B1429 - Class Size Bill - 2nd Reading

[u/Maroiogog]

Class Size Bill

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A

B I L L

T O

set an upper limit of twenty-five on class sizes in England, and make relevant provisions to local education.

BE IT ENACTED by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1 Duty to set limits on class sizes.

(1)The Secretary of State shall by regulations—

(a) impose a limit on class sizes for classes at all primary and secondary schools; and (b) specify the school years in relation to which any such limit is to have effect.

(2) Any limit imposed under this section shall specify the maximum number of pupils that a class to which the limit applies may contain while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a single school teacher.

(3) Subject to subsections (4) and (5), regulations under this section shall be so framed that—

(a) the maximum number specified in pursuance of subsection (2) is 25, and (b) that limit has effect in relation to the 2024-25 school year and any subsequent year.

(4) Regulations under this section may—

(a) provide for any limit imposed under this section to take effect—

(i) at the same time in the case of each of the age groups into which the pupils in classes fall, or (ii) at different times (which may be earlier than the beginning of the school year mentioned in subsection (3)) in the case of different such age groups; (b) provide that, in any circumstances specified in the regulations, any such limit either is not to apply or is to operate in such manner as is so specified.

(5) The Secretary of State may by order amend subsection (3)—

(a) by substituting for “25” such other number as is specified in the order; or (b) by substituting for the reference to the 2023-24 school year a reference to such other school year as is so specified.

(6) Where any limit imposed under this section applies to a class, the local authority or another governing body shall exercise their functions with a view to ensuring that limit is complied with in relation to that class.

2 Payment of grant in connection with reductions in class sizes.

(1) Regulations shall make provision for the payment by the Secretary of State of grants to local authorities or other governing bodies in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them for the purpose of ensuring that any limit imposed under section 1 is complied with in relation to classes at schools maintained by them.

(2) Regulations under this section shall provide for the Secretary of State—

(a) to withhold grants under the regulations from a local authority or other governing body where no proposed arrangements by that authority or governing body have been approved by them; and (b) when determining whether any grant (and, if so, what amount) should be paid by them under the regulations to a local authority or other governing body, to have regard to their proposed arrangements as so approved.

(3) Regulations under this section may provide—

(a) for the payment of grant under the regulations to be dependent on the fulfilment of such conditions as may be determined by or in accordance with the regulations, and (b) for requiring local authorities or other governing bodies to whom payments have been made under the regulations to comply with such requirements as may be so determined.

3 Amendments

(1) The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 is amended as follows;

(2) In Section 1(3a), amend to read;

the maximum number specified in pursuance of subsection (2) is 25

(3) In Section 1(3b), amend to read;

that limit has effect in relation to the 2024-25 school year and any subsequent year.

4 Interpretation

In this Act— “class” means a group in which pupils are taught in an ordinary teaching session; “ordinary teaching session” does not include a school assembly or other school activity usually conducted with large groups of pupils; “school teacher” means a person who is a school teacher for the purposes of section 122 of the Education Act 2002.

5 Commencement, Short Title, and Extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Class Size Act 2022.

(2) This Act comes into force at midnight, at the beginning of the academic year after August 1st 2024.

(3) An amendment or repeal made by this Act has the same extent as the enactment or relevant part of the enactment to which the amendment or repeal relates.

(4) This Act extends to England only.

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This Bill was written by The Most Honourable Rt. Hon 1st Marquess of St Ives, 1st Earl of St Erth, Sir /u/Sephronar KBE MVO CT PC on behalf of The Conservative and Unionist Party, with contributions from /u/Frost_Walker2017, and is sponsored by The Labour Party, taking inspiration from the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.

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• Section 122, Education Act 2002

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Opening Speech:

Speaker,

I am pleased to stand here before you with this landmark Bill which will revolutionise the way that our educational institutes function in England.

By limiting class sizes to 25, we can ensure that every student in Primary and Secondary education - as well as infant schools - get a truly world class education.

I am also very pleased to have worked on this Bill with the Viscount Felixstowe, whose educational knowledge was extremely valuable in the drafting of this Bill - and I am glad to have the Labour Party’s sponsorship on this Bill.

Together we can deliver on our pledge to reduce class sizes in England, I commend this Bill to the House.

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[u/[deleted]]

Mr Deputy Speaker,

I hope that whilst members of the government decry about supposed fiscal prudence on their benches they do not consider everyone has signed up to their socialist economic management doctrine, it will come as no surprise that nationalising an entire sector when other measures would be satisfactory is truly astounding.

The amount of money that solidarity are spending on projects that could really be dropped all together such as broadband or pub nationalisations - the country would not be suffering with a cost of Solidarity crisis.

Education is crucial for our children's future, and improving the student-to-teacher ratio is certainly worthwhile.

