PRIMARY school classes in Brighton, Hove and East Sussex are among the biggest in Britain.

One class at Freda Gardham Primary School in New Road, Rye, has 37 pupils - the largest in Sussex.

In East Sussex, there are 201 classes with 31 or more infants. There are 88 in Brighton and Hove and 127 in West Sussex.

The Government says classes should have no more than 30 pupils and has pledged to get all the numbers down by 2001.

East Sussex County Council says the teacher at Freda Gardham has two classroom assistants to help cope with the extra children and it will sort out staffing problems at the school by September.

Figures for January show the average class size for five to seven-year-olds in Brighton and Hove is 28, for East Sussex it is 27.5 and for West Sussex 26.4. The national average is 26.5.

The average class size for eight to 11-year-olds in Brighton and Hove is 29.2, for East Sussex it is 29.9 and West Sussex 28.2.

The national average for that age range is 28.4.

More than £3 million of Government cash is being given to Sussex to help tackle the problem by providing 23 extra classrooms and 110 teachers.

In East Sussex, a plan to reduce infant class sizes to 30 from this September has already been approved.

Acouncil spokeswoman said: "We have had a policy of having no more than 32 children per infant class and very few classes are above that level.

"At Freda Gardham Primary, the school had anticipated the class would be no bigger than 30 but had to take in extra children because more families moved into the area."

West Sussex will receive £1.3 million from the Government to help reduce class sizes.

Aspokeswoman for the authority said: "Because the extra money will provide more teachers, the number of over-sized infant classes will be reduced to 30 this September.

"We are hoping it will be zero by September 2000."

Frieda Warman-Brown, chairwoman of Brighton and Hove Council's education committee, said the authority is now reducing classes to 30 or fewer with extra staff in some schools.

But in the most popular schools, such as Davigdor Infant School in Somerhill Road, Hove, the council has temporarily agreed to raise some classes above the 31 limit and hire extra staff to cope because of the parental demand for places.

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