These Regulations amend the Education (Infant Class Sizes) (Wales) Regulations 1998 (“the 1998 regulations”) and come into force on 22 April 2009.

They make five amendments to the categories of excepted pupils set out in the Schedule to the 1998 regulations (“the Schedule”).

They add three new categories.

They add looked after children who are admitted to schools outside a normal admission round; pupils admitted outside the normal admission round for whom education at a school of a particular religious character is desired and children who are admitted to the school within an age group in which pupils are normally admitted and after the first day of the relevant school year, where the school has not yet reached its admission number but has already organised its classes and the admission of the child would mean that the school would have to take relevant measures.

Where the admission authority for the school is not the local authority, confirmation is required from the local authority that there are no places available at a school of a particular religious character within a reasonable distance of the child’s home before the child can be counted as an excepted pupil.

They amend paragraph 5 of the Schedule so that when the admission authority of the school concerned is not the local authority, confirmation is required from the local authority that there are no places available at a suitable school within a reasonable distance of the child’s home before the child can be counted as an excepted pupil.

Paragraph 6 of the Schedule is replaced and the exception originally in paragraph 6 (children admitted to the school in the normal year of entry for whom education at a school which is Welsh speaking is desired and where the school concerned is the only such school within a reasonable distance of their home) now also applies to pupils who are admitted outside the normal admission round.

Where the admission authority for the school is not the local authority, confirmation is required from the local authority that there are no places available at a Welsh-speaking school within a reasonable distance of the child’s home before the child can be counted as an excepted pupil.