THE number of Hampshire children taught in oversized classes has risen over the past 12 months, new figures reveal.

Data published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families shows that 127 pupils aged five to seven in the county council area were placed in classes of more than 30 pupils this year - breaching Government guidelines. That is up from just 31 pupils last year.

And the number of classes in the county containing more than 30 Key Stage One pupils rose from one to four.

The figures, based on a snapshot survey undertaken in January, exclude classes which "lawfully" contained more than 30 pupils, in cases where schools took on children in care, those with special educational needs, or pupils who arrived during the academic year.

Southampton and the Isle of Wight did not have any "unlawfully large" classes for the second year in a row, according to the provisional figures, published yesterday.

Infant classes contained on average 28 pupils in Southampton, 26.4 on the Isle of Wight and 27.7 in the Hampshire County Council area.

In England as a whole, the number of infants in classes of more than 30 pupils without good reason increased from 130 to 200, affecting 6,500 pupils.

Shadow Schools Minister Nick Gibb said: "Labour came to power promising to put an end to class sizes of more than 30, and ministers claimed to have done this in 2005.

"But now we see that thousands of pupils are being taught in classes of more than 30 and the numbers are on the rise."

Schools Minister Jim Knight admitted Key Stage One class sizes had risen slightly, but stressed this was "massively down" on levels a decade ago.

Ministers were working with local authorities and schools to ensure they took immediate action on the infant classes that unlawfully contained 31 or more children, he added.

Mr Knight said: "We've made dramatic improvements in bringing down infant class sizes, and almost 99 per cent of classes are in line with the law. Let's put this very small increase of 70 unlawfully large classes out of more than 53,000 in context.

"There are 6,500 more teachers and almost 73,000 more teaching assistants in nursery and primary schools than a decade ago."

Full story in today's Daily Echo