Marling and SHS to increase PAN to 150 from September 2016.

[Weaver]

Increase in population or demand

But HSFG to 128???? Once they've admitted a few on appeal they'll be way over the "4 classes of 30" point but still nowhere near the "5 classes of 30" point. Are they intending to have huge classes? Or smaller ones but be have less money per class to spend on staffing and resources??

I'll check with my daughter, who is Yr9 at HSFG, but I think they have 5 forms in year 9 already. I certainly recall her saying there were only 24 in her class, which struck me as a pretty good deal! Mind, they split into various other groups for different subjects. I'll double-check what the current situation is.

[DebsB]

But HSFG to 128???? Once they've admitted a few on appeal they'll be way over the "4 classes of 30" point but still nowhere near the "5 classes of 30" point. Are they intending to have huge classes? Or smaller ones but be have less money per class to spend on staffing and resources??

I'll check with my daughter, who is Yr9 at HSFG, but I think they have 5 forms in year 9 already. I certainly recall her saying there were only 24 in her class, which struck me as a pretty good deal! Mind, they split into various other groups for different subjects. I'll double-check what the current situation is.

Thanks. I'll be interested to hear what she says.

[FluffyCat]

They quite often split into teaching groups in later years. At Pate's the four forms are split into five teaching groups from Y9. So whilst they still belong to their form group, their teaching group will contain children from all four forms and will be smaller (24 rather than 30).

[cazien]

[/quote]

I'll check with my daughter, who is Yr9 at HSFG, but I think they have 5 forms in year 9 already. I certainly recall her saying there were only 24 in her class, which struck me as a pretty good deal! Mind, they split into various other groups for different subjects. I'll double-check what the current situation is.[/quote]

I believe this is true - when we attended the open evening a couple of months ago, I was eavesdropping to the tour guide of the group in front of us and this is what she stated, but I didn't hear whether she said they split for Y8 or at the end of Y8.

[Weaver]

Ok, so for HSFG at the moment, it is 4 classes per year in yrs 7&8, 5 classes per year in yrs 9-11 (same numbers, just smaller class sizes) and 6 per year in 6th form. I've not year anything about what they'd do with a larger yr 7 intake.

[DebsB]

Thanks Weaver. My dd's going this Sept, so she'll be on the existing system with a PAN of 120.

[MedievalBabe]

DebsD my dd will also be there in September.

I do find 128 an odd number as I would have thought 32 in the classes would be a squeeze as some of them weren't huge. I suppose we just have to breath a sigh of relief we are the year before.

[Cup of tea]

Quite often the top sets (certainly Pates) have up to 32 in them for gcse. This is to allow the bottom sets to have much fewer and get more teacher time. I think from year 9 the bottom set maths has about 10-12 students in it.
I am worried about adding a whole extra class of 30 into existing GS. When it finally rolls out in 6 years time and there is an additional 150 students, the infrastructure is going to crack. With govt cuts on education (especially GS) I doubt there will be spare money for buildings to facilitate the extra bodies. With an already heaving canteen, a hall which won't be able to hold the entire school and the need for more classrooms I wonder how the school will cope? I can't see if benefitting current students if I'm honest, and glad mine will have left before it reaches the new capacity.

[DebsB]

DebsD my dd will also be there in September.

I do find 128 an odd number as I would have thought 32 in the classes would be a squeeze as some of them weren't huge. I suppose we just have to breath a sigh of relief we are the year before.

Absolutely!! From my PoV, the timing's ideal - the new exam, which I felt gave my state primary educated child a more level playing field, but before the increase in PAN. Wouldn't want the parents of next year's cohort to worry, though. An extra 8 girls in each year won't make a huge difference. Maybe they'll have some lessons in groups of 32 (and how much difference can just 2 extra girls make?) and other lessons (practical subjects maybe) in 5 groups of 25 or 26?

I hope your dd is very happy and successful there. Maybe we'll bump into each other at parents' meetings or something.

[Tolstoy]

Absolutely!! From my PoV, the timing's ideal - the new exam, which I felt gave my state primary educated child a more level playing field,

Interesting, having experienced the old type in Gloucs and CEM in Bucks I would say the CEM will give private DC an edge. I know that the maths teaching at my DCs old primary school was nowhere near good enough to compete with the teaching in private schools. Also very little comprehension work was done and there certainly wasn't any stress on acquiring a strong vocabulary. I certainly would have had to do a lot more work at home with them than I did for the old test.

On the plus side, they would have been better prepared when they arrived there as the prep done is more relevant.

Does anyone know what the statistics were this year for state v private passes. I vaguely remember a couple of years back someone commenting that Pates was already seeing a swing towards more state pupils getting in. Can anyone confirm that?