The latest national statistics on Schools, pupils and their characteristics - January 2011 produced by the Department for Education were released on 22 June 2011 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
This Statistical First Release (SFR) will be based upon information collected in the 2011 School Census. It will include information on both the number of schools and pupils, and tables showing the number of pupils by age, gender, free school meal eligibility, ethnicity, first language, gifted and talented status and mode of travel. It will also include a range of class size information. School types included in this publication are State-Funded Primary, Secondary and Special schools, Independent schools, Pupil Referral Units, and Alternative Provision. In previous years this release has been published with provisional data in May and updated with final data in June, however this year this has been rationalised into one release of final data in June.
The key points from the latest release are:
- In January 2011 there were around 8.1 million pupils (headcount) in all schools in England.
- In maintained nursery, state-funded primary, secondary and special schools overall the proportion of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals increased.
- In both state-funded primary and secondary schools the proportion of pupils classified as being of minority ethnic origin increased.
- In both state-funded primary and secondary schools the proportion of pupils whose first language was believed to be other than English increased.
- The average size of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 classes taught by one teacher increased.
- The average size of classes taught by one teacher in state-funded primary schools increased slightly, while the average size of classes taught by one teacher in state-funded secondary schools decreased slightly
Contact details
Andrew Clarke - Schools Statistical Team
Telephone: 01325 735478
Email: schools.statistics@education.gsi.gov.uk
