School Standards and Framework Bill — Exemption from strict class size limits — rejected — 11 Mar 1998

The School Standards and Framework Bill gives the Secretary of State the power to set limits on infant class sizes,^[1] and requires every Local Education Authority to prepare a plan for securing this limit.^[2]

The majority of MPs voted against inserting a new clause into the School Standards and Framework Bill which would have exempted those Local Education Authorities from these rules if their average class sizes were three below the limit set (and no class was more than five above the limit).^[3]

The argument for the clause (which was rejected) was to give some leeway to the class sizes requirements so that a popular teacher in a popular school could take on a larger class.^[4]

The School Standards and Framework Bill's main aims were to:

• Limit infant class sizes to a maximum of 30
• Abolish grant-maintained schools
• Allow local communities to vote to abolish grammar schools
• Establish an Admissions Code for schools and set up the Office of Schools Adjudicator to enforce this code

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• [1] Power to set limits on infant class sizes, Clause 1, School Standards and Framework Bill
• [2] Plans by LEAs for reducing infant class sizes, Clause 2, School Standards and Framework Bill
• [3] Stephen Dorrell MP, House of Commons, 11 March 1998
• [4] Stephen Dorrell MP, House of Commons, 11 March 1998

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