Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the average size of primary school classes in (1) the United Kingdom, (2) the South West of England, and (3) Bristol, in every month since May 2010.

The average size of state-funded primary school classes in England in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 was 26.6, 26.8, 26.8 and 26.9 respectively. These figures are published in table 6c of the Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics: January 2014 statistical first release.[1] The Department for Education only holds this information for schools in England.

The average size of primary school classes in the South West in 2014 was 26.5. The figure for Bristol was 26.8. These figures were derived from underlying data in the statistical release referred to above.

Monthly figures are not available as the Department collects this data annually each January. Overall, primary school figures for Bristol or the South West are only available for 2014, as it would incur disproportionate cost to derive these figures for previous years. However, the 2011 figure is available in table 14a of the 2011 statistical first release.[2]

[1] www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335177/SFR15_2014_national_tables_v101.xlsx

[2] www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/219066/sfr12-2011latv2.xls