Infant Class Sizes in the New Admissions Framework: A Devolution of Power

Abstract:     
It was one of the major planks of the Blair government's legislative programme that it would set a limit on school class sizes for the youngest children. Whilst the objective of reducing class sizes no doubt has much to recommend it from the point of view of raising educational standards, it is also inevitable that parental choice of school, already emasculated, will be limited even further. It is particularly likely to be borne out in practice wherever governing bodies and Head Teachers are insufficiently aware of the ramifications of all the other rules and regulations enacted alongside the '30 pupil' limit. Nevertheless, it will be argued in this essay that, if Head Teachers and governing bodies are prepared to persevere with the small print of the Act and the extraordinarily convoluted regulations and departmental Codes of Practice, circulars and guidance issued along with it, then there is a case for saying that the new infant class size limit can - when coupled with other changes in the law introduced by SSFA 1998 - sometimes be used as a tool both to increase the devolution of power down to individual schools and to improve parental choice.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: Law, Education, Admissions, England

Accepted Paper Series