School overcrowding 'problem for future'

The National Audit Office (NAO) says a surge in the number of children reaching school age in England is putting the demand for places under strain.

The spending watchdog says one in five primary schools is already full or over capacity.

It predicts that more than a quarter of a million extra places will be needed by the autumn of next year.

The NAO questions whether increased government spending will deliver the capacity needed. But ministers have insisted that more places will be made available.

Speaking on the Today programme, Val Rudd, head teacher of Rosebrook Primary school in Stockton on Tees, told presenter Sarah Montague that this "is not something that have crept up on councils, councils have know about this for a long time".

"It was short sighted to scrap the building schools for the future programme because what ever [problems] we are getting in primary schools now we are going to get in secondary schools in the next few years," she explained.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday 15 March 2013.