Does Class Size Matter?

Probably the most common question that I am asked by prospective parents visiting Loughborough Grammar School for the first time is ‘how big are your classes?’ There is a clear sense among parents that the major advantage of an independent education is that their children will be in smaller teaching groups, and that there is a direct correlation between class size and subsequent academic achievement. However, in recent years, educational research has found that, in the Western world at least, secondary class sizes make very little difference whatsoever to pupils’ grades. The evidence highlights how teaching methods are instead the differentiator, and this is consequently of much greater importance to academic leaders at LGS than keeping class sizes as small as humanly possible.

Teaching leaders are constantly striving to establish which teaching techniques work best with their students, and in recent years we have been much attracted to the work of an internationally-renowned educational researcher. “What does Hattie say?” is a question my colleagues often ask when developing our school policies. I can reassure you that this has nothing to do with Hattie Jaques and the Carry On films. Instead, we are referring to the work of Professor John Hattie who is Professor of Education at Melbourne University. Hattie’s book ‘Visible Learning’ is the synthesis of nearly 1200 meta-studies involving 80 million students, all looking at how students make academic progress. This has become something of a ‘Bible’ for those of us interested in pedagogy. His research team has ranked the effect of 252 factors that contribute to improved student performance, and reducing class size appears in only 186th place. The conclusion is therefore that it is more important for schools to focus on training our teachers effectively rather than seeking to reduce class sizes still further.

Our class sizes are fairly standard for independent schools. Although we have a notional maximum of 24 pupils per class, this is rare. Top sets in Mathematics will often be quite large, allowing us to create very small groups for those who struggle with this core subject. At GCSE, class sizes are usually slightly smaller – usually in the 16-20 range, and 12 is the norm at A Level. Despite what I’ve written about other more significant factors in pupils’ learning, my experience in the classroom makes me believe that class size remains important. Smaller classes are certainly advantageous for teachers. Rather obviously, they produce less marking, which means teachers have more time to devote to planning, or indeed to themselves. More importantly, small classes help teachers to give quality feedback to their students. Feedback features near the top of Hattie’s list, and the smaller the class, the more one-to-one interactions that can take place between teacher and pupils. If a boy understands his strengths and weaknesses in any given subject, he can focus his attention on how to improve. I should stress that, for this reason, smaller class sizes still have a positive effect on learning – just not quite as much as we might think.

I am rather pleased that virtually all of the factors that contribute most to pupils’ progress, reflect the teacher’s ability. An excellent teacher will be much more successful with a large class than an average teacher with a much smaller group. As I have written previously, AI will not be making the teacher superfluous for a little while yet! One of the most stressful things that a school leader has to deal with is sudden long-term staff absence when a teacher is incapacitated for whatever reason. My experience in dealing with such a problem is that I would much prefer to solve it by creating a couple of larger classes with expert teachers than keeping class sizes low and appointing an untested supply teacher.

What therefore is my conclusion? What should prospective LGS parents ask when they visit the school? Class size is not insignificant to your sons’ academic progress, but why not ask instead about how we ensure that boys fulfil their potential?