Y2.

Unless another teacher is employed the only way the head can legally add a non-excepted Y2 child to this class is by moving one of the Y3 children to a different class.

Thank you.

Sorry, me again. If both year groups are under PAN would that make any difference or mean a family would automatically win an appeal??

PAN should have been set so that they won't breach infant class size regulations. Indeed, if there was an appeal the panel would want to know why PAN was set at a level that meant ICS regulations would be breached if the school was full. But no, it doesn't make any difference. If admitting another child causes the class to go over size any appeal should be heard under infant class size rules. If the appeal succeeded the child would be excepted so the school would not be in breach by admitting that child to this class.

If they admit the child without an appeal on the basis that they are below PAN they must still comply with ICS regulations. The fact that admitting an additional child would cause a breach is ample justification for refusing admission even though they are below PAN.

Agree with PRH, the head teacher is not correct in their assumptions about how the infant class size regs work in conjunction with the need to admit to PAN under normal situations. In this situation the infant class size regs take precedence. So the fact that a mixed year 2/3 class has reached 30 and there are more year 2 than year 3 the infant class size regs is the primary requirement to abide by. To add any more pupils in either year 2 or year 3 means that there will be a breach of the regs. The school can admit and remove the ICS Regs restriction by employing a second teacher or create 2 small classes each with a school teacher.
The alternative is to say the pupil cannot be admitted and let the parents go to appeal. The appeal would depend on the specific circumstances, like where there were other places available., but there is a distinct possibility that a panel would agree to a place being made available as an excepted pupil. If the school is a maintained school then the LA could also decide, assuming there were no obvious local places available, to declare them to be excepted pupils and then as the school PAN has not been reached they could just admit.

Thank you again.