This bulletin was originally published 15 February 2013.

Overview

CESE’s Class sizes in NSW Government primary schools, 2012 bulletin summarises class size data by:

• average class size
• school location
• school size
• scholastic year
• multi-age or composite classes
• distribution of Kindergarten to Year 2
• enrolment numbers.

Summary

There are 18,052 primary classes in NSW government schools in 2012. On average, there are 24 students in each class. The state-wide average is a reduction of 2.9 students since 1997 and a reduction of 2.3 students since 2003, the year before the Class Size Reduction Program commenced.

The NSW Government Class Size Reduction Program commenced in 2004, with additional funding provided over the first 4 years to build and install the additional classrooms needed to cater for smaller classes and to provide recurrent funding for more than 1,800 extra teaching positions.

By 2007 all classes with Kindergarten, Year 1 or Year 2 students were staffed to achieve the state target averages of 20 for Kindergarten students, 22 for Year 1 students and 24 for Year 2 students.