The upper limit of Class sizes was reduced to 25 by The Education (Lower Primary Class Sizes) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010.
There is no policy in relation to siblings placement. Guidelines are that the following criteria are applicable: Medical grounds of child, Lone parent/carer, distance, suitability of particular teaching methods,Religious ethos and Siblings(brother/sister currently attending the school, however nowhere does it state that it is a high risk strategy to expect family members to be accepted into the same school.
A recruitment policy is necessary now to deliver the class size number 18 in August and to alleviate the issue of children being separated from families as they enter into their first year of education in Scotland.
As decisions to reject the placing requests has been based on the fact that councils would need to employ further teachers, then my answer is "do so."
There are 50 places in Primary One of Battlefield Primary in Glasgow, there are 7 siblings who have been rejected. This equates to three classes of 19 assuming there is no movement as the council is not in a position to come or go over the number 25.
Whether the appeal is successful or not, there are scores of parents in a similar situation across the city and the country. Class size capacity has been compressed in the local schools however now that the siblings come of age for school, suddenly the reality is that having a sibling as the reason for a placing request is a high risk strategy. Notwithstanding the fact that unless the average number 18 is delivered quickly, I myself have a 3 year old who is going to make me repeat the whole process in two years' time. 25% of probationer teachers were not employed into the profession last year. - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/920/0120759.PDF so the resource is available to employ further staff.
Scores of Scottish children face the prospect of being forced into schools away from siblings in North Glasgow, Lanarkshire across the South side of Glasgow. Tinto Primary, Mount Florida Primary, Merrylee and the following warning was given by the Scottish Children's Parent council: However, Eileen Prior, executive director of the SPTC, said there was no evidence 25 made a difference to teaching quality.
"We have long challenged the value of the Government's class size policy because there is little or no substantive research which demonstrates that reducing the number of children in a class to 25 will make any significant difference to outcomes for those children," she said.
"While most people would instinctively support the notion of a lower pupil to teacher ratio, the policy as it currently stands, makes little or no difference to the experience of most children – but it has had unintended consequences.
"Placing requests – particularly in the first year of primary – have been made increasingly difficult and this has been further exacerbated by the population growth we are experiencing."
Ms Prior said the situation could be confusing to parents who had siblings at the school or whose child attended the associated nursery.
Parents will be forced to move or quit jobs to cope with multiple addresses for delivery of children.
Contintuity cannot be guaranteed for holidays, in service days and parent nights across different schools in different regions, never mind the dangers of leaving 5 and 6 year olds alone in the playground in Winter darkness or broad daylight.
Continuity in Educaiton is is vital for learning as are the basic needs of feeling confident and emotionally stable which cannot be achieved if children are reduced to waiting alone in the playground for school to start. Support for homework which forms a large part of the education process will be diminished as parents struggle with the time management associated with displaced children.
The number of births registered in Scotland in 2008 was 60,041. There have been increases each year since 2002, and the total for 2008 was 2,260 (4 per cent) more than in 2007, and the highest number since 1995. Coupled with a class size reduction, this has led to the side effect of the volume of siblings being rejected from primary schools.
Dr Douglas McKenzie wrote in the Herald Glasgow about the evidence from both the UK and elsewhere that lower class sizes do improve educational outcomes for children, which is most marked in the early primary years (1-3) and how the size of the effect will be smaller at 25 than it would be at the better target level of 18 and may not be significant when compared to a class of over 30 (though there would be a marked difference between 20 and 18).