Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, No 5: 2014 Edition

This contains the results of the annual pupil census, annual teacher census, early learning and childcare data and school estates data.

This document is part of 2 collections


Classes and pupils

Classes and pupils

Table 3.1 shows the distribution of P1-P3 pupils in publicly funded schools by ranges of class size. One of the manifesto commitments, made by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2007, was to reduce P1-P3 class sizes to 18 or less.

In September 2014, 12.9 per cent of P1-P3 pupils were taught in classes of 18 or fewer (including those taught by two teachers at all times with a class size of 36 or less), down 0.7 percentage points from 2013. The number of pupils taught in classes of 26 or more decreased from 57,424 in 2006 to a low of 32,702 in September 2009, before increasing again. In September 2014, the number of P1-P3 pupils taught in classes of 26 or more was 46,009 which is 27 per cent of pupils.

Table 3.1: Number of P1-P3 pupils by class size, 2006 to 2014(1)

Class Size

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014(2)

1 - 18

19,923

23,563

23,835

25,039

34,351

32,580

31,101

22,992

22,138

19 - 20

13,305

16,461

16,220

16,535

14,293

15,121

15,655

15,995

16,673

21 - 25

66,220

74,446

80,151

81,332

70,687

76,499

80,243

86,854

87,295

26 - 30

56,516

39,482

33,423

32,327

39,087

36,679

37,805

42,908

45,539

31 or more

908

345

317

375

249

757

473

736

470

% in classes of 18 or less or in 2 teacher classes of 36 or less

12.7

15.3

15.5

16.1

21.6

20.2

18.8

13.6

12.9

(1) The percentage of P1-P3 pupils in classes of 18 or fewer include two-teacher classes with 36 or less. Classes taught by two teachers at all times are treated as two classes of half the size.

(2) The number of P1-P3 pupils by class size in 2014 was amended slightly in February 2015 as one pupil had been recorded in the wrong class. This affected class size categories 1-18, 19-20 and 21-25.

Contact

Email: Adam Naylor

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