Renfrewshire P2 class size limit to rise under new plans
Class sizes could become bigger under fresh plans for schools.
Renfrewshire Council has set an unofficial limit of 25 pupils for classes in P2.
But bosses look set to scrap the practice and allow 30 kids in each room in line with national guidelines.
Education chiefs unveiled the proposals in a report that is going before councillors next week.
It states: “Renfrewshire Council currently operates a model where the class size maximum in primary two is normally 25.
“However, this continues to be challenged because the statutory limit is 30.
“Where there is a challenge, for example due to a placing request, the council does not have grounds to refuse the request.
“Therefore, it is very difficult to maintain the current position.
“As a result of a number of challenges to this agreement, the class size in primary two has been breached each year since the implementation of this agreement.
“Not all classes in primary two will rise to a maximum of 30.
“This would still be dependent on the overall numbers in each of the primary groupings throughout each school.”
Holyrood has strict national guidelines on how many children should be seated in each class.
It is set at 25 for the first year of primary school.
This leaps to 30 the year after, then increases to 33 for the rest of school.
Renfrewshire has tried to keep its P2 classes below this limit.
But bosses look ready to scrap this and move in line with the rest of the country.
Councillors will be asked to vote to relax the rules at a meeting on Thursday.
If approved, the change would come into affect in time for the next academic year in August.
The Education Endowment Fund charity says modest increase in class sizes is unlikely to impact significantly on learning
A spokesman said: “It seems obvious that reducing the number of pupils in a class will improve the quality of teaching and learning.
“An example of this is by increasing the amount of high-quality feedback or oneto-one attention learners receive.
“However, overall, the evidence does not show particularly large or clear effects until class size is reduced substantially to fewer than 20 or even 15 pupils.
“It appears to be very hard to achieve improvements from modest reductions in class size to numbers above 20, for example from 30 to 25.”