The Comparative Angle: Does Size Really Matter? It depends…

By Dewi Knight

Whether you think small is beautiful. Or the bigger the better. We know that size matters, right?

Well, wrong actually. Especially when it comes to smaller class sizes in schools. You might think it’s self-evident that the smaller the class size, the better it would be for pupils, teachers, attainment and wellbeing.

Back on the agenda

Instead, it’s a policy that provokes disagreements almost unlike any other education reform. And it’s back on the agenda, thanks to John Swinney.

In a speech last week on eradicating child poverty (and more on this topic in a future The Comparative Angle), the Scottish First Minster said he wants “children in our most disadvantaged communities to have the same opportunities – after school clubs, personal tuition, smaller class sizes – that are enjoyed by pupils in our most advantaged communities.”

Reducing class sizes has been criticised as a “red herring” and a policy with “low impact”.

But it’s not just Scotland that’s taking a different view. The new draft programme for government by the coalition Irish administration “aims to reduce the pupil teacher ratio” and target schools with “very large classes”.

Lessons learned.

When I started as the education reform adviser to the Welsh Education Secretary in 2016, we faced similar criticism for wanting to reduce class sizes.

However, Kirsty Williams was willing to look at the evidence. We noted that the criticism and evidence focused on the opportunity cost of not delivering other policies, particularly if class size reduction was attempted as a wholescale national project.

Therefore, we looked at developments in the US, Canada and the work of Professor Peter Blatchford. Through this, we designed and delivered a more targeted reducing class sizes policy.

Those most likely to benefit.

We made money available to recruit more teachers, teaching assistants and to invest in buildings. And targeted it at those schools in disadvantaged communities, that had been underperforming, and at the pupils most likely to benefit (younger and/or with additional learning needs).

In that pre-pandemic period, it was making a difference. I’m confident that we’d used the scepticism of the education establishment in a positive way.

We developed a policy that contributed to core aims on raising standards and reducing the attainment gap, rather than pursuing a wide but shallow national approach.

Small can be beautiful.

I welcome Mr Swinney’s perspective that smaller class sizes can contribute to reducing child poverty-related attainment.

I hope that he and the Scottish Government will continue to see it in this way. And work to target any policy and funding resources at those children and schools most likely to benefit from a reduction in class sizes.

It doesn’t need to be a big and fully national policy. Targeted and smaller policies can be equally beautiful, and effective.

The Comparative Angle is a new, free, and regular blog from PolicyWISE which looks at issues from a cross-nation and comparative perspective.

It complements our monthly newsletter, Wise in 5 briefings, and ongoing research, providing a Comparative Angle on topical issues.

In each edition, we will look at a particular policy issue or challenge and provide short sharp commentary on it from a genuine pan-UK and Ireland perspective.

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