Department for Education · size of class: 36 plus
Pupils in secondary school classes: 36 plus
2025/26 academic year
26,190 pupils
Pupils in secondary school classes for 36 plus totalled 26,190 pupils in the period to 2025/26 academic year, up 9.1% (2,189) on the period before.
- Department for Education dataset
- class_size
- Type of class=Secondary; Size of class=36 plus
- column “Number of pupils”
- 26190 per period
- published 4 August 2026
2015/16 academic year to 2025/26 academic year
The chart as a table
| Period | Pupils in secondary school classes by size of class |
|---|---|
| 2015/16 academic year | 18,081 pupils |
| 2016/17 academic year | 21,057 pupils |
| 2017/18 academic year | 18,683 pupils |
| 2018/19 academic year | 21,843 pupils |
| 2019/20 academic year | 21,237 pupils |
| 2020/21 academic year | 25,556 pupils |
| 2021/22 academic year | 20,800 pupils |
| 2022/23 academic year | 22,353 pupils |
| 2023/24 academic year | 24,753 pupils |
| 2024/25 academic year | 24,001 pupils |
| 2025/26 academic year | 26,190 pupils |
What this measures
The number of pupils in state-funded secondary school classes in England, split by the size of the class they were taught in — up to 30 pupils, 31 to 35, or 36 and more.
Whether large classes are unlawful — no statutory limit applies to secondary classes; nor pupils in independent schools.
Source
- Dataset
- Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes
- Release
- 2026-08-04, published 4 August 2026 · sha256 afb76754d36baa52…
- All values
- Pupils in secondary school classes by size of class