Secondary schools will have an extra HALF A MILLION pupils by 2026 due to baby boom partly fuelled by a rise in immigration
- Fifth of schools are already at full capacity and many have overcrowded lessons
- Additional 50,000 places were created last year in attempt to ease pressure
- Department of Education figures renew concerns over UK’s school places crisis
Secondary schools are expected to have more than 500,000 extra pupils in their classrooms by 2026, figures show.
But a fifth of the schools are already at full capacity, with tens of thousands of teenagers being taught in overcrowded lessons.
An additional 50,000 places created last year did little to ease pressure on teachers.
Now Department for Education figures will renew concerns about a growing school places crisis.
A fifth of schools are already at full capacity with overcrowded lessons. (Stock image)
Heads face mounting pressure following a baby boom in the early 2000s, which is in the process of making its way from primary to secondary level. This was largely fuelled by increases in immigration and rising birth rates.
Seventeen per cent of secondary schools (560) in England were either ‘at or in excess of capacity’ last May. This compared with 15 per cent (510) in 2018.
Schools were teaching 25,000 more youngsters aged 11 to 18 than they had capacity for in 2019 – a 12 per cent increase from 22,000 in the previous year.
The school capacity figures for 2018-19 were published on the Department for Education website, which provides annual data on the subject. A DfE report says: ‘There has been a slow increase in secondary pupils in places that exceed their school’s capacity over more recent years.’
It forecast an increase of more than 120,000 secondary pupils between 2018-19 and 2019-20.
And secondary pupil numbers are expected to rise each year reaching almost 3.8million by 2025-26, compared with more than 3.2million last year, according to council forecasts.
‘Local authorities expect secondary pupil numbers to continue to rise as the increase previously seen in primary numbers continues to move through the secondary phase,’ the report says
Most children are being educated at home due to the coronavirus outbreak (stock image)
Around 30,000 places were created in primary schools last year. But 20 per cent (3,340) were either ‘at or in excess of capacity’ by May 2019. This compared with 21 per cent (3,520) the previous year.
The demand for primary places – for four- to 11-year- olds – is still expected to rise, peaking next year at around 4.6million pupils, from just over 4.5million last year.
The report states that more than a million school places have been created since 2010, 669,000 in primary schools and 334,000 in secondaries.
It says councils are planning a net increase of 109,000 places in schools by 2021-2022. As part of this, they will create 11,000 temporary ‘bulge places’ and remove 20,000 such places.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, told the Times Educational Supplement there was a challenge in dealing with ‘a big demographic change’ as the bulge in pupil numbers moves from primaries to secondaries.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘The baby boom fuelled by a rise in immigration and rising birth rates has now reached secondary schools.
‘Successive governments have been playing catch-up. Preparing for this has now become a matter of urgency.’
A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘We have created one million new school places this decade, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations, and the percentage of secondary schools at or over capacity has been cut from 28 per cent in 2010 to 17 per cent in 2019.
‘We will work with local authorities over the months ahead to support them with (school place planning).’