Secondary schools face 420,000 rise in pupil numbers

SECONDARY schools will need to find 418,000 extra pupil places over the next decade following a baby boom, estimates show.

Department for Education figures published yesterday predict the secondary school population will hit 3.3million by 2027 – a rise of 14.7 per cent.

It follows a baby boom in the early 2000s partly driven by an increase in immigration, which has put pressure on primary places for years and will now feed through secondaries.

Last year the overall number of secondary pupils rose by 1.9 per cent on 2017 to 2,849,000, while primary schools saw a 1.1 per cent rise in the population – expected to fall by 2027.

The DFE document states direct immigration of pupils born outside the UK ‘has a very small effect on the school age population’.

However, it adds: ‘The birth rate, which has a much larger effect, is in turn affected by any increase in the number of children born to non-UK born women (who overall tend to have higher fertility rates).’

It adds: ‘The number of children born to non-UK born women rose by around 75 per cent between 2002 and 2013, although this was a period of increased births generally.’