Primary school pupil numbers soaring
BBC News | Education | Sean Coughlan | 11 June 2015
The primary school population in England has continued to rise sharply, with 94,000 extra pupils this year, reaching the highest levels since the 1970s.
The 2.1% increase in primary numbers is equivalent to six more pupils for every school.
“Minority ethnic pupils made up 71% of the increase,” says the Department for Education’s school census report.
The annual figures show there are now more super-sized primary schools.
It will mean more funding demands to create extra places and pressure on places for families looking for schools.
There are now 87 primary schools with more than 800 pupils, up from 77 in 2014 and 58 in 2013.
The number of infants in classes above the limit of 30 pupils has increased again – with 100,800 pupils in these over-sized classes, an increase of 8% compared with 2014.
The number has more than doubled since 2012, when there were about 47,000 infants in classes of more than 30. In 2008, the figure was fewer than 25,000.
