Pupil to teacher Ratios - Nursery and Pre-Prep

mulberrybush · Postby **mulberrybush** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:18 pm

Hi Everyone,

We're just deciding on schools for our children and like both Parkgate House and Eaton House. However I've just learned that the pupil to teacher ratio is quite high at Parkgate House - 1 teacher and 1 teaching assistant to 18 children in the Nursery.

I'm not sure what the ratio is when they reach pre-prep - but the Nursery ratio seems high - particularly given that it's both a private school and very small (only 200 children in total).

Does anyone have any thoughts, or any pupil/teacher ratios to compare for other schools and nurseries in the area?

Regarding Nursery, I had thought there was a rule about having at least 1 adult per 3-4 children .... Advice and thoughts from other parents would be greatly appreciated!

AbbevilleMummy · Postby **AbbevilleMummy** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:15 pm

I think that rule is regarding daycare nurseries as opposed to nursery schools.

nvmof3 · Postby **nvmof3** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:22 pm

Not sure what the rule is but at my child's nursery school (Noah's Ark) they have one teacher and one assistant for eight children for the youngest children (ie the ones who don't start reception until 2012) and one teacher to eight children for the older ones (ie the ones starting reception next September). I'm surprised that it is not a better ratio at Parkgate - are you sure?

AbbevilleMummy · Postby **AbbevilleMummy** » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:41 pm

Follow this link for the legal guidlines on staff/children ratios depending on where the child is:

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcs ... node/84521

mulberrybush · Postby **mulberrybush** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:19 am

Thank you for the link AbbevilleM ... it seems the requirement is only one teacher per 13 children at age 3 and above.

I'd still be interested to see some local comparisons. Are there any Mums with children at nursery age attending Eaton House, Marmalade Cat, DCPS, DUCKS etc? ...

mulberrybush · Postby **mulberrybush** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 8:39 pm

Thanks Nichat - good to get some comparisons ... anyone else out there care to offer the ratios for their child's nursery or prep school?

ready2pop · Postby **ready2pop** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:48 pm

My son is at Marmalade Caterpillar. The number of children per session varies but I think the maximum for his age group is 8 kids with one teacher and one assistant.