Today's lesson is on team teaching with up to 50 pupils in a classroom

TEAM teaching will be used in 14 classes this year, while four of them "may have" more than 40 pupils, education bosses admitted today.

Sciennes, South Morningside, Towerbank and Trinity primaries - which are among the city's most popular and overcrowded schools - face having large classes containing a maximum of 50 children.

Team teaching - where two teachers use the same classroom to teach separate classes - and its benefits split opinion amongst parents and education experts.

The rise in team teaching classes in Edinburgh comes as new Scottish Government legislation is introduced in August, which will reduce P1 class sizes from 30 to 25, putting extra accommodation pressures on schools.

Education bosses defend the use of team teaching, saying it can lead to "effective teaching and learning".

However, others believe the decision to use the approach is based solely on financial reasons and accommodation pressures and is not about improving education.

Paul Jeffrey, chair of Trinity Primary's parent council, is calling on the council to employ an extra teacher at the school to avoid P1 pupils being taught in a classroom of up to 49 pupils.

Because of the new legislation, Mr Jeffrey argues that the council also had a hand in "creating" the situation which the school finds itself in as a result of its schools closure programme, which saw pupils from the nearby axed Fort Primary transferred to Trinity.

He said: "I believe the council is using team teaching as a means to address the challenges they have from a structural and cost-savings perspective rather than it being for the benefit of the pupils and the teachers.

"This is a situation made by the council who said during the (Fort closure] consultation that Trinity would not be adversely impacted by the inclusion of extra pupils from Fort.

"Ask any parent if 'adversely impacted' means that we have a P1 class of up to 49 pupils and you would get a resounding 'yes'. If the council thinks the children are not going to suffer from this, we would argue that they are damn well wrong."

Councillor Paul Godzik, Labour's education spokesman, has criticised the council for "letting down" parents.

He said: "Parents are given a commitment of classes of 25 so that's exactly what they expect - one class of 25 children.

"I don't think that cramming over 40 children into a single class is an acceptable way forward and I am sure that many parents will feel let down."

Education bosses argue, however, that team teaching is an approach which works well and has already been used in several city schools.

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, the city's education leader, said: "Team teaching has operated successfully in many of our schools for a number of years and although a class may well be larger the ratio of teachers to pupils is much lower which means pupils benefit from the skills of more than one teacher.

"Having observed team teaching in practice I know it can lead to really effective teaching and learning and the shared experience can benefit both staff and pupils."