John without sounding rude you ‘visit’ schools you don’t teach in them. Yes no doubt deliver fascinating talks to captive audiences especially in the privileged sector. Try delivering your talk to a mixed ability class in a better than average comprehensive school. Then do it four my times a day without feeling exhausted and trying to captivate the indifferent.

I do, I teach in the state sector and achieve outstanding results in GCSE and A level in classes of 30. But I know I would do even better for every pupil if I had smaller class sizes. Wealthy parents are astute enough to realise this. That’s why they send their children to fee-paying schools.

Privileged parents use their economic advantage to purchase better teacher/pupil ratios and the associated benefits. The smaller the class the more time a teacher has with the individual child hence the better their attainment. That’s why unions and some politicians go on about it so much John. Indeed that’s why Jim Knight’s parents sent their son to Eltham College – need I say more!

Against this background, you have the NuLab promise to reduce class sizes to under thirty across the board by cancelling the assisted places scheme (remember that?) Nowadays the government are into every classroom and, apparently, some teachers even have to teach with cameras, one way mirrors and microphones INSIDE the classroom! Woe betide you if they consider that you have made, say, a racist remark, or, say, questioned global warming!

So if I say that the wretched minister didn’t actually say that he wanted to increase class sizes to 70 across the board, you can still see why there was a frisson.
The thing I object to very much is the pretence that things are like they were in the Olden Days when the classroom teacher was still in charge of the classroom. It is another NuLab lie.

No this is not some old geezer rambling on about how it didn’t do me any harm. It is some old geezer pointing out that family and school expectations and discipline were very different. Not neccessarily better or worse but belonging to a different time, a different society.

I don’t think it would be easy to go back to larger classes today without a major change in the way children are expected to behave, and major changes in the willingness of parents to support schools.

In the past entry into grammar schools was seen as a ‘prize’ for excellence, and it opened doors for later good employment. Similarly only ‘the few’ from the working class made it to University, with the promise of a really good job later.

It will be hard to bring back an environment where hard work and merit count for something, especially against charges of elitism and the idea that ‘every child wins a prize’ - but I do wonder what the educational regime is in India and China, and how our kids will compete.

You make a fair point, but one that is trivial in the larger context of the question. The debate is rightly over increasing the number of teachers and cutting the number of standardised tests students must take every year. Although it may be fun, we should not let the exceptionally bright fellow of All Souls with 30+ years of political and business experience distract us from the greater point.

However it is unsurprising that the teachers unions want smaller classes & therefore more teachers, particularly when school rolls are falling. It is also an easy thing to measure & thus, while it may an accurate measure of quality it is an easy one & likely to appeal to simplistic political mesages.