Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to take action against those infant and junior schools in England which exceed the statutory pupil numbers in their classes.

The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 limits the size of an infant class to 30 pupils per school teacher. There is no statutory limit for other primary school class sizes.

The average infant class contains 27.3 pupils, below the statutory limit for infant class sizes. The School Admissions Code lists categories of children eligible for admission as exceptions to the infant class size legislation. There are only eight such exceptions, including looked after children and children of multiple births. In the small number of cases where infant classes are above the limit, it is almost always as a result of admitting a child under a prescribed exception. The vast majority (96.7%) of infant classes with more than 30 pupils have only one or two additional pupils.

Where an infant class exceeds the limit and no exceptions apply, the local authority and the school, where it is its own admission authority, will be in breach of their legal duties. It is expected that most instances of unlawfully large classes can be resolved locally. However, where a school or local authority fails to carry out a duty imposed on them by the Education Acts, the Secretary of State has the power to direct a school to comply with the law.