The government has come under renewed pressure to raise the limit on infant class sizes after a councillor revealed that his local authority had spent £274,000 hiring extra teachers to keep their classes below the legal threshold.
Sefton council on Merseyside spent the money on extra teachers for just eight extra pupils over the past two years.
A baby boom has put intense pressure on primary schools – government figures show that more than 450,000 extra primary pupils will need places in England by 2015.
Labour legislated to limit class sizes for five- to seven-year olds to 30 pupils in 1998, but councils in London recently circulated a document which says this limit should be raised to allow up to 32 children in a class.
In Sefton, the council spent more than a quarter of a million pounds so that classes with 31 pupils could have two teachers.
Liberal Democrat councillor Simon Shaw, who drew attention to the figures published in a council report, said: "The problem is that the '30' class size limit for infant classes is completely rigid. Surely, a bit of flexibility could be introduced? [The money] has come from taking money from the education of every other primary school pupil in the borough."
Sefton council is a "hung" authority in which Labour is the biggest party and the Liberal Democrats the second biggest.
Shaw said: "Surely a common-sense solution is to change the law so that schools have the flexibility to go up to 32 children in an infant class, if they wish, but only so long as they have a qualified, full-time teaching assistant as well as a teacher."
The councillor said he intended to lobby government over class sizes through his MP, John Pugh, the Liberal Democrat MP for Southport.
Liberal Democrat-controlled Sutton council has contacted other local authorities in London to ask for support in an attempt to change the law restricting class sizes for the youngest children to 30.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said the government's position on class sizes was unchanged. In a statement last week, it said: "The law remains clear that it is illegal for infant classes to exceed 30 pupils – no parent would want their child taught in a huge class.
"We're dealing with the impact of soaring birth rates on primary schools – doubling targeted investment at areas facing the greatest pressure on numbers to over £4bn in the next four years. We are building free schools in areas where there are place shortages and letting good schools expand without limits to meet demand from parents."
A spokesman for Sefton council said: "The rules relating to infant class sizes are part of national legislation and affect schools in all local authority areas."
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11 January 2012 8:06PM
The last time the tories were in power they claimed class sizes were irrelevent to good teaching. We had a constant stream of heads on the media claiming that vast numbers of children could be taught in assembly type lessons.
The tories are back and already people are wanting to cut costs by increasing class sizes.................. despite Gove prainig of the private sector and its small class sizes!
11 January 2012 9:16PM
er bit rich proposing to increase class sizes in the maintained schools when the new darling FREE primary school typically pledge class sizes of 20 ?????
Take Canary Wharf College . Now consider that Tower Hamlets Primary Schools average 28 kids/class BUT the new Free CWC has a single form entry of only 20 for not just KS1 but KS2 ( when the current 30 max can be legally exceeded) .
It is important to note that new Free Primary Schools get a lump sum of £95K /annum before the per pupil funding kicks in irrespective of size ( so the smaller the better really) .[ refer D of E ready reckoner}. Secondary schools do not which may go some way to explaining why there are more parent-led Free Primary schools than secondaries.
A angst ridden parent aghast at the thought of their child mouldering in a 30+ KS1 class could do no better than start their own free school . A big bonus is that if the key founding parent is a teacher they can instantly elevate themselves to well-paid Principal/head teacher of a small intake school irrespective of the fact of whether they are actually competent. Foundign a Free school is an ideal option for someone who aspires to head teacher status but doesn't fancy the workload.
NO headaches re proving demand ( remember you don't have to actually MEET it) just canvas local parents from 3 or 4 of the local primaries if they'd like a school with smaller class sizes , let them think they're in with a chance of a place and job's done .
As the CWC Admissions Policy shows MR GOve feels its perfectly OK to put founders children as second priority after looked after children . YOU can even vaguely qualify what a founder entails ....[ "some one who has provided support or advice during the procurement process" ] .
Best of all don't worry about the headache of site identification and development..the Dept for Education have a retained Consultant to do all that for you .
11 January 2012 9:17PM
Next thing you know, they'll be desperate to raise class sizes to 40+ I realise that years ago classes of this size were the norm, but I really don't think it's a good idea for the youngest children. The curriculum for children of reception age needs to be centred around opportunities for play, and it just would not be possible to adequately supervise that if large class sizes were permitted. There are also lots of qualified teachers out there who are currently unemployed (or stuck doing odd days of supply) and are desperate to work in the profession for which they were trained.
11 January 2012 9:27PM
Sefton council on Merseyside spent the money on extra teachers for just eight extra pupils over the past two years."
A critical aspect of this proposal is for Sefton Council to publish how much KS 1 pupil attainment improved in the two years that the teacher to pupil ratio improved from 1 for 30 pupils to to 1 for 19 !!!
If it improved then the LIb Dems assertion that class sizes should be increased is absolutely indefensible ...
What Sefton needs is some ALPHA parent to decide to start up a free primary school to benefit their own children and take 20 pupils /form off its hands .
IN order to promote the Free School/parent choice Mr Gove will eagerly pay all capital costs of the new school rather pay the smaller bill of enlarging classroom provision.
LIB Dems.... have a word with yourselves !!!
11 January 2012 9:37PM
hmm do you think this would be happening in a ward that isn't dominated by Labour ??
11 January 2012 9:41PM
Of course. Let's have bigger classes, just like the err.... private schools?
As usual with Tories it's a case of 'we're alright, fuck the ordinary people' . They haven't got a clue other then divide and rule and making sure their ilk have all the advantages.
11 January 2012 9:45PM
I should say that I realise Sefton council is not Tory but it's the result of funding cuts that the Tories impose, mainly for ideological reasons.
11 January 2012 9:57PM
im old enough to remember the outcry class sizes caused in the 80's nand 90's. and the governmt of the time fought tooth and nail to keep the level as high as it is. so why now is it suddenly ok for our children to have to go back in time and have class sizes of 35-40 kids crammed into small classrooms, that are barely bigg enough now to cope. it just that this is a downward spiral for this country. the cycle is becoming complete again. poor at fault and the needy shouldnt nedd so much. when they gona pass th e ole poor laws then
12 January 2012 2:09AM
Where are these 'norms' coming from anyway?
Surely we can just pile 'em high? Who says we should stop at thirty-five?
What's wrong with forty-five?
Perhaps if we had a suitable child management technology (incorporating the latest developmets in dynamic physical restriction developments) we could bring child density to even higher levels.
I'm sure that our friends in the poultry breeding industry have much to teach us here...
12 January 2012 3:07AM
Thinking back to my school years, class size was the most notable impact i remember.
Classes of 20-25 were about the most you could conceivably get away with, even then the teacher would likely fail to handle the class if there were more than a few disruptive children present.
Once you head nearer classes of ~30 you might as well give up teaching, it became basically crowd control and little else.
6th form was a real eye-opener, was lucky with the timetables and ended up with a few classes to 10-15 in size... The difference in teaching quality possible was immense