Issued: 28 November 2008
Class size progress in primary schools.
Angus Council is progressing with plans to reduce class sizes in the early years of primary school.
A meeting of the council’s Education Committee on Thursday 27 November heard that local authorities are expected to show year on year progress towards delivery of the Scottish Government’s class size reduction policy.
A report before members outlined arrangements in composite classes where maximum class sizes are set at 25, meaning that pupils in 30 of the county’s smallest schools already benefit from this ceiling.
The council is now focussing its efforts in the 25 larger schools, where although the average P1/P3 class size is less than 24 pupils, there is variation from school to school.
To ensure that the maximum number of children gain from a reduction in class sizes, the committee agreed to set a maximum class size in P1 to P3 of 27 pupils, and in P4 to P7 a class size maximum of 30, with a target date for implementation of 2009.
Education convener Peter Nield said: “Angus Council is committed to working towards smaller class sizes and these new teacher/pupil ratios will help us ensure that the all pupils in the early years of primary school benefit. It is, however, important to acknowledge that, unless significant additional resources are made available from the Scottish Government or the primary rolls in Angus fall quite significantly, there is no likelihood of the full commitment to a maximum class size of 18 pupils in P1-P3 being met. The best that we can do is to make some progress towards that aspirational goal.”