The Infant Class Size Legislation
1. The Legal Position
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 placed a duty on Local Authorities
and the governing bodies of maintained schools to limit the size of infant classes
(classes containing a majority of 5,6 or 7 year olds) to 30 pupils per 'qualified
teacher'.
The Education Act 2002 subsequently amended the School Standards and
Framework Act to limit the size of infant classes to 30 pupils per 'school teacher' (as
opposed to 'qualified teacher'). This simply updates the legislation to reflect the
different ways in which teaching staff can now enter the profession. 'School teachers'
do not include teaching assistants, higher level teaching assistants or other support
staff.
Support staff are able to carry out 'specified work', such as delivering lessons to
pupils within infant classes in certain circumstances. In each case:
The head teacher must be satisfied with the support staff's skills, expertise and
experience to carry out such work,
The work carried out must be in order to assist or support the work of a 'school
teacher',
S/he must be subject to the direction and supervision of a 'school teacher'.
In practice, this means that although a school with infant classes must have sufficient
school teachers to be able to teach its infants in groups of 30 or fewer per teacher,
support staff, providing they meet the above criteria, may 'teach' infant groups when
teachers are not available, eg when a teacher is away from their class on their
Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time. If a school were to use support
staff instead of teachers to lead its infant groups, either as a permanent arrangement
or for the majority of the school week on a regular basis, it would be in default of its
class size duty.
2. Excepted Pupils
There are certain situations where children are not to be counted for the purposes of
ascertaining whether or not the limit of 30 is exceeded. There are two main
categories of these excepted pupils.
The first category covers ‘pupils …admitted in unforeseen circumstances’. These are
defined as follows:
where a child moves into an area outside the normal admissions round and there
is no other suitable school within a reasonable distance
where a child receives a Statement outside the normal admissions round
where an extra place has to be offered because an error has been made in the
admissions process that leads to a pupil being refused a place incorrectly
where an appeal panel decides that an admission authority has made an error or
acted unreasonably in initially refusing to admit a pupil
In admitting such pupils, the size of a class is allowed to exceed 30 for the remainder
of the academic year, but in the following September such classes must be
reorganised to meet the class size limit.
The second category covers pupils admitted from SEN Units of Special Schools to
attend some lessons in mainstream schools. Classes can exceed 30 as long as this
excess is caused entirely by such pupils.
3. Infant Class Size and the School Admission Number
Most Primary School admission limits are set at multiples of 15 or 30 to help schools
keep infant class sizes at or below 30. Whilst this helps schools to manage the size
of their classes, it can mean that children who want a place at the school are turned
away even though, at least in theory, the space exists to accommodate them.
The following example illustrates the point. Every year the physical capacity of the
school is measured by the Local Authority and an indicated admission number is
calculated. This is a theoretical figure (based upon the physical space and usage of
the school building) which identifies how many children can be accommodated in the
building. A school might, for example, have an indicated admission number of 33.
In order to help the school meet the Infant Class Size legislation, however, the school
needs to be allowed to set the actual admission number at 30. Because this figure is
lower than the indicated admission number, the authority is required to publish a
statutory notice in the local press explaining why the admission number is lower than
the number of places in the school. The notice has to provide details of the right of
appeal that parents have to the local adjudicator.
In a case such as this, the explanation given in the notice would make reference to
the need to set an admission limit that can help the school meet infant class size
legislation.
Sometimes, schools request an admission limit that is not a multiple of 15 or 30.
There are many factors that are taken into account by the admissions authority during
the determination of admission limits, of which the infant class size legislation is just
one. Nevertheless, it is still important that schools are able to demonstrate to the
admissions authority that the requested limit will not detract from the school’s ability
to meet the legislation.
4. Mixed Age Classes
Because the number of children in each year group will usually vary from one year to
the next, it is sometimes only possible to keep infant class size under 30 by putting
children from different year groups together in the same class. Mixed age classes
are not uncommon throughout the country, especially in smaller schools, but the
move to mixed age classes in schools that have always managed to maintain discrete
year groups, can be controversial. As with any other major change, reorganisation
into mixed age group classes requires careful planning.
Curriculum Planning
When schools are planning a reorganisation of any sort, the impact on the curriculum
will be a prime consideration. Advice on planning and teaching mixed age groups
has been a focus for the Primary National Strategy and there is some useful support
material available. The renewal of the frameworks, currently being undertaken, will
also support schools with addressing the needs of a range of ability groups or year
groups. In the new documentation, learning objectives, arranged in strands, are set
out for each year group. The objectives clearly show the learning for a specific age
group linked to that of the year above and below. Learning and teaching in the
Foundation subjects often require a review of long-term plans when mixed age
groups are introduced. Any school requiring help with a review of their long term
planning should contact their Link Adviser for support in the first instance.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Headteachers and governors need to be aware of the short and longer-term impact of
any changes made to school organisation. Smaller or more consistent class sizes
throughout the school or key stage can have a very positive effect on standards and
pupil progress. Lesson Observation, work scrutiny and discussion with children about
their learning and attitudes to school are all effective tools for school self evaluation
and could be used to measure the impact on achievement and attainment in mixed
age classes.
Headteachers, as part of their ongoing discussions with the governing body about
standards, pupil progress and quality of provision will be able to share this information
with governors and use it as part of the evidence base for the OFSTED Self
Evaluation Form (SEF).
Communication with Parents and Carers
Reorganisation into mixed age group classes is often a cause for concern amongst
parents and carers. Parents and carers should be informed of any significant change
in schools reorganisation well in advance so that there is time for discussion with
individual parents where required.
Many schools have been successful in introducing mixed age classes and have
allayed the fears of parents and carers that younger children in the class will hinder
the progress of older pupils. Successful strategies have included regular newsletters
about curriculum provision and school organisation alongside opportunities, just
before the end of the first half term after the change has been made, for parents to
meet teachers, look at and discuss the work being undertaken and assess pupil
progress to date. Parents will be seeking reassurance that care has been taken in
ensuring appropriate differentiation, matched to pupil need, and that there has been
parity across year groups when organising specific activities (eg swimming).
5. Summary
When a school is under pressure to introduce mixed age classes because of falling
rolls or the impact of the infant class size legislation, it is not unusual for governors
and headteachers to feel some frustration that the organisation of the school is being
determined by financial pressures rather than educational principles. Unfortunately,
there is no escaping the hard reality that, like all other organisations, school have to
operate within the resources that are available to them. However, the school funding
formula does take account of the infant class size legislation in order to give schools
some additional support where the number of pupils in Reception and Key Stage 1 is
particularly inconvenient. An explanation of the formula is attached at Appendix 1.