Team effort to improve teacher-pupil ratios

Published on Saturday 29 September 2007 12:38

EDUCATION chiefs are planning to use team-teaching to try to improve teacher-pupil ratios.

West Lothian Council admits it will not be able to meet the Scottish Government's aim of having a maximum of 18 children in P1-P3 in all schools in the immediate future.

However, it plans to introduce them where possible - particularly in deprived areas - and to try to reduce pupil-teacher ratios.

West Lothian education leader Andrew Miller said he had already held talks with Scottish Education Minister Fiona Hyslop.

He said: "In some schools we can reduce class sizes to 18. In others we would prefer to look at pupil-teacher ratio.

"We have championed the idea of team-teaching in our schools and we have recently commissioned a study so we can gauge our success. We are very confident in team-teaching and we see the benefit as increasing pupil- teacher time in the same way as lower class sizes would."

He added: "That is not a target for one year. As more money becomes available we will put that into further developing our ability to reduce class sizes. Our aim is to go for 18 but do it gradually."

Team-teaching involves more than one teacher in a classroom with pupils split into groups.