Commenting on the latest NFER blog to look at pupil projections, including a fall in primary pupil numbers, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The government must take the opportunity of a fall in pupil numbers to reduce the size of classes in English schools. Class sizes have grown substantially since 2010 and England now has more than one million pupils taught in classes over 30. We have the highest primary class sizes in Europe and the second highest secondary class sizes in Europe.
“Smaller classes would give pupils more access to their teachers, and this has a particularly big impact on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Since the pandemic, the gap in achievement between disadvantaged pupils and their more privileged peers has grown.
“Currently there is no mechanism to plan school places for a local area and Labour need to put this in place to ensure that we do not close far too many schools which will be needed when the birth rate increases again. The present system, with academies being able to take decisions on their own, is not rational or fair – and hinders the work of local authorities.”