MORE Oxfordshire primary pupils are taught in classes of 36 or more children than in any other South East authority, according to Government figures.

Although the county's average class size of 25.7 remains below the national figure of 26.3, a total of 626 pupils have been taught in classes of more than 36 pupils with one teacher this year.

Ironically, teaching unions have blamed a Government initiative designed to reduce teacher workloads for the growing class sizes.

The provisional figures, published last week, are based on roll numbers in January, and show Oxfordshire as the worst in the region. West Sussex had the second highest with 599 pupils, followed by Hampshire with 444. Some authorities, such as Portsmouth, had no children in classes this large.

A further 5,739 Oxfordshire pupils are being taught in classes of between 31 and 35 this year.

Schools cannot start the year with classes of more than 30 infants (children under seven) but can, in certain circumstances, add to numbers later in the year.

The Government's workforce remodelling agreement, introduced in September last year, requires schools to release ten per cent of teachers' time for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA).

According to Oxfordshire ATL spokesman Bob Martyn who is getting increasing complaints from teachers about class sizes this has put pressure on school budgets, forcing heads to make savings elsewhere by cutting support staff.

Mr Martyn said: "Class sizes have been creeping back up.

"On top of that, teachers have an increased number of children with special needs and their teaching assistant has been taken away to help provide PPA time, so they have more behaviour issues to deal with.

"It's a nightmare for any teacher to have that sort of class, particularly now they're supposed to be teaching differentiated lessons."

Michael Waine, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for schools improvement, said it only compared itself to ten statistical neighbours, not regional neighbours. These figures put the county in a slightly better light, but it was still among the worst.

Mr Waine said: "It is good that Oxfordshire is doing better than the national average in terms of class sizes at Key Stage Two.

"A class with more than 36 pupils will often be taught in smaller groups for a proportion of the day. I am concerned that there are a growing number of schools with larger classes and I'm also concerned about the impact of PPA."

Fewer than a third of schools in Oxfordshire have achieved the Government's Healthy Schools Award.

Figures published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) show just 28 per cent of schools in the county have demonstrated they provide enough healthy food, physical exercise, drugs and sex education and "emotional well-being".

Ministers want half of all schools in the country to become Healthy Schools by the end of this year and every school to become part of the programme by 2009. But Oxfordshire has the fifth lowest take-up in the South East. Only Milton Keynes (14 per cent), Surrey (23 per cent) Buckinghamshire (25 per cent) and Kent (26 per cent) councils are doing worse.

Oxfordshire County Council said 62 per cent of schools were registered with the scheme and it expected half of all schools to achieve Healthy Schools Status by the end of this year.

Giti Paulin, who manages the Healthy Oxfordshire Schools team at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "It would be a mistake to assume that the schools which aren't registered are unhealthy schools."

Schools with a class of 36 in Jan 2006 Harriers Ground Primary, Banbury Hill View Primary, Banbury (x2) Cutteslowe Primary, Oxford Goring CofE Primary Berinsfield Community Barley Hill Primary, Thame (x2) St Nicholas Infants', Wallingford St Swithun's CofE, Kennington Charlbury Primary Carswell Community, Abingdon Queen's Dyke Community, Witney Larkrise Primary, Oxford St Philip & St James, Oxford (x2)