HC Deb 04 November 1999 vol 337 cc316-21W
Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his letter of 27 October to the hon. Member for Hertsmere on infant class sizes, if he will give a breakdown of the 1,600 new classrooms to which he refers(a) by type of school and (b) by local education authority. [96918]

Ms Estelle Morris

To date, over 1,700 extra classrooms have been provided through the class sizes initiative. These are detailed by both local education authority and type of school in the following table. Sufficient funding has been earmarked to allow at least 800 further classrooms to be built by September 2001, when statutory limits on infant class sizes are introduced.

Key stage 1 classrooms provided under the class sizes initiative by local education authority and type of school
KSI classrooms provided by type of school
Local education authority County/Community Voluntary controlled Voluntary aided GM/Foundation Total
Bury 9 3 7 4 23
Calderdale 1 1
Cambridgeshire 14 4 3 21
Camden 1 1
Cheshire 20 5 1 26
City of London 0
Cornwall 9 4 13
Coventry 4 3 7
Croydon 3 1 4
Cumbria 6 2 8 4 20
Darlington 3 1 4 8
Derby 14 2 16
Derbyshire 35 10 5 1 51
Devon 13 1 3 17
Doncaster 2 2 4
Dorset 2 5 6 13
Dudley 9 2 11
Durham 8 2 10
Ealing 9 9
East Riding of Yorkshire 7 7 1 15
East Sussex 9 3 12
Enfield 6 5 11
Essex 10 4 7 5 26
Gateshead 2 2
Gloucestershire 4 2 3 3 12
Greenwich 1 1
Hackney 0
Halton 1 1 2
Hammersmith and Fulham 0
Hampshire 14 2 4 1 21
Haringey 0
Harrow 0
Hartlepool 4 4
Havering 3 1 4
Herefordshire 9 9
Hertfordshire 7 4 2 1 14
Hillingdon 24 4 28
Hounslow 4 2 6
Isle of Wight 2 1 3
Isles of Scilly 0
Islington 0
Kensington and Chelsea 0
Kent 12 2 9 22
Kingston upon Hull 6 1 7
Kingston upon Thames 12 14 26
Kirklees 13 2 2 17
Knowsley 6 1 7
Lambeth 3 2 5
Lancashire 47 1 42 1 91
Leeds 10 2 12
Leicester City 10 1 4 15
Leicestershire 12 4 16
Lewisham 0
Lincolnshire 6 6 1 13
Liverpool 1 3 4
Luton 9 2 11
Manchester 1 1 2
Medway Towns 6 1 7
Merton 18 9 27
Middlesbrough 1 1
Milton Keynes 4 2 6
Newcastle upon Tyne 6 3 9
Newham 12 1 1 14
Norfolk 18 1 1 20
North East Lincolnshire 8 2 10
North Lincolnshire 5 1 1 7
North Somerset 4 4
North Tyneside 9 1 10
North Yorkshire 18 5 3 26
Northamptonshire 13 1 1 1 16
Northumberland 8 5 13
Nottingham City 7 2 9

Key stage 1 classrooms provided under the class sizes initiative by local education authority and type of school
KSI classrooms provided by type of school
Local education authority County/Community Voluntary controlled Voluntary aided GM/Foundation Total
Nottinghamshire 37 4 5 46
Oldham 13 2 14 29
Oxfordshire 12 8 9 29
Peterborough 5 1 1 7
Plymouth 0
Poole 7 2 9
Portsmouth 2 2 4
Reading 2 3 5
Redbridge 10 1 11
Redcar and Cleveland 7 1 8
Richmond upon Thames 14 5 19
Rochdale 5 4 6 6 21
Rotherham 7 7 14
Rutland 1 1
Salford 4 1 1 6
Sandwell 14 3 2 19
Sefton 8 2 3 13
Sheffield 2 1 3
Shropshire 6 3 10
Slough 8 8
Solihull 14 1 20 35
Somerset 9 6 2 17
South Gloucestershire 17 5 1 23
South Tyneside 0
Southampton 2 2 4
Southend on Sea 5 5
Southwark 2 1 3
St. Helens 8 3 11
Staffordshire 11 1 13
Stockport 14 5 4 23
Stockton on Tees 5 1 1 7
Stoke on Trent 15 6 21
Suffolk 8 3 11
Sunderland 2 2
Surrey 6 6 12
Sutton 7 2 10
Swindon 7 7
Tameside 4 4 9
Telford and Wrekin 2 2 5
Thurrock 5 1 6
Torbay 6 3 9
Tower Hamlets 0
Trafford 6 7 13
Wakefield 12 4 17
Walsall 7 3 2 1 13
Waltham Forest 3 3
Wandsworth 4 1 5
Warrington 7 8 15
Warwickshire 4 3 2 9
West Berkshire 3 2 4 1 10
West Sussex 9 6 4 19
Westminster 0
Wigan 6 21 27
Wiltshire 12 7 4 23
Windsor and Maidenhead 2 2 4
Wirral 12 1 4 17
Wokingham 8 2 3 13
Wolverhampton 15 3 18
Worcestershire 7 3 4 14
York, City of 2 1 1 4
Total 1,075 166 434 44 1,718

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his letter of 27 October to the hon. Member for Hertsmere, what estimate he has made of the number of pupils(a) at Key Stage 2 in primary schools and (b) in secondary schools who will be in classes of over 30 pupils in September 2001. [96919]

Ms Estelle Morris

We have made no such estimates. However, the most recent figures show that the proportion of Key Stage 2 children in classes over 30 fell by 1 per cent. between January 1998 and January 1999. This contrasts with an annual rise every year from January 1996 to January 1998. There was also a year-on-year increase in primary class sizes from 1988 to 1998 as a result of the budgets of the previous administration. The average number of pupils in Key Stage 2 classes in January 1999 was 28.4. The average number of pupils in secondary classes in January 1999 was 21.9.

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his letter of 27 October to the hon. Member for Hertsmere on infant class sizes, how many new classrooms have been provided in(a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in each year for the last 10 years and how many it is planned to provide in each year that has so far been planned for. [96917]

Ms Estelle Morris

Funding has so far been allocated in support of the Key Stage 1 Class Size Initiative to enable Local Education Authorities to provide over 1,600 more classrooms. Information more generally is not collected centrally.

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his letter of 27 October to the hon. Member for Hertsmere on infant class sizes, (1) how many secondary school pupils were in classes of over 30 in(a) January 1998, (b) January 1999 and (c) September 1999; [96772]

(2) how many pupils aged 8, 9 and 10 years were in classes of over 30 in (a) January 1998, (b) January 1999 and (c) September 1999; [96773]

(3) how many children in nursery classes were in classes of over 30 in (a) January 1998, (b) January 1999 and (c) September 1999. [96887]

Ms Estelle Morris

The available information is shown in the following tables.

Number of pupils in classes of over 30 pupils taught by one teacher
January 1999 September 19991 January 1998
Nursery Classes2 47,227 4 47,579
Key Stage 1 356,586 181,000 485,311
Key Stage 23 835,257 4 832,668
Total Primary 1,278,607 4 1,411,366
1 This figure includes an estimate of the number of pupils entering later in the autumn term under staggered entry arrangements and for pupils from missing schools
2 Nursery classes normally include at least one extra adult in the classroom
3 The proportion of pupils in KS2 classes over 30 fell from 40 per cent. to 39 per cent. between January 1998 and January 1999
4 Not applicable

January 1999 January 1998
Total Primary 1,278,607 1,411,366
Total Secondary 312,974 282,633
Total Primary and Secondary 1,591,581 1,693,999