As the population has grown, so has pressure on school places in parts of England.

Some 400 "free schools" - schools outside of local authority control - have been set up by the coalition government, but 880,000 more school places will be needed in the next eight years.

Any future government will have a choice to make, says BBC education correspondent Sean Coughlan: either continue along a path of more academies, free schools and autonomy (and then work out how deal with oversight in a system that is more fragmented), or roll back the changes with the aim of standardising schools and education.

BBC News went to visit a school in Croydon, south London, to find out what effect that squeeze for school places has on pupils and teachers, and what they think should be done about it.

Video journalist: Suraj Patel