§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many school classes of five to seven-year-olds with over 30 pupils there were in Shrewsbury and Atcham in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [160508]
§ Ms Estelle Morris[holding answer 9 May 2001]: The available information is shown in the following table. Information on class sizes by parliamentary constituency is not available prior to 1997.
272W
Shrewsbury and Atcham parliamentary constituency Number of: Year Key stage 1 classes with 31 or more pupils Pupils in key stage classes of 31 or more 1997 20 648 1998 18 577 1999 9 285 2000 4 125 20011 0 0 1Provisional Note:
Classes taught by one teacher
The Government pledged to limit infant classes to 30. We have already delivered that pledge early for the vast majority of infants, including in the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency. This has been achieved with the help of substantial funding made available under the class size initiative—allocations to Shropshire LEA alone amount to some £3[...].5 million.