Class sizes

[Turefu]

My son is about to start year 3. Just got list with new class names, 34 children in the class! AIBU to think it's too many? I know it'll be 32, as two children are leaving soon altogether. Still, 32 children. They also joined years, year 1 with year 2, year 3 with year 4 and so on. I don't like it. I know there's no much I can do about it, but I'd like to know, are classes of this size common. It's a little town school.

Any tiny school is probably running a deficit budget with 16 in a class and should look at combining with another school. Their wage bill will be massive in comparison to income. This is why there are budget problems. This amount of money spent on small classes isn’t sustainable and money is, in effect, taken from the education budget to support this and that’s to the detriment of other schools who are scrimping and saving. It’s a luxury in this day and age.

It is illegal to have over 30 in a class in ks1. There are exceptions but no school should have 36 in y1. Does the LA never win any admission appeals?

When my oldest DD started they had 66 in a hen and chickens style classroom. 2 full time teachers and before maximum class sizes. Worked for us. 60 would have been better!

@RedElephants my SIL said there are 3 TA's and a teacher, and they will split the class up. I just can't imagine the noise, they are only 3/4 yr olds lol. She is obviously worried though, he has speech delay too. Hopefully it will work out ok for him!