§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many appeals for admission to infant schools in the next academic year have been refused on the grounds that admission would breach the class size limit for five, six and seven-year-olds; and in how many cases the child had a sibling already in the school. [130696]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe Department does not hold this information. The admissions framework we have established aims to ensure that local admission arrangements accommodate parental preference wherever possible, but there have always been cases where this cannot be met. Our infant class size initiative, which is being pursued in such a way that popular schools are able to expand, enables more parents to obtain a place for their child at their preferred school. A net gain of 12,000 places at popular schools is being provided as a result of the policy.
We are well on course to deliver our pledge to limit infant classes to 30 pupils. £620 million is available to support the pledge, and allocations so far to Trafford LEA amount to some £2 million. This has helped to reduce the size of the average Key Stage 1 class in the Altrincham and Sale, West parliamentary constituency to 25.9. The figure in January 1997 was 29.6.