HC Deb 15 January 2002 vol 378 cc220-1W
Mr. Randall

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools within the Hillingdon local education authority had 30 or more pupils in a class in(a) September 2001 and (b) January 2002. [26925]

Mr. Timms

The September class size count in 2001 showed there were 23 schools within the Hillingdon local education authority that had 30 pupils in infant classes with one teacher and one school that had 31 or more pupils in infant classes with one teacher. This data collection only gathers information on infant classes.

For January 2001 there were 48 primary schools within the Hillingdon local education authority that had 30 pupils in a class and 35 primary schools that had 31 or more pupils in a class. The corresponding figures for secondary schools are 14 schools with 30 pupils in a class and 10 schools with 31 or more pupils in a class.

Data on class sizes for all age groups will be collected by the Annual Schools' Census on 17 January 2002, and will be available in the spring.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many primary school children in England and Wales are being taught in classes of over 35. [23412]

John Healey

The number of pupils in maintained primary schools in classes of over 35 taught by one teacher as at January 2001 was 93,950 (2.3 per cent.) of all pupils. This compares with 165,672 pupils (4.1 per cent.) in 1998. Average class sizes have fallen from 27.7 in 1998 to 26.7 by January 2001.

As a result of our infant class size pledge, only 8,000 infant pupils (0.5 per cent.) were in classes of 31 or more in September 2001 compared with 485,000 (22 per cent.) in January 1998.

For information on class sizes for schools in Wales, I refer the hon. Member to the National Assembly for Wales.