Class sizes

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Bit in the papers today about britain having the biggesr class sizes in europe but does size really affect the learning growth of the child in the class.
My daughter has 15 in her class with a teacher and a helper and my youngest has 12,my oldest has just started senior school and has 24 in his.
How many are there in your kids class and would smaller classes help?

 

[OldBlueLady]

We have 85 children in our year group, split into 3 classes. There are 27 in the class I'm with. We have 6 TAs/LSAs in the year group, out of which we have 4 days worth of "general" support work in class but the rest of the time we are all assigned to individual "statemented" children (this means the local authority is funding the child's support, rather than the school - which funds "general" TAs - as they have an identified educational or behavioural need). Depending on the child, depends on how much extra support we are able to give the class. We run intervention groups twice a day, during assembly and afternoon registration, which are targetted at specific groups of children to push them on a bit, this term's focus is maths so those children identified at a level or two lower than where they should be are included in these groups. So if your daughter is in a class of 15 with a teacher and a TA then she's very lucky, there is huge evidence that smaller classes work and that the teacher is better able to target work more specifically to a child's understanding.

 

[EastStandBlue]

We have 85 children in our year group, split into 3 classes. There are 27 in the class I'm with. We have 6 TAs/LSAs in the year group, out of which we have 4 days worth of "general" support work in class but the rest of the time we are all assigned to individual "statemented" children (this means the local authority is funding the child's support, rather than the school - which funds "general" TAs - as they have an identified educational or behavioural need). Depending on the child, depends on how much extra support we are able to give the class. We run intervention groups twice a day, during assembly and afternoon registration, which are targetted at specific groups of children to push them on a bit, this term's focus is maths so those children identified at a level or two lower than where they should be are included in these groups. So if your daughter is in a class of 15 with a teacher and a TA then she's very lucky, there is huge evidence that smaller classes work and that the teacher is better able to target work more specifically to a child's understanding.

Yeah, but you're always on holiday...

 

[Bluesmanager]

Plus smaller classes are easier to control for a teacher.

As a disabled student myself, I find smaller classes easier for two reasons: 1, there's less people to **** me off, and 2, it means I can get more help when I need it.

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

What is your disability?

 

[Vange Shrimper]

When I was working at the School on Canvey, i'd teach up to 34 Year 9 kids in one class (13 year olds) and I even had 52 in one class (Year 8's - 12 year olds) once with another teacher, although she did sit there and do **** all. When I had my Year 11's, I had 9 in one class.

Small classes do help as you are able to focus on the kids more and this helps them.

And now in my new job, I teach no kids and I love it :)

 

[pickledseal]

Y7-9 I have 32.... we are getting more and SEN kids which is really straining my time within the lesson - divide 50 minutes by 32 students and that is not a lot each. When you have a SEN kid who needs twice as much time (or even more...) it is quite possible that on average a students gets 30 seconds of my time.
Y10, I have a good-ish set this year and have 22.
Y11, I have a pretty wild bunch... there's just 12 of them, but it gets a little crazy at times!

Why do you think if you pay for private schools, if nothing else, you get much smaller class sizes? :)

 

[davewebbsbrain]

There are 30 in my sons class, year 3, or 1st year juniors in old money. There were 30 kids in my class when I was at school, we had no TA's etc etc and it didn't do me any harm at all. That said, it does help my son having a couple of TA's, he enjoys the different teaching skills of each adult in his class.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Out of interest what are the average class sizes in China or India?

 

[MK Shrimper]

Out of interest what are the average class sizes in China or India?

I think that's irrelevant when Indian and Chinese kids can still get whumped with a big stick for not doing their times tables.....

 

[Davros]

Im pretty sure all the way through infant/primary and secondary school my average class size was always between about 26-30.

College our class sizes were about 10-18