Watford Labour's Chris Ostrowski hits out at school class sizes

Across England, classes of more than 30 have risen by 91pc and in the East of England by 141.58pc, since 2011.

Watford’s parliamentary candidate Chris Ostrowski says his party would commit to capping class sizes and blamed the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition and subsequent Tory government for the “supersized” classes.

He said: “Here in Watford, and across the country, many children such as my own, have returned to school after the summer holidays. The supersizing of classes is an untenable situation for teachers, parents and children. The early years of education and schooling are some of the most vital foundations for children’s development.

“With school cuts ever increasing thanks to the Tory and Lib Dem coalition government and the subsequent, Conservative government, this is not only causing teachers to reach breaking point at the beginning of the school year, it is also reaching a legal limit too. The legal limit for infant classes is 30 children to one teacher.

“Not only are classes over 30 increasing amongst our five, six and seven-year olds, they are also increasing for primary and secondary school pupils also. Both myself and The Labour party want nothing but the best for children and families in terms of education. We are committed to capping class sizes to 30 for all primary school pupils. This will not only ease the problem of supersized classes but will help provide Watford children with the best school start in life too.”

In response, Watford’s Conservative MP Richard Harrington said: “Access to a high quality education locally is really important, and that’s why I’m delighted that all our secondary schools are rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, with primary schools not far behind.

“We’ve also seen the number of school places increase year on year in Watford, with six new schools opening, and many others expanding. This has created over 3,500 extra school places in our area since 2010.”