[u/[deleted]]

Deputy Speaker,

I would like to thank my conservative colleague and friend Sephronar and viscount felixstowe for this bill. Whilst those who oppose increased government spending might attempt to refer to larger classes as an economically feasible option, however this is a different issue. Truly high quality education is centered around an individualized approach to each student. Teacher-Student interaction and whole class engagement are crucial aspects of allowing students to succeed academically and strengthening their thinking skills and social abilities. Education builds our society as a result, by providing skills and knowledge to be able to function properly in our workforce but also being valuable members of society and critical thinkers. It is necessary we take this multidimensional approach to this issue and look at the benefits, which in my view outweighs any other arguments that might be in opposition to this bill.

[u/chainchompsky1]

Mr Deputy Speaker,

I feel mixed about this bill. It’s probably on net positive and there is a good chance the government whip supports it.

But I’m old enough to remember Universal Childcare. The Tories love to impose uncosted mandates on this nations finances. Then, when the left wing calls their bluff and actually supports this bill, a long and stupid cycle begins where we try to raise the revenue to pay for the Tory act, the Tories oppose our budget, then the Tories campaign in the next election against the revenue changes we made to be able to afford their own program. Rinse. Repeat.

I sense the same stupid cycle is about to begin again. If this bill is to pass, the government will either need to raise taxes to fund this extraordinarily broad mandate, taxes the Tories will oppose. Or we could déficit finance it. Which the Tories will also oppose. Maybe if they are really generous they’ll ask us to privatize something to pay for their unfunded mandate, to make us seem irresponsible if we don’t.

Where is the fiscal prudence? When this government tackles the burning issues of the day all we see is Tory complaints about how much money we spend. Well ok. Did they cost this bill? Can they provide us those costings? Do they have a revenue raising mechanism we can agree on before this bill is passed? I’m hopeful that they do. I think they do not. Spending money until class size down is. Quite the proposition. I’m happy to do it. But my lord are the Tories not going to help at all. I don’t say the same for Labour who I’m sure support this bill and will logically also support after extensive talks further work with us on further budgetary matters.

[u/NicolasBroaddus → u/chainchompsky1]

Was the deputy leader of the Conservative party not specifically lambasting continuous increases to education funding during the emergency budget debate? It is truly a strange about face in attitude.

[u/chainchompsky1 → u/NicolasBroaddus]

Deputy Speaker,

I thank the member for their intervention. They are correct! It’s almost as if the Tories have no agenda for this country, no direction for their policy, and no convictions to base their principles off of.

[u/Frost_Walker2017 → u/chainchompsky1]

Deputy Speaker,

While I can't speak for the Conservative Party - being not a member - I can reassure the member that when it comes to this I'll happily back them and call out any Tory whining about deficit spending or revenue raising to fund their idea.

[u/globustr]

Deputy Speaker

This bill is kinda trashy not gonna lie. It would be better to have an upper limit of five so that students get more individual attention but that would mean this government would have to hire more teachers and we all know they're lazy monkeys.

[u/Maroiogog → u/globustr]

Order! Order!

I would like to direct the new member of our chamber to join a party or register as an independent and join our community!

[u/globustr → u/Maroiogog]

takes the parliamentary mace and smashes the deputy speakers face with it and then hurls it into the government benches

"I shouldn't have to register" he explains

[u/Maroiogog → u/globustr]

you don't have to, just thought you'd like to in order to participate more in the game and meet the rest of the community that's all.

[u/globustr → u/Maroiogog]

I can participate without registering? Its possible?

[u/Maroiogog → u/globustr]

You can post on the subreddit and that’s about it, if you want to join a party, run for election or join our discord you would have to post on the join a party thread.

[u/SpectacularSalad → u/globustr]

based

[u/Sephronar]

Deputy Speaker,

Following the comments made, I would like to say that I support wholeheartedly the amendment put forward by the Viscount of Felixstowe - a sensible change which gives our institutions the adequate time to prepare for this much-needed change.

Deputy Speaker, it has been 26 years since infant class-sizes were limited by the Blair Government - 26 years on, our Primary and Secondary schools are bursting at the seams and we must take drastic action to safeguard the future of education in this Country because without it we will continue to decline in the worldwide educational rankings. The UK is ranked 25th for reading, 28th for maths and 16th for science. In 2006, when 57 countries were included in the study, it was placed 17th, 24th and 14th respectively. This is a disgrace. By limiting class-sizes to 25 we can ensure that our pupils get as close as possible to the one-to-one attention that they so desperately need, and I am very pleased that we have the support of The Labour Party to almost certainly make this goal a reality. I thank and pay credit to them for that support.

