The night passed rapidly. I was too tired even to dream; I only once awoke to hear the wind rave in furious gusts, and the rain fall in torrents, and to be sensible that Miss Miller had taken her place by my side. When I again unclosed my eyes, a loud bell was ringing; the girls were up and dressing; day had not yet begun to dawn, and a rushlight or two burned in the room. I too rose reluctantly; it was bitter cold, and I dressed as well as I could for shivering, and washed when there was a basin at liberty, which did not occur soon, as there was but one basin to six girls, on the stands down the middle of the room. Again the bell rang; all formed in file, two and two, and in that order descended the stairs and entered the cold and dimly lit school-room; here prayers were read by Miss Miller; afterwards she called out:

"Form classes!"

A great tumult succeeded for some minutes, during which Miss Miller repeatedly exclaimed, "Silence!" and "Order!" When it subsided, I saw them all drawn up in four semi-circles, before four chairs, placed at the four tables; all held books in their hands, and a great book, like a Bible, lay on each table, before the vacant seat. A pause of some seconds succeeded, filled up by the low, vague hum of numbers; Miss Miller walked from class to class, hushing this indefinite sound.

A distant bell tinkled. Immediately three ladies entered the room, each walked to a table and took her seat; Miss Miller assumed the fourth vacant chair, which was that nearest the door, and around which the smallest of the children were assembled; to this inferior class I was called, and placed at the bottom of it.

（出自《简爱》第三章，不同版本可能存在部分差异，大致是简爱来到学校的那一部分）

请问老师这一段落中的 form classes是什么意思？尝试使用百度搜索，但是搜出来的大多是编程语言。手头没有权威的翻译版本可以对照，只有一本小出版社翻译的版本（简·爱/（英）勃朗特（Bronte,C.）著;付悦译.—南昌：百花洲文艺出版社，2013.10（2015.5重印）），里面翻译成“分班”，但是联系上下文，有“form the classes again”，这应该是说不通的，那么这个词组到底是什么意思呢？请老师指教。