I did a little research before writing this blog – but “little”, I mean I typed something into Google and looked at the first few links that popped up.
But that was suffice.
A consistency with all the articles I read – UK [primary] classroom sizes are amongst the biggest in Europe. Compared to countries like Denmark, Italy, Iceland and Slovenia, the UK has a considerably higher average. In January 2009, the average class size was 26.8″ which was apparently “down from 27.0″ the previous year. A country like the USA has, on average, a class size of about 23.4 children.
Another article, however, throws a spanner in the works, producing a graph showing that countries with high achieving children, such as Japan and Korea, have substantially larger averages when it comes to class size – what gives? The article suggests a difference in culture and social values, arguing that there are stricter hierarchies within the classroom environment.
Either way, I can say from personal experience that having your attention split between 29 loud, talkative and enthusiastic 6-7 year olds is frazzling to say the least. I have to constantly remind myself to remain calm otherwise the situation does and will escalates. There are times you do feel like screaming, “Sit down and wait until I am ready to come and see you!” Of course, that is no way to behave as a professional adult and so I haven’t, but the temptation has been there.
There have been classes I have taught in where the size has been limited to 21 children and I found that a comfortable size. You can attend to the needs of all children in a reasonable fashion although, there are times when even 21 has seemed 20 too many.
“Does class size matter?
Yes…
* US research shows children in smaller classes do significantly better in the three Rs
* Parents believe smaller classes allow teachers to give pupils more attention
* Smaller classes could stop middle-class ‘flight’ to the private sector
No…
* Countries like Japan and Korea do well despite having large class sizes
* One-to-one tuition for struggling pupils could be a better way of improving standards
* Class sizes are not the only means of ranking the effectiveness of schooling.”
I believe class size does matter in the UK and the sooner it is reduced down further still, the better.
Listening to: Elbow – the birds
Articles featured in this blog
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/the-big-question-why-are-class-sizes-in-the-uk-so-big-and-do-pupils-suffer-as-a-result-924460.html
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8047522.stm
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6156552/UK-class-sizes-among-biggest-in-the-world.html
- http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/
The more work I do with schools the more important good one-on-one mentoring becomes. If class sizes were demonstrably smaller, I don’t think it’d be needed nearly as much.
As someone who currently earns her pennies from one-to-one tuition, I can vouch that by the time that most parents get round to arranging it for their kids, it’s too late to have much of a long term difference.
Smaller class sizes all the way. The problem is obvious, though: money.