September reception starters - how many will be in your child’s class?

[rainsbows]

We’ve had our first induction event for ds. It’s usually a heavily oversubscribed 3 form entry. As it stands each class will only have 25 children. Guessing due to falling birth rate. Personally I think it’s great but appreciate the school will miss out on funding.

2 classes of 23 children. It sounds like a nice number to me, although this is my first child so no experience of school etc yet.

Gosh the falling birth rate is really showing. Mine started last year in an oversubscribed school but reception is full again this coming year, though went outside catchment again which used to be unheard of. Not good for the less popular school in town who have 18 this year.

Small village school, 19. Although I did see a lady registering twins at reception so maybe 21. Last year it was 15.

Wow. From a parent pov it’s great for smaller classes, better ratios etc, but no doubt financial implications for the schools.

@ShrinkyDinkyPetalyes we’ve got into the usually oversubscribed school out of catchment. Going back a few years, there’s zero chance we’d have got in so we’re absolutely thrilled but even so, only 75/90 places filled.

The impact on budgets is huge and leading to redundancies now or being planned in the near future. The government have given pay rises but not funded them so the squeeze is intolerable.

Prepare for bigger classes once they get into key stage two where there are no limits on class sizes. Something needs to change but at the moment, I can’t see it happening.

8 in our village school. And that’s a good intake year! My son is in a year of 5 children and my daughter is in a year of 7 children.

@Strictly1surely though it’s all relative. The school still receives funding per child whether that’s 15, 25 or 30.

It’s not all relative as the cost of a teacher is the same whether there are 25 or 30 children in a class. At my school this will be our third year where we are not full in Reception which makes a huge difference to school budgets.

But the teacher and other staff costs remain the same but instead of funding for 30, you’re receiving funding for 22 say, a shortfall of 8 children multiplied by the 7 years they are with you. Also no pupil premium funding etc. The impact is huge.

A local school has already dropped a class. In order to try to avoid a yr 2/3 mix( which is a nightmare combination,) means children are now in larger classes in KS2 where there is no upper limit on class size.

It's not great from a parent pov when the cost results in the entire school closing, though, is it?

small village school 70 kids in total. 5 in reception.

We have 21 this year which will actually be the biggest class in the school next year (24 leaving year 6). We have been lucky that we have had about 10 children enter the school in various years this academic year which has helped a lot.

But the numbers projections for the next few years aren’t looking good and as a smaller school anyway it is something we are concerned about.

Our local area has lost two classes of 30 in the last two years. The number of children is down 40%.

This drop happened in five years.

It's a combination of the birth rate dropping and the house prices in that period going nuts meaning it priced out young families.

It will change the local area significantly.

Don't be surprised, if many of your children don't necessarily end school in the same school. There will be closures and mergers in the next five years.

This will also happen to a lot of schools. There will be no choice but to drop teachers and have split year groups often with one year group split based on ability over two classes.

Ah interesting. Thank you for the clarification. Clearly negative for the schools themselves. I guess one form entry schools are most at risk. But parents will be pleased of the smaller ratios. Also the knock on effect of better chance of getting into again, usually heavily oversubscribed secondaries.

But if those over subscribed secondaries then become under subscribed they will suffer the same financial issues.

The costs of keeping the building operational are the same with 1 or 1000 pupils! For secondary schools a drop in numbers may make it harder for them to offer a full range of non core subjects especially at secondary level.

In theory smaller classes sizes are amazing but only if the funding allows for that to happen without stretching already stretched budgets even further.

It’s the same at my school. Much nicer teaching 25 than 30 but not sustainable. This is why the school funding model needs to change - and fast. Our children will be the ones that lose out in the long term.

The numbers are crashing in private sector too. VAT/ business rates / birth rate.

They will be pleased about smaller ratios in KS1, but what our local school has done is combine classes in KS2 so we've ended up with a Y3, two Y4/5 a Y5/6 and Y6 class, some of the classes are 34 kids.

And how do they decide which kids goes in the vertical grouping?

Long term I can’t help but think that if the govt could find a way to continue funding schools according to PAN, they would save enormous amounts on later expenditure on SEND. A smaller but as-well-resourced class would allow for the level of intervention needed to support (some not all - there will always be children who need more specialist provision) children with additional needs. If their goal is to make mainstream truly inclusive this seems like a good place to start.

The NEU is campaigning for the government to take the opportunity to make these smaller class sizes the norm and fund them appropriately. England (specifically, not sure about rest of UK) has some of the highest class sizes in Europe.

I think there’s going to only be 15 in my son’s class. I think there was 24 last year and similar in my daughter’s year but that has now grown to 30.

My main worry (other than funding) is the classes is similarly small next year. My son is quite academic it seems so worst thing for him would be to be stuck permanently in a class with a younger year group.

My school have been under subscribed for about 4 years now, despite a great Ofsted report. It's the area we're in. Only 3 or 4 schools in the whole town are full for September, out our more than 20. However, we're in an area of high movement and our numbers always change a lot throughout the year. I started with 25 this year, have lost 2 but gained 5 so I'm now up to 28. We're currently on 23 for September but always get late applications, especially from those new to the country, so I imagine it will be around 25 or 26 again come September. Hopefully more.

I appreciate why most parents prefer their child to be in a smaller class, as 30 can seem like a lot, but the reality is far less funding. Often it can be the difference between 2 TAs or 1 in Reception, or between a full time TA and a part time one. We have far less money to spend on resources now than we did when we were full.

It's a pretty bleak picture, long term, if birth rates continue to fall and education continues to be underfunded.