Workers' Liberty

Parents have condemned a government policy that caused their kids' class sizes to leap by 50% at the start of this term.

Year 1 children at Brook Community Primary School returned from their Easter break to join classes of 30, after the previous three classes were merged into two.

Brook is the 'Fresh Start' school that replaced Amherst Primary in central Hackney, which was in Special Measures. When one of the 61 children in Year 1 left the school, the government's funding formula forced the school to form two classes of 30 to replace three of around 20 each.

Janine Booth of 'Hackney Solidarity', whose son Alex attends the school, said: "It is obvious that 5- and 6-year-olds learn more easily, and get more individual attention, in a class of 20 than in a class of 30. And the fact that this happened midway through the school year is very disruptive."

Janine has written to Stephen Twigg MP, Minister for London schools, explaining that: "The school’s staff, parents and kids are working hard to improve the school. We are looking forward to it coming out of Special Measures and providing quality education in a community that really needs it. We could do without government-driven setbacks like this."

Her letter demands that:
• the legal maximum class size for kids of this age should be around 20, not 30;
• if reduction in numbers triggers a cut in the number of classes, this should take effect only at the start of the next school year, not midway through it.

The full text of the letter is below.

======================

To: Stephen Twigg MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0BR

29th April 2005

Dear Stephen

Class sizes: Brook Community Primary School, Hackney

A recent development at Brook Community Primary School in Hackney shows up the inadequacy of government policy on class sizes.

Brook is a ‘Fresh Start’ school, which replaced Amherst Primary at the start of the Summer term. At the end of the Spring term, there were 61 children in Year 1, in three classes. Each class had around 20 kids, reckoned by most education experts to be an ideal size for that age (5-6-year-olds).

Then one Year 1 child left the school, so the number of Year 1 kids fell to 60, triggering a cut in the school’s budget to fund only two Year 1 classes. This happened because the government’s legal limit on class sizes in Key Stage 1 is 30, and it seems that schools will not receive funding to run more, but smaller, classes.

Several Year 1 parents wrote to the Head Teacher to express our objections to this. We feel strongly that:
• kids of this age learn more effectively in a class of 20 than in a class of 30;
• Year 1 children need individual attention and emotional support that is self-evidently harder for them to access in a larger class, despite the efforts of our excellent teaching and support staff;
• it was very disruptive for this to happen mid-way through the school year, when the children are simultaneously coping with the upheaval of Fresh Start.

The school’s staff, parents and kids are working hard to improve the school. We are looking forward to it coming out of Special Measures and providing quality education in a community that really needs it. We could do without government-driven setbacks like this.

Parents believe that:
• the legal maximum class size for kids of this age should be around 20, not 30;
• if reduction in numbers triggers a cut in the number of classes, this should take effect only at the start of the next school year, not mid-way through it.

I look forward to your comments.

Janine Booth
Mother of Alex Booth, Year 1, Brook Community Primary School