The Education (Infant Class Sizes) (Wales) Regulations 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations impose, for the purposes of section 1 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, a limit on class sizes for infant classes at schools in Wales.

The limit imposed is a maximum of 30 pupils in an infant class while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a single qualified teacher (or, where the session is conducted by more than one qualified teacher, a maximum of 30 pupils for every teacher). The limit will take effect as from the beginning of the 1999/2000 school year in relation to classes containing pupils the majority of whom will attain the age of five during the course of the school year, as from the beginning of the 2000/2001 school year in relation of classes containing pupils the majority of whom will attain the age of six during the course of the school year and as from the beginning of the 2001–2002 school year in relation to classes containing pupils the majority of whom will attain the ager of seven during the course of the school year (regulation 3).

However, where certain types of children (“excepted pupils”) cannot be provided with education at the school in another infant class in which the limit is not exceeded without measures being taken which would prejudice efficient education or the efficient use of resources, those children are not to be counted for the purposes of ascertaining whether or not the limit of 30 is exceeded (regulation 4 and the Schedule). The children are—

(a) children whose statements of special educational needs specify that they should be educated at the school concerned, and who are admitted to the school outside a normal admission round;

(b) children initially refused admission to a school, but subsequently offered a place outside a normal admission round by direction of an admission appeal panel, or because the person responsible for making the original decision recognises that an error was made in implementing the school’s admission arrangements;

(c) children who cannot gain a place at any other suitable school within a reasonable distance of their home because they move into the area outside a normal admission round;

(d) children for whom education at a school which is Welsh speaking is desired where the school concerned is the only such school within a reasonable distance of their home;

(e) children who are registered pupils at special schools, but who receive part of their education at a mainstream school; and

(f) children with special educational needs who are normally educated in a special unit in a mainstream school, but who receive part of their lessons in a non-special class.

(Children in categories (a) to (d) will be treated as excepted pupils only during the school year in which they are first admitted to the school. Children in category (e) and (f) will be treated as excepted pupils only when they are in an infant class at the mainstream school or outside the special unit (as the case may be).)