A West Country teacher can have up to 64 pupils in one class and says urgent change is needed.
Head of maths at Gloucester's Henley Bank High School, Wayne Partridge took part in the sixth National Education Union (NEU) since February as he said he struggles to give his very large class "a really good education".
Mr Partridge told the BBC that he felt he was unable to give the pupils in his class one-to-one attention due to there being so many of them. He added he "felt bad" for his pupils as he claimed the Brockworth school did not have enough funds to hire another teacher. reports Gloucestershire Live.
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It comes after the Department for Education (DfE) promised "significant additional funding" as part of the "extra £2bn investment" for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. Mr Partridge told the BBC: "It's really difficult for me, because we still want them to get a really good education,"
"They still get taught well, but as a person responsible for their education I'm not able to do the best job that I can," the teacher added.
Whilst there are restrictions on class sizes for younger children, the same guidelines do not exist for secondary schools. In primary schools, children aged five to seven are required to be taught in a class of 30 or fewer.
The DfE said that the average class size for secondary school pupils was currently 22.4 pupils, although research carried out in 2022 found that 75% of teachers said class sizes were growing. Another NEU strike is due to take place tomorrow, July 7, after teachers rejected a pay offer in April.
Daisy Carter, another maths teacher at Henley Bank, said that teaching staff were not just striking over pay, claiming that classes are getting bigger and trips are getting cut. The teacher also claimed that a group of teachers were not paid for taking pupils on a recent Duke of Edinburgh Award trip.
Ms Carter, who told the BBC that she makes £28,000 a year, added: "Parents and the public understand the need for school funding and they absolutely support us. We cannot take another pay cut. The salaries for teachers are much less than they have been in the past. It's insufficient for the work we do."
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A spokesperson for Henley Bank told the BBC: "All students in our school are receiving extremely high quality lessons delivered by subject specialists."
A DfE spokesperson added that upcoming funding would take school funding "its highest level in history next year, as measured by the Institute for Fiscal Studies". "We hugely value the work of teachers," it said.
"The independent School Teachers' Review Body has submitted its recommendations to government on teacher pay for 2023/24. We will be considering the recommendations and will publish our response in the usual way."
