Sutton’s chief executive has been left red-faced after a letter asking for support to increase primary school class sizes sparked a media storm.

The letter from Niall Bolger, left, to council bosses across the capital asked them to back proposals to increase the limit from 30 pupils per class to 32.

It prompted a national media debate and neighbouring authorities and unions described any moves to increase class sizes as a “regrettable initiative” and the “thin end of the wedge”.

Council leader Sean Brennan distanced himself from the round-robin this week, insisting the letter from £156,000-a-year Mr Bolger did not form any official council policy saying Mr Bolger was “conducting a piece of research on his own initiative”.

But there is no doubt the episode has left the recently appointed chief executive embarrassed after the strongly worded letter was condemned by Susan Smith, secretary of the Sutton Teachers Committee, who said teachers would be “very disappointed” and “saddened” by any increase in class sizes.

She said: “I can honestly say I couldn’t imagine a teacher in the country who would support these plans. We are very surprised and saddened to see Sutton’s Liberal Democrat council taking a lead on such an issue.

“This is a financial not an educational view. People will say ‘What difference will two more children make?’, but evidence from the UK and the US shows class sizes, especially in early education, matter tremendously. Children achieve better in smaller classes.”

The letter came to light after Labour Councillor Peter Walker, neighbouring borough Merton’s cabinet member for education, urged other councils to “oppose this regrettable initiative”. He said: “Increasing class sizes in our schools at this time is short-sighted, will threaten school standards, is unfair to our children and will endanger our economic prospects.”

Tim Crowley, Conservative deputy leader rejected the council’s claims it was a research document and described it as a “call to arms”. He said: “Throughout the letter, Mr Bolger refers to ‘We’, last time I looked that was a plural, so it is clear other people are involved in this.”

Lambeth council’s leader Councillor Steve Reed, who is also the head of education at London Councils, said any proposals would lead to “less attention for every child”.

He said: “It’s wholly unacceptable that councils are being forced to consider expanding class sizes above 30 children.”

Sara Thomlinson, secretary for Lambeth NUT (National Union of Teachers), said the government needed to invest more money in the borough’s education provisions.

She said: “Class sizes are a huge issue for us and we are fighting to make them smaller, not bigger.”

Councillor Liz Green , executive member for education at Liberal Democrat-run Kingston Council said: “We do not want to increase our class sizes at all. We would not support any moves to increase class sizes.”

In recent years, the demand for primary school places in Sutton has led to a school places crisis in the borough with some pupils being taught in temporary classrooms.

In 1998, legislation was brought in to limit the infant class sizes to 30.

Councillor Sean Brennan said: “The position of Sutton Council is clear and straightforward; increasing class sizes is not our policy and that’s why we have invested millions of pounds in expanding our schools.

However, there is still a huge demand for places and this pressure is set to continue.”

In a statement Niall Bolger said: “Increasing class sizes is not a Sutton Council policy or something that has been discussed at a political level. My letter is a basic piece of research so that senior officers can present councillors with well informed choices. “There is a dreadful shortage of primary school places and we can’t ignore the situation, especially when our schools, which are some of the best in the country, are attracting so many families.

“Sutton Council has spent £7m funding additional classes for September 2012. “It has been expanding primary schools for a number of years and all easy options to meet demand have been exhausted.”


The letter:

Your Local Guardian: Sutton Council chief executive letter on schools


Case study

A mum whose daughter missed out on her preferred school, despite her two other children previously getting places there, is among the hundreds of parents and children across the borough affected by Sutton’s primary place crisis.

Last September, Caroline Mezzela’s four-year-old daughter Sienna did not get a place at Westbourne Primary School, in Collingwood Road, Sutton, despite her two siblings previously going there, because of increased demand for spaces.

The family have lived in the same house, 0.4 miles away from the school, for the past 20 years, and are still in the catchment area.

But increased demand for places meant she missed out.

She said a boy, whose family’s house backed on to theirs, got a place after moving recently to the area from outside the UK.

Now, Sienna will have to travel more than twice the distance to Brook Field Primary in Cheam, after her mum lost an appeal against the decision to send her daughter elsewhere.

Sienna will also go into year 1, as opposed to reception class, after a failed appeal stopped her starting reception last September.

She said: “It is not fair Sienna cannot go to the school where her brother was only the previous term.”

Seven per cent of children who applied for a primary school in Sutton in 2010-11 missed out on all their six preferred schools – 89 per cent of applicants got one of their top three choices.