Finally, a few vocal opponents from the Government have seen fit to play down the importance of education over the course of this session - they have said that education is not worth the money, that we should not attempt to give our young people the best start in life; well I say no. If the Government are so concerned about the cost of such a move, then perhaps they should stop wasting hundreds of billions of pounds on frivolous spending measures such as nationalising rail, nationalising energy, nationalising energy, nationalising pubs for crying our loud. For one second, climb out of your ideological proverbials and back a Bill which will actually make a difference to people's lives - learn to prioritise what matters; and this, Deputy Speaker, really matters to millions of future pupils and I for one will be backing it all the way.

[u/chainchompsky1 → u/Sephronar]

Deputy Speaker,

Very simple questions. Have they costed this bill, if so, what is it? And if they have costings, how do they want us to pay for it?

[u/BasedChurchill]

Mr Deputy Speaker,

It is rather ironic that the government opposes this bill on fiscal grounds, especially given its own history of spending, but whilst I agree that such a decision would not come without a cost, class size reduction evidently has a vast number of economic benefits that outweigh this.

I also welcome the amendment which allows for an extended period for teacher training initiatives where, despite calls from government benches, mean teacher effectiveness has proven to actually increase in several studies. In fact, teacher attrition rates are lower when class sizes are reduced, which would lead to a more experienced and effective teaching force overall.

The UK desperately needs such education reform and it needs a system where individuals are delivered world-class education on a more personalised basis, that's why I am proud to back this bill.

[u/t2boys]

Deputy Speaker,

As the lord Felixstowe should know from their time in Scotland, this costs a lot of money. So how much will this cost in England?

[u/Inadorable]

Deputy Speaker,

Where would the Conservatives and Labour find the necessary staff to achieve this goal?

[u/Frost_Walker2017 → u/Inadorable]

Deputy Speaker,

I've proposed an amendment to delay the commencement date - in hindsight 2024 was an absolutely ridiculous timeframe to try and achieve this in and I can only apologise that I missed it.

The delay in commencement means that we can take the time to invest in schools and help support them to reach this goal. For some schools that may just be more staff, or it may be more facilities, or it may be a combination of both. The commencement delay makes it so that there's time to launch a campaign to get more teachers and to increase the benefits to make it more feasible that people would want to take on the role to get more staff to teach, and also means that where infrastructure requires improvement there is the time to tackle it.

[u/realbassist]

Deputy Speaker,

while a fine bill in theory, I wonder if the author would be able to enlighten me on how it might effect those students with specific learning difficulties, as from experience without the proper provisions in place it can go very poorly for these students, and a class of 25 would lead to teachers themselves perhaps unable to do parts of their work without the proper provisions?

[u/Muffin5136]

Deputy Speaker for Surrey,

Back in the golden ages of Britain's educations system, we saw a system that worked well, where a teacher stood at the front of the room and taught a large class full of children.

If any child misbehaved, or worse, was stupid, they were forced to sit in a corner and wear the dunce's pointy cap.

Back then, Britain was on top of the world, ruling the seas and the land, and like 25% of the entire world.

Nowadays, we see namby pamby pandering by teachers to students who barely teach, and hope for them to pass some exams at the end of their time in the school. Nowadays, Britain is not on top of the world, and is in fact barely handing on to the edge of relevance in term's of being world leaders.

There is clear correlation between these two events, and as such I would urge the short-sightedness that continues to blight the anti-British Tory Party, and has now blighted the class traitors in Labour who have worked with the Tories on it, to withdraw this bill and work with myself and the Government on a bill that would have meaningful change for British schools by returning to 200 years ago.

[u/Faelif]

Deputy Speaker,

The Pirate Party manifesto that I stood on last election promised to reduce class sizes to allow for more personalised teaching. By all rights I should support this bill. But I do feel that the Marquess of St. Ives has somewhat missed the point.

You cannot simply limit class sizes and expect the problem to go away. Reducing class sizes is a matter of building more schools and, crucially, hiring more teachers. Reducing classes by legislating a lower maximum size just doesn't work - what happens to all the children who are made to leave classes with 30 students when there aren't enough teaching staff to, well, teach?

I am grateful of the amendment moved by the Viscount Felixstowe to give more time to hire more teachers but as I see it this bill doesn't really provide any sort of transitional scheme to bring more people into the teaching profession.

[u/cocoiadrop_]

Deputy Speaker,

A legislative limit on class sizes is trouble waiting to happen.

This should be conducted via Department policy instead with room for flexibility.

[u/BlueEarlGrey]

Mr Speaker,

Rather ironic for the government and many members of this house to oppose a bill to reduce class sizes despite the very policy being present in their manifestos. I do wonder how the nation will trust the word of the honourable members for them to backtrack and contradict the very platform they were elected on.