More than 1,500 primary pupils in Yorkshire 'taught in classes of more than 40'

The party issued new figures as the deadline for applying for reception places in primary school arrived tonight.

It said 69,685 pupils in the region were being taught in primary classes of 31 or more pupils, an increase on the previous year.

There were also said to be more than 1,500 primary pupils in classes of more than 40 pupils and another 6,296 in classes of between 35 and 39 in Yorkshire.

Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell blamed the hike in class sizes on the Government’s focus on opening free schools at the expense of ensuring demand for places was being met.

But a Conservative Party spokesman said that 500,000 more school places had been created and accused the last Labour government of cutting funding by £150 million, scrapping almost 200,000 places.

Labour said that its analysis of official Government figures shows that: “Over half a million children are now in super-size classes in primary schools, as class sizes continue to rise.”

Overall, 520,445 children aged between five and 11 are being taught in classes of at least 31 pupils, the party said.

The row comes as the Local Government Association (LGA) warned today that councils must given powers to open new schools or force academies - which are not part of the local education authority - to expand.

There is a presumption from central Government that any new school wil be an academy or free school although councils can apply to run a competition appealing for sponsor to open one in an area where places are needed.

The LGA said that with parents having to apply for their child’s primary school place by midnight, councils fear without academies agreeing to increase capacity, that town halls’ ability to provide enough school places could be put at risk. The association said it is also concerned that councils may struggle to find free school sponsors to open schools in time within their areas. Coun Roy Perry, chairman of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “Councils have a statutory duty to ensure every child has a school place available to them but find themselves in the difficult position of not being able to ensure schools, including academies, expand. Finding suitable sponsors with the capacity to take on the running of a successful new school is also proving a challenge.”

The call was backed by authorities facing pressure on school places in Yorkshire.

Counc Lucinda Yeadon, Leeds City Council’ executive member for children and families said: “The systematic stripping of powers makes it very difficult for local authorities to plan school places and ensure that these places are where parents need them to be. We strongly believe that local authorities are best placed to identify the need for school places and although it is our responsibility to meet demand in the city, we have no power to open new schools. We are also facing a £67 million shortfall in money from the government to enable us to provide sufficient places in existing schools, which further compounds the issue.”

Coun Susan Hinchcliffe, Bradford Council’s executive member for Education, Skills and Culture, said: “I would back the call for the local authority to be given powers to build new schools. We’ve worked hard in Bradford to expand existing primary provision by more than 8,000 places in the past five years. However we need the equivalent of two new secondary schools in Bradford by 2018 and if we had the power to build our own schools without recourse to Government I would welcome that.”

On the issue of class sizes Labour added: “There are also over five times as many ‘titan’ primary schools - those with over 800 pupils - than there were in 2010.” These numbers have risen from 16 in January 2010 to 87 in 2015, the party calculated.

Over the same period, the numbers of infants (five to seven-year-olds) in classes of 31 or more has risen by 224 per cent, from 31,265 to 101,270.

A limit on infant school class sizes was introduced by Labour in the late 1990s, stating that no more than 30 youngsters should be in a class.

But under the rules, there are certain circumstances in which schools can legally waive the limit, and these have been extended in recent years, for example to allow classes to be made larger to take in twins, or the children of those serving in the armed forces.

Ms Powell said: “The Government’s obsession with free schools, at the expense of opening other types of school, has made it harder and harder to ensure there are enough school places everywhere.

“This approach is clearly not working for parents up and down the country, with the result that come national offer day, some families applying today will go straight on to a waiting list with no offer of any school place and soaring numbers of children will continue to be crammed into ever-expanding classes, as the only option left for many schools in many areas.

“The current system for planning new places is essentially broken.

“It is now time for the Tories to abandon their unjustified fixation with free schools, which are evidently not addressing the growing pressure on school places nor driving up standards, and once and for all, put the urgent need for sufficient good school places in every local area first.”

A Conservative spokesman said: “At the same time as pupil numbers were booming, the last Labour government cut funding for school places by £150 million, scrapping almost 200,000 places.

“So rather than trying to scare parents with misleading statistics, they should be backing the measures we’ve taken to clear up the mess they left behind.

“Under the Conservatives, funding for basic need has been doubled, creating 500,000 more school places.

“On top of that, because of the difficult decisions we’ve taken elsewhere, we’ll be able to invest £23 billion in school buildings over the course of this Parliament, creating hundreds of new schools.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We want every parent to have access to a good school place for their child. Despite rising pupil numbers, 95 per cent of parents received an offer at one of their top three preferred schools last year and the average infant class size has remained stable, any suggestion to the contrary is nonsense.

“The government doubled basic need funding for new school places to £5 billion between 2011 and 2015, helping create half a million new places since May 2010. This helped correct the decline of over 200,000 places between 2004 and 2010. We have also opened more than 250 free schools between 2010-15, with around three quarters opened in areas of need of more school places.

On class sizes he added: “Despite an increase in pupils numbers we have been able to keep the average infant class size the same at 27.4 and the number of unlawfully large infant classes actually has fallen – down 137 compared to 2009.”

And on the issue of councils planning ahead and academies expanding he added: “Councils are responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places in their area, and we expect them to plan effectively and make good investment decisions. This requires certainty, which is why funding is allocated three-and-a-half years in advance of places being needed – giving councils time to plan while still allowing the flexibility needed to make adjustments should local circumstances change.

“We would encourage councils to work with regional school commissioners, using their combined local knowledge, to identify top sponsors for new schools in their area, and are confident there is sufficient quantity of quality sponsors to meet demand. We encourage all good academies to grow, to help give every child the world-class education they deserve.”