31 in a Y1 class - is this allowed?

[egdeh]

Any admissions types who can answer this for me please?

Not sure I'm bothered by it, more curious as I thought 30 was limit in infants, but dd has 31 in her y1 class.

Is same class as reception, plus child from waiting list who failed to gain place in reception as normal admission (school over subscribed) so went to private school (declining alternative LEA place). I know family stayed on waiting list, but weren't top before summer.
Have the rules changed?

No the rules haven't changed (at least, not in this situation).

If the additional child has a statement of SEN naming the school, or got a place under the Fair Access Protocol or via an appeal they will be "excepted", which means they don't count towards the class size limit. If the additional child is not excepted the school must, by law, have no more than 30 children in a class if there is just one teacher.

If the additional child was not at the head of the waiting list they should only have got in if one of the situations listed above applies.

Thanks for the info. There are other classes, so others may have joined those moving her to top of list but surprised she has place now taking class to 31 when she didn't get one last year. Maybe her situation has changed since initial application to make one of the exceptions apply.
Would admission be an LEA or school decision?

Schools can go over 30 pupils if the child entering has a statement naming the specific school, is a "cared for" child or got in on appeal

As you say that there are more than one class, could you confirm what the admission number of the school is and whether all the classes in year1 were at 30.
If all the classes were 30, then the infant class size regs are pertinent. At any admission appeal there would have had to have been a mistake in the admission arrangements, which seems very unlikely as we are talking about an in-year application. Given the time span it is highly unlikely that any admission appeal panel would accept a mistake that had come to light now but actually took place 12 months ago.
Similarly they have not got a place of the waiting list because by definition if the class is at 30 it was presumably full and going to 31 should not have happened off the waiting list.
You are therefore left with getting in because they have a statement, which again seems unlikely if they have been at a private school and any statement would only be issued by the LA when they were in a maintained school. Again I would not have expected someone who rejected an offered place to go to a private school in reception to suddenly be being given a place under the Fair Access Protocol, the LA would simply have allocated the nearest school with a place.
I am therefore left wondering whether this is a school decision with the head teacher making a unilateral decision to admit the pupil for some reason, which should never have happened.

Admission number is 90. School was full with waiting list for all of the reception year, including this family whose dd has now joined. As far as I know all classes remained full going into Y1, but even if one had a space, new joiner should go there not a class of 30, ie class limit is per class, not average across school, shouldn't they?

Anyway, don't think I'd complain even if it is against rules, so not much point wondering further. Thank you for your responses though, nice to know my understanding of the rules was right.

The class limit is indeed per class, not the average across the school.

I agree with Admission that this sounds like it may be the head teacher admitting a pupil against the regulations. If that is what has happened the parents of the child at the head of the waiting list certainly have grounds for complaint.

Just wondering: are all the local schools full?

For if they are, then the child leaving private school might have had no place at all, and therefore could have been admitted under FAP and the family just struck it lucky getting the school they wanted in the first place (or have an exceptional medical/social need that has arisen in the last year). If the child on the waiting list already has a state school place elsewhere and the parents are keeping her on this school's list because they'd prefer it, then there would be no grounds to activate the FAP for them.

Ds1 got in on appeal and the class had 31 for the first term in reception until someone moved out of the area.