HC Deb 10 June 1997 vol 295 cc364-6W
Mr. Colvin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish a list by local education authority of average class sizes for the primary school sector at the latest available date. [2699]

Mr. Byers

The information is shown in the following table.

Average size1 of classes taught by one teacher in maintained primary schools in each local education authority area in England
January 1996
Number
City of London 26.8
Camden 27.3
Greenwich 25.5
Hackney 26.1
Hammersmith 26.1
Islington 26.2
Kensington and Chelsea 24.4
Lambeth 24.6
Lewisham 25.7
Southwark 26.2
Tower Hamlets 25.8
Wandsworth 25.4
Westminster 24.9
Barking 26.7
Barnet 26.3
Bexley 28.6
Brent 26.7
Bromley 28.7
Croydon 28.3
Ealing 27.2
Enfield 28.5
Haringey 27.0
Harrow 27.8
Havering 27.9
Hillingdon 26.6
Hounslow 27.3
Kingston upon Thames 30.0
Merton 28.1
Newham 27.9
Redbridge 29.0
Richmond upon Thames 26.7
Sutton 27.3
Waltham Forest 26.4
Birmingham 27.8
Coventry 27.2
Dudley 26.9
Sandwell 28.6
Solihull 28.2
Walshall 26.0
Wolverhampton 26.5
Knowsley 27.6
Liverpool 26.8
St. Helens 27.5
Average size1 of classes taught by one teacher in maintained primary schools in each local education authority area in England
January 1996
Number
Sefton 27.5
Wirral 26.4
Bolton 28.5
Bury 28.3
Manchester 27.0
Oldham 28.6
Rochdale 29.2
Salford 27.4
Stockport 27.7
Tameside 29.3
Trafford 28.7
Wigan 28.2
Barnsley 28.2
Doncaster 28.2
Rothertham 26.9
Sheffield 26.8
Bradford 27.9
Calderdale 27.7
Kirklees 28.7
Leeds 28.1
Wakefield 28.0
Gateshead 25.9
Newcastle upon Tyne 27.7
North Tyneside 27.0
South Tyneside 26.8
Sunderland 25.6
Isles of Scilly 13.7
Avon 27.7
Bedfordshire 27.1
Berkshire 27.3
Buckinghamshire 27.8
Cambridgeshire 27.8
Cheshire 27.4
Cleveland 26.9
Cornwall 27.3
Cumbria 26.0
Derbyshire 28.9
Devon 27.2
Dorset 27.7
Durham 28.4
East Sussex 27.7
Essex 26.9
Gloucestershire 27.2
Hampshire 27.8
Hereford and Worcester 25.9
Hertfordshire 26.7
Humberside 27.9
Isle of Wight 26.9
Kent 27.7
Lancashire 28.4
Leicestershire 26.7
Lincolnshire 26.7
Norfolk 26.0
North Yorkshire 26.3
Northamptonshire 26.5
Northumberland 27.1
Nottinghamshire 28.3
Oxfordshire 26.8
Shropshire 27.3
Somerset 27.3
Staffordshire 27.7
Suffolk 25.1
Surrey 25.8
Warwickshire 27.9
West Sussex 26.8
Wiltshire 27.1
England 27.3
1 Average size of one teacher classes as taught during a single selected period on the census day.

Mr. Wilshire

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the average class size in each primary and secondary school, grant-maintained and local authority controlled, in the Spelthorne constituency on 31 March or the latest available date before that. [2566]

Mr. Byers

Information on class sizes for individual schools is not published centrally.

Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he expects the Form 7 figures to have been processed to provide class size information as at January 1997; and if he will make a statement. [3033]

Mr. Byers

Provisional figures on class sizes in maintained primary and secondary schools as at January 1997 are expected to be published in a Statistical Press Notice at the end of this month.

Mr. Colvin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish the evidence he has received which suggests that small class sizes deliver better educational standards; and if he will make a statement. [2698]

Mr. Byers

The electorate have already signalled their support for our policy to bring the educational benefits of smaller classes to all infant pupils, rather than just the few whose parents have paid for smaller classes in the independent sector. Common sense and research evidence here and notably in the United States indicate that class size is a key factor in the early years of education when pupils master the basics. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector has said in the Ofsted report on class size (1995)small class sizes are of benefit in the early years of primary education.

Mr. Colvin

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if the undertaking given by the Minister for School Standards on 22 May,Official Report, column 824, that the new Education (Schools) Bill will lead to a reduction in class size for every five, six and seven-year-old in the country applies irrespective of the current size of class of which a child is a member. [2704]

Mr. Byers

Our pledge is to reduce class sizes for all five, six and seven-year-olds to 30 or below by the end of this Parliament.