23,000 infants in classes of 31+

Thousands of children in England are still being taught in illegally oversized classes, according to government figures published this month.

The law says that Key Stage 1 pupils must be taught in classes no bigger than 30. But more than 23,000 KS1 children were being taught in classes with over 30 pupils in January this year.

Of these, 18,930 were in classes with "exempted" status. This means the class size has grown above 30 because a child has been admitted after the start of term for good reason - for example that there was no other place for them within a reasonable distance.

The remaining 4,280 children, were being taught in in 130 illegally oversized classes.

The average class size was 25.6 for Key Stage 1 and 27.2 for Key Stage 2,, and has changed little since 2004.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under fire over the figures from teachers’ representatives, in the light of his policy of personalised learning.

General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Steve Sinnott, said: “How can you deliver personalised learning in large classes?

“Those parents who chose to send their children to independent schools understand the value of smaller class sizes.”

The number of children in primary schools whose first language is not English increased by one percent to 13.5%.

Schools and Pupils in England January 2007