Lambeth Teacher with Lambeth NUT

CLASS SIZES: KEY STAGE 1 CLASS SIZE LIMIT

Dear Colleague

This circular gives details of progress made towards implementation of the statutory class size limit for Key Stage 1 classes and of updated DfEE guidance on this area.

The Government’s legislation places a shared duty upon LEAs and school governing bodies to ensure, by September 2001, that classes containing Key Stage 1 pupils which are taught by one teacher are limited to a maximum of no more than 30 pupils; and that such classes taught by more than one teacher have no more than 30 pupils per teacher. At the time of writing, attention is being focused on progress towards implementation of this limit for two reasons: the admissions applications process is ongoing in primary schools; and the issue is likely to be raised in the forthcoming election since it was one of the Labour Party’s five “election pledges” in 1997.

Statistical Information

The most recent statistical information on progress towards the implementation of the Key Stage 1 class size limit, as at September 2000, showed that:

· some 30,000 children (2 per cent) were in Key Stage 1 classes of more than 30 pupils with one teacher as at September 2000, compared to 171,000 (11 per cent) as at September 1999 and 354,000 (22 per cent) as at September 1998;

· in addition to these, 35,200 children were in Key Stage 1 classes of more than 30 pupils with two or more teachers. The number of such children in groups with pupil teacher ratios greater than 1:30 is not given but is likely to be very small, if not zero;

· statistical data on the incidence of mixed age group classes at Key Stage 2 as at January 2000 suggests that the significant increase in mixed age classes which had been feared has not in fact materialised.

It should be noted that around half of the oversized classes at September 2000 contained only 31 pupils, one more than the statutory limit. The overwhelming majority of such cases were the result of the admission of a single pupil after the normal admission process had been completed. In many cases these will have resulted from admission appeals or errors made during the admissions process. Others will have resulted from children moving into the catchment area after the normal admissions round or receiving SEN statements requiring the child to be educated at that particular school.

DfEE Guidance on the Statutory Limit and on Admissions to Primary Schools

The DfEE has published revised guidance on the above area and has also published revised guidance on admissions to primary schools which takes account of the class size limit for Key Stage 1 classes.

The admissions guidance has been amended to place limits upon the circumstances in which appeals panels may uphold appeals where children are refused places on the basis that admissions would breach the Key Stage 1 class size limit. In such cases, appeals panels can offer a place to children only where:

the panel concludes that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case; or

the panel concludes that the child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had been properly implemented

Examples of possible such situations are given in the DfEE’s guidance.

Access to the DfEE Guidance

The DfEE’s revised general guidance on this area can be found on the DfEE website at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/infantclasssizes/ while its revised guidance on admissions appeals can be found at http://www.dfee.gov.uk/appeals/ch_2.htm