Primary class sizes

[MagPieWhyPie]

Can anyone direct me to the legislation governing primary class sizes. I can’t seem to find anything and my DC p2 class is a big one with 31. I’m not sure DS is getting the help they need individually due to sheer amount of children in his class (teacher is great but 31 children seems a lot!)

More than 30 in a P2 or P3 usually merits a 2nd class teacher but local authorities can sometimes impose 31 depending on individual cases. 33 in P4-7. You could ask the head teacher if the LA have decided against team teaching for 31 and why this decision was taken. It's never the schools decision, they will be unhappy too but parent power counts more.

Thanks for that. Is there legislation that supports this?

I’m supportive of the school I think they do a good job I’m just concerned the class size keeps increasing! It sounds like it shouldn’t be that big for their primary ages. There is one teacher only per day (not same one every day it’s job share but only one in class at a time).

Our school seem to only have about 25 in each class and do a composite where there are additional children. My son is in P2 and has suspected dyslexia, I wouldn't be happy with him in a bigger class because he does need a bit more support as it is.

I'm pretty sure my class sizes were about 30 when I went to primary school...that was nearly 30 years ago now though so don't know what they're supposed to be now.
Only ever had 1 teacher in the class from what I can remember.

On the Government website
P2 limit is 30...however this can be exceeded if a pupil is an "excepted pupil".

Think its a supposed to be 25 in P1 and then 30 in P2/3. If its a composite its usually limited to 25 in the later years

There is a composite in DS year but he’s in the full P2 class which is 31 now. My Older DC never had more than 26 or so in their classes so this large size is new to me.

@princessbeetroot did your school test your DS foe dyslexia? I suspect similar of DS but school haven’t raised it as a concern currently.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit but does Scotland have so many composite classes due to its adherence to school catchments? In England you are not guaranteed to get into your local school whereas in Scotland if you live in catchment you are pretty much guaranteed to get into the school, perhaps resulting in more pupils that is optimal having to be accommodated in a school.

It depends on the number of children in a school year e.g. when dd started school there were about 60 kids in her intake. That meant 3 Primary 1 classes as the limit was 25 in P1. That meant a p1/p2 composite class as there were 10 children left over so they had to make it up to a class of 25.

In primary 2 they changed back to only 2 classes as they could have 2 classes of 30 pupils.

Maximum 33 for a straight class, 25 for a composite. We were originally promised no more than 18 in infants, then th5, now we were told it can be up to 30.

We've had occasions when a P4 class was full, then another child came in and the teacher was asked to take in this pupil. I don't know how they pupils would have been covered legally in that situation. This teacher accepted but lots of others would have refused.

The maximums can be flexed though, they are not set in stone (unless something has changed v recently).

A few years ago when DS was in P7 there was a bulge year, they had run out of classrooms, their solution was to make a composite P6/P7 of 32 with one full time teacher and one part time teacher mornings only. Similarly, DD was in the bulge year, there were 62 or 63 kids in her year for P1 so they made 2 classes of 25 and the rest in a composite P1/P2, after a year the whole year was put into 2 P2 classes of 31/32, lots of parents challenged it on the basis that an infant class shouldn't have more than 25 and were told that in exceptional circumstances the policy could be ignored, and having lots of children was an "exceptional circumstance".

East Dunbartonshire??? Would be very weird if it was!!

North lanarkshire
Was a few years ago now as dd is now in 3rd year at Uni

Our school manages it with combined classes with 2 teachers, had 40 in P3. That’s cause of the nearly 100 in P1 that eventually reduce to 3 classes in P4. They also have a waiting list for transfers in so the capacity is never exceeded to my knowledge. But it’s a city school where you could offer another place to children who register late and there is plenty of movement. I imagine a more rural school would have fewer options.

P1 is 25 max however a few years ago, I was in P1 and the day before they started the appeals panel granted an extra 1 which meant running about getting sorted.

P2/3 is 30

P4-7 is 33.

Composite is capped at 25.

Having worked with 20 in P1 that was ideal. The class of 33 P1 in 1996 was hard work and I often felt children got over looked easily. Plus they were so crammed into the classroom you couldn't move.

Our school has capacity of about 100 pupils but normally has less than that. There isn't enough physical classrooms or children to have single primary classes, so do composites, with each composite having about 20-25 kids.

I believe you are correct in that you are guaranteed a place at either a catholic or non-denominational primary or high school based on your postcode, whichever you prefer.

You can also opt to make a placing request to any primary or high school outwith your catchment or council area and you have to hope there are places leftover in a school after catchment places have been fulfilled.

Places are then given out based on criteria first:

"The following criteria are then used in order to prioritise each group of applications:

1.Medical/ASN grounds relating to the child making the application, such that the chosen school is the only school that could provide for the child. These must be supported by documentary evidence from the family doctor and a local health practitioner. The Service Manager with responsibility for ASN will assess all applications seeking to receive recognition under this category.

2.An older brother or sister will be attending the same establishment for the session the application is being made.

3.The child is from a family that has exceptional family circumstances or is from a lone parent family. You may be asked to support this by suitable documentation."

And then finally any further leftover places will be given out to remaining placing requests, or rejected if no places left and you have to go to your catchment school.

I have a relative living near the city and they run 3 or 4 intakes of each primary year, they have the physical classrooms and student numbers so have no composite classes.