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The classroom layout or arrangement reflects the teaching style of the school, thecage level, and the available facilities. Many classrooms have very traditional arragements with the desks in straight rows facing the master's desk with a blackboard behind it. Almost all prep schools were like this through the 1950s. When we visited in the 1980s, this was still the most common arrangement. Other classrooms had more informal arrangements. Age was also a factor. The class set up for tounger children was often different thant that for older children. In the classes there was more likely to be more than one activity going on and small group work. This made more variablr arrangements necessary. The types of classrooms were also important. Some schools had purpose-built classrooms. These were most likely to be well apointed and roomy. Other schools used the rooms available in the mnnor house or main building. These rooms varied greatly in size. Some were quite small and thus made for very cramped classroom situations, even with the generally smaller class sizes prevalent in the prep schools.
The most obvious benefit a prep school offers is small class sizes. This varied from school to school, but virtually all prep schools offered smaller class sizes than the state schools. We rarely saw classes over about 20 children and many were smaller. This seemed especially the case of boarding schools. Virtually all academic studies of class size sustain the intutive assessment that children benefit from small classes. There are several reasons for this is of course that the teacher is able to devote more individual attention to each child.
A teacher in a small class had more time to deal one-on-one with each child. This is particularly beneficial for both ends of the ability curve. Probably the children that benefit most from more attention from the teacher are those children having difficulty with the material. And this is not always the same children in all classesses
Gifted children also benefit as the teacher has more time to develop specialized curriculum material to keep them engaged. Small group settings provide teachers the time to more carefully assess a student's problems, learning difficulties, or attention issues at avery early stage and consider appropriate action while the situation is still reversable. Once a child is turbned off school, the problem is much more difficult to reverse. The relations younger children have with their teachers can be critical. And small class settings are particularly effective in developing these relations. Small classes alone, of course, do not guarantee a quality education. There are many other factors: the comptence of the teacher, the size of the school itself, parental involvement, and others also affect the education outcome. But with the exception of the competence of the teaching, class size is probably the next most importnt factor. A great deal of academic research confirms this.
The classroom layout or arrangement reflects the teaching style of the school. Here there are differences from teacher to teacher at a school, but often there is a general approach adopted by a school, often reflecting the head master's outlook. Many classrooms have very traditional arragements with the desks in straight rows facing the master's desk with a blackboard behind it. Almost all prep schools were like this through the 1950s. When we visited in the 1980s, this was still the most common arrangement. Other classrooms had more informal arrangements. Some teachers wanted more immediacy in their contact with the children. Another factor of course is the type of class room. The form rooms for the younger children and some of the specialty classes could be quite different from the standard classrooms.
Age was also a factor. The class set up for younger children was often different than that for older children. In these classes there was more likely to be more than one activity going on and small group work. The younger children generally spent most of their class time in one room with a single teacher, occassionlly going to other rooms for specialized subjects. This made more variable arrangements necessary. The classrooms for older children were more likely to the formal arrangements with desks lined up facing the teachers desk and blackboards. The older children commonly wennt froom class to class during each period taking their subjects with specialust teachers rather than a single teaher during the day.
The types of classrooms were also important. Some schools had purpose-built classrooms. These were most likely to be well apointed and roomy. Other schools used the rooms available in the mnnor house or main building. These rooms varied greatly in size. Some were quite small and thus made for very cramped classroom situations, even with the generally smaller class sizes prevalent in the prep schools. Many prep schools began with just a mannor house. The more successful schools have gradually added additional buildings over time. Many schools, however, still use rooms in the main buildings for classroms.
There were of course specisalized classrooms for subjects like art, shop, art, amd music. Here the nature if the subject largely determined the classroom arrangements. Even here there were variatins, but less so than the standard classrooms.
