Stockport Labour Group have analysed figures showing how the number of infant pupils in oversized classes in Stockport has increased by over 200% since 2009-10.

The figures, published by the Department for Education, show that in the last year before the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government came to power there were 13 classes with 405 pupils at Key Stage 1 in the Borough with 30 or more other children. By the 2013-14 school year this number had spiralled to 39 classes and 1,225 pupils in Stockport, a rise of 202%.

Primary schools are being forced, in many instances, into having more mixed aged classes, employing additional staff, or changing the way in which the curriculum is delivered. Current regulations set a statutory limit of 30 pupils or less per class, but, as the new school year is about to start, funding cuts and an increasing population are meaning local primary schools in Stockport and elsewhere in the North-West are increasingly finding it difficult to cope with a rising demand for places.

1,225 pupils equates to almost one in seven of the total number at Key Stage 1 in oversized classes in Stockport, double the regional average of 6.8%.

Cllr Colin Foster, Labour’s Lifelong Learning and Achievement Spokesperson, said ‘over-sized classes damage the education which our children receive and make life for teachers, trying their best often under difficult circumstances, harder and harder each year. Every piece of academic research shows that it is the early years which are the most formative in the development of our children, and the Government need to grip this problem to ensure that every child gets the best education possible.’

There are a number of permitted exceptions which can mean that pupils are admitted even though 30 children or more have already been enrolled to a particular class. In 2013-14 the majority of such exceptions were either children being admitted after an independent appeals panel upheld an appeal, or when children moved into an area outside the normal admissions round for whom there was no other available school within a reasonable distance.

Cllr Laura Booth said ‘if the trends during the last five years continued for a further five years, this problem will affect almost two in every five primary pupils in Stockport by 2019, which will be to the detriment of our children’s education.

‘For those affected by oversized classes it is already too late. The Labour Group in Stockport has been warning the Council about this for more than 2 years, and, with no Government funding for school building after 2016, the situation may get worse before it gets better.’