Are these changes based on the need to justify a greater student : teacher ratio or on actual new educational research/ideology? I have 2 daughters at school, my airy fairy, creative one would be a mess in that environment. She's doing extremely well academically but it's with a low key classroom environment, small class size and a seat close to the teacher. My other one, DD7, is very autonomous and independent but she hates other children repetitively interrupting her work.
I went to school in NZ - I lived in an average sized city and there were probably 15 children in my class in the early years. These changes make me feel old!
You must have gone to school in one of the low student teacher ratio drives. There was one 10 years ago but now they are sure teacher quality is more important so class sizes are going up. In the 70's when I went to school 35 was the designated class size. Ds8 had 18 in the first year of school but ds6 had 24 in the same class with the same teacher. ds8 now has 29. I would like the idea better if it was multi age and people could work at their own level but ds8 is in a year 4 class and they are combining with a y3/4 composite which isn't much help. The teacher ratio stays the same so it isn't that. I really think the teachers think (or are required to pretend to think) that it can be done differently this time and will be great.
And yes it is a lot like the open office concept where everyone has to try and do work the requires concentration and privacy in the equivalent of an airport departures lounge. My firm belief is that most people find it stressful to some level and a very few thrive on it. I used to want to strangle the woman who had loud private conversations while I was trying to check payment runs.
