34 in Year 1 Class

[Happydaze123]

Hello, hoping someone can help!
My daughter is in a 2-form entry reception class with 17 children in each class (34 children total in reception). She has thrived in this environment, I feel largely due to the small class size.
In Year 1, the school are combining the 2 classes into one. As infant class size is 30, they are getting around it by putting x4 of the children on the Year 2 register which has space to accommodate. Those x4 children will only register in the morning and afternoon with Year 2 but then will move over to the Year 1 class straight away.
I'm really uncomfortable with this arrangement and feel my daughter will struggle with the larger class size. There will be 1 teacher (job share) and 2 TA's in the room.
What do you think of this and what would you do?
Thanks in advance xxx

With the funding crisis this will be increasingly common. Funding levels expected for 2018 -2019 only realistically work if there are 33 pupils per class or if the school only employed NQT's. Not ideal but schools don't have an option.

They are breaching laws, you could speak to your local authority.

On the flip side, with two TA's a good teaching team would cope with this. Is there reasonable space in the classroom etc? Our school has done this occasionally but has taught the children where they've registered.

No - they are not breaching laws. Officially there are only 30 in year one. My school was advised to do this by LA - unless we get volunteer teachers or a change of government this will be happening in most schools

With two TAs in the room I would be feeling reasonably relaxed about this.

Thanks for your comments 😀 Yes I think it's happened mostly due to budget constraints. It just feels dodgy! I think I'd be more comfortable with 2 classes and 2 teachers and no TA's (even though this increases staff/pupil ratio!) which I'm guessing budget wise would be similar? Or even mixed Y1/Y2 classes to get the class size below 30.

The TA's may well be funded separately to meet a particular child's needs. Legally that can't be changed

Ok thanks didn't know that x

Are the TAs attached to particular children with SNs, or general class TAs?

General class TA's x

"As infant class size is 30, they are getting around it by putting x4 of the children on the Year 2 register which has space to accommodate. Those x4 children will only register in the morning and afternoon with Year 2 but then will move over to the Year 1 class straight away." They aren't getting around it. What they are doing is totally illegal. 30 is the limit of how many pupils can be taught by a single teacher (unless they were admitted as exceptions) not how many are on the class register. Having a TA doesn't make any difference as they can't be counted.
"Limit on infant class sizes
4.—(1) No infant class may contain more than 30 pupils while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a single school teacher.
(2) Where an ordinary teaching session is conducted by more than one school teacher, the class may not contain more than 30 pupils for every one of those teachers.
(3) Where an infant class contains any excepted pupil (as defined by regulation 5), the limits in paragraphs (1) and (2) apply as if the excepted pupil were not included in the class. "

Can you move school?

Unless people move, you'll have a class of 34 from now to Y6.

If a large class bothered me I'd move school.

Thank you everyone. I am considering moving my daughter to another school. I know this will be disruptive but I think long term will be a better solution. Thank you for helping me clarify rules xxx

All schools are looking for creative ways to have maximum numbers of children per teacher. I'm afraid the days of 17 to a class are truly over with the new funding formula. As school sustaining low class numbers must have limited funds elsewhere e.g. No book budget

My sons class had 32 last year as did the other two classes in year two. Also reception had 3 classes with over 30. they had one teaching assistant but my son has asd (and no ehcp so no 1 to 1 of his own) so she ended up spending lots of time with him

In our area there are certain year groups which are full across all the local schools so therefore new children moving to the hundreds of new houses being built have to be placed somewhere. This means that there are more than 30 in a class - the school tries to refuse but is overruled by the LEA. Unfortunately LEAs are not allowed to open new schools.

My friend's bright son has been taught in a Y1/2 mixed group and it's been wonderful for him...

In your position, the first thibng i would do is write to the head and the Chair of Governors), stating what you believe to be the case about the class of 34, and quoting the legislation mrz has cited above.

(If the school has sent out a letter outlining these arrangements, just quote the relvant extract; if it is playground gosspi or verbal communication, be very careful to preface it with 'I understand that' or 'The suggestion has been made that you might be considering...')

Then ask, since the arrangement you describe clearly breaks the law, how they propose to proceed to ensure that their class arrangements are legal.

The problem is, having taken 2 Reception classes of 17, they have always been open to this future class size prejudice, and should have been alert to the issue.

What are the reception class size(s) next year? if they are planning to run 2 small classes again, then an obvious solution is to have a Year 1 class + 2 mixed R / Y1 classes. or, if they have 1 r class of

17 will have been lovely, but it's not realistic in a state school with current funding. If she has thrived at the school it seems drastic to move her when other schools will be facing the same funding issues. (Unless you mean you are looking to move her to private.)

They will also have to think about next year, since again they cannot have >30 in the Y2 class - unless they think that they can persuade 4 children to leave by this illegal jiggery-pokery and an oversized class...

I think there are two issue here

• Of course the class of 17 is uneconomic and can't be sustained - I don't know whether this is established practice for this school or whether for some reason an extra R class was created last year.

HOWEVER

• Creating a class of 34 by the means suggested is illegal. the school needs to accommodate the extra 4, or whatever proportion of the 34 they see fit, in classes of 30 or less. Their only option, given the numbers described, is to create some mixed year classes.

That sounds seriously dodgy! I would've thought the sensible answer would be to have 2 mixed Y1/Y2 classes of 30 each

It's really not that disruptive to move schools in Y1.

Most schools have 30 pupils in a class. Some have less if they're in a village.

Very few have more.

I'd definitely move. You have another 6 years of this school which thinks 34 in a class is acceptable. It isn't. And you can't change the school.

How many are there in year 2? And what is the PAN? 34 is an unusual amount to have in reception although I realise this may have increased over the year.

Miranda, i can't work out from the OP whether this is

• a 2-form entry school with an unusually small year group currently in Year 1

• a normally 1-form entry school that decided last year to have a 'bugle' reception class but which was only a few over the 30 limit

• a school that has historically run with 2 tiny reception classes feeding into a single larger Y1 class, which has got its numbers calculation catastrophically wrong this year!

Salty, i would suggest that the OP can change the school's behaviour in this specific case, because what they are proposing to do is illegal.

bugle = bulge!