The High School Student News Site of The American School in London

The Standard

The High School Student News Site of The American School in London

The Standard

Student body increases

Sitting in the first assembly of the year, Kian Tadjbakhsh (’18) couldn’t help but notice the tight physical proximity to his peers. During the assembly, many students like Tadjbakhsh were even forced to line the stairway, filling the auditorium to its maximum capacity.

“When I entered the auditorium on the first day of school there were a [a lot more people than last year] especially in the hallways,” he said. “Before I could get past easily, but now I can’t.”

Riley Evans (’17) corroborated Tadjbakhsh’s observations, noting in particular that her band class is operating at its absolute maximum capacity. The class has some 10 additional students in comparison to last year, making it feel “smushed.”

Despite some students finding the High School to be more crowded, it has only grown by six students: 486 students in comparison to last years 480.

While the High School has grown marginally, the number of classes offered to students has also been reduced, resulting in marginally larger class size averages.

This increase in class size has occurred because “we had to free teachers up to be available for advisories,” Assistant Principal Karen Bonthrone explained.

The increase in class size has only been slight though, roughly one student, as estimates have the average class size at 14.3 in comparison to last years 13.5.

Three courses – World Civilization I, World Civilization II and English 10 – were deliberately decreased by one class in order to accommodate for advisories. Other courses that were removed, such as the Psychology elective course, were discontinued solely due to lack of student interest.

While Bonthrone acknowledged there has been a slight increase in class size, she doubts whether the impact is having any negative ramifications. “Overall teachers are now teaching less students. I know they have advisory but because they are teaching less students they may have more time for [themselves],” she said.

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