What would happen in this hypothetical situation? (infant class size)

[Heckythump1]

A school has had significantly less reception starters than PAN of 60 for 2 years in a row (normally 2 form entry) so instead of two reception and two year 1 classes, they split the two year groups across 3 classes, one reception, one mixed reception/year 1 and one year 1 class.

What would then happen if a child wanted to join the school into one of these year groups? As technically they do have space as they’re below PAN in both year groups.

Well, hypothetically it would be silly of a school to do this if they had 45 exactly in each year group (or any combination in each year group which equalled exactly 90 in total, to make 3 equal classes of 30 leaving no space for new pupils). If they did though, this is the sort of situation that would overrule the infant class cap of 30 and make them go to 31.

If they have less than 90 children across the two year groups, it makes total sense to do this. The pattern of decline suggests a huge influx of new children is unlikely, and they'd still be able to accommodate one or two newbies (especially as there will likely be some leavers in that time too to even it all out).

Once a school is forced to make changes like this, it's usually followed by a request to decrease the PAN anyway. So the likely outcome of this hypothetical situation is that, once a school makes this change, they'll apply to reduce their PAN from 60 to 45. These things don't kick in immediately as it has to be approved, so they may remain at 60 for the following academic year, but it will probably kick in the year after if it is approved.

Schools spot a pattern of decline, based on birth rate. It would be highly unusual for a school to have a few big dips in allocations and then suddenly be pretty much full again at nearly 60 the following year, after starting the process to reduce their PAN.

If a child applies to Reception they have to accept them. If they apply to Year 1 they can make an under PAN refusal because, technically the PAN only absolutely applies to Reception or Year 3 in a Junior school.

If a Reception child applied they have to be offered a place if they are not up to PAN and from the day they start they have to employ another teacher if it takes the class over 30. This I'd not a case where the child can be classed as excepted.

At the moment PAN only applies to the year of admission, so in your example, Year R. What could happen? They could consult on lowering their PAN, in the meantime they could apply for an in-year variation, a parent (or someone else) could refer a case to the school adjudicator as misleading (parent could have consulted previous data in deciding where to apply) or restricting the parent’s / carer’s right to express a preference. The school may use the spare mainstream space to establish / expand a nursery, wraparound care or a unit for SEND pupils.