§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the educational impact of class sizes of 41 or more. [94924]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisEvidence from Ofsted and others has shown that it is at Key Stage 1 that class size is most important, and that is why we have pledged to744W reduce the size of infant classes. Limiting the size of classes to 40 would have very little impact, whereas our pledge will ensure that all children benefit from infant classes of 30 or below. We are well on course to meet our pledge by September 2001 at the latest. More generally, the average size of classes taught by one teacher in all schools in England went down between January 1998 and January 1999, from 24.9 to 24.8.