I attended a Roman Catholic Parish school for First Grade. We had nearly fifty children in that class. The nun who taught our class was a lovely young woman and would tolerate no nonsense.
Class size has nothing to do with how well children learn.
My nephew attended a Roman Catholic Parish school where the teachers were all civilians and classes never exceeded thirty-two children.
I had to teach him to read phonetically. I had to teach him math. By the 6th grade he had failing grades. I took him out of the school and home taught him.
Within 28 months he was reading, writing, comprehending and doing math on a college entrance level. Turns out he has an IQ of 167. Some children should never be in an institution of learning. In our case, his mind was too busy and he learned better and quicker when alone.
Someone today who would be targeted as ADD with suggested drug intervention to make him acceptable for the classroom.
When I attended Catholic school in the early-mid 60’s we actually had class rooms which included one full class and half of another, i.e 4th grade and half the 5th with the other half of the 5th in with the 6th graders. We were short on teachers and money so you made do. We all got out of there with a good basic education.