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General Teaching Council
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills from whom she has received recent representations about the General Teaching Council's Code of Practice; and if she will make a statement. [6290]
Mr. Timms: I have recently received three letters from Members of Parliament and three letters from members of the public about the General Teaching Council's (GTC's) Professional Code for Teachers. The content of the Code is a matter for the GTC. It has distributed its current draft of the Code widely for consultation and will be considering the responses in due course.
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what discussions she has had with the National Union of Teachers about teacher recruitment and retention; and if she will make a statement. [6318]
Mr. Timms: My right hon. Friend meets representatives of the National Union of Teachers from time to time to discuss a range of issues, including teacher recruitment and retention. The next such meeting will take place on Monday 23 July.
School Buildings (Colchester)
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the condition of the school buildings in the Colchester constituency; and if she will make a statement. [6335]
Mr. Timms: Information on the condition of school buildings should be currently available from the local education authority.
Authorities' condition data, supplied to support the Department for Education and Skills' arrangements for appraisal of Asset Management Plans, are being validated with a view to publishing national benchmarking data later this year.
Teacher Vacancies (Colchester)
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many teacher vacancies there were in (a) Essex and (b) the Colchester constituency in each year from 1997 to 2001 in (i) infant schools, (ii) junior and primary schools and (iii) secondary schools. [6336]
Mr. Timms: The number of vacancies for full-time teachers in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in Essex are shown in the tables.
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| January | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |
| Essex | |||||
| Nursery/primary | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 2.3 |
| Secondary | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 2.4 |
| Total | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 2.3 |
| Southend-on-Sea | |||||
| Nursery/primary | n/a | n/a | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Secondary | n/a | n/a | 0.5 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| Total | n/a | n/a | 0.8 | 1.8 | 2.1 |
| Thurrock | |||||
| Nursery/primary | n/a | n/a | 1.7 | 3.4 | 7.0 |
| Secondary | n/a | n/a | 2.9 | 2.2 | 6.9 |
| Total | n/a | n/a | 2.2 | 2.8 | 6.9 |
| Total Essex | |||||
| Nursery/primary | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 2.7 |
| Secondary | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 2.7 |
| Total | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 2.7 |
(90) The vacancy rate is calculated by dividing the number of vacancies by the sum of full-time qualified regular teachers plus teachers on full-time secondment for a term or more
Essex local authority was affected by the local government reorganisation (LGR) on 1 April 1998, when it became three authorities; Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. Figures for 1997 and 1998 are for the Essex local authority prior to LGR.
Specialist Schools (Essex)
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which secondary schools in Essex have applied for specialist status; and what awards have been made to date. [6337]
Mr. Timms: The following Essex schools successfully applied for designation:
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Applications have also been received from: Newport Free Grammar School, The Rickstones School, Burnt Mill School, Debden Park High School and The King John School for Arts College status, The John Bramston School, Hylands School and William De Ferrers School for Technology College status and The Endeavour School for Sports College status. This may not be a comprehensive list of unsuccessful applicants as there is no central record of all applications since 1994.
Performance-related Pay
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost of performance-related pay is for each of the years (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02; what the cost of assessing teachers' entitlement to performance-related pay was; and if she will make a statement. [5827]
Mr. Timms: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library.
Graduation Certificate
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the graduation style certificate proposed by her Department at the end of June; and what the cost implications are. [6285]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The proposed award would be for all young people to attain by 19 years of age, and would recognise a range of activities—including voluntary work—as well as formal qualifications. Further substantial work on the proposal, including the cost implications, will need to be undertaken before decisions are made.
Advanced Vocational Qualifications
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proposals she has for amendments in the testing regime in advanced vocational qualifications with a view to reducing their intrusiveness and achieving a broad parity with their academic counterparts. [5687]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: As part of the review announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 14 June, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has been asked to look at the standards and structure of the Vocational A level and to report its conclusions in December.
Sixth Forms
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will publish the guidance given by her Department to LEAs on the passporting of funds from the Learning and Skills Council to schools with sixth forms. [5820]
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Mr. Ivan Lewis: We stated clearly in May 2000, in our consultation paper "Post-16 Funding", that LEAs would not be able to top-slice the funds they receive from the Learning and Skills Council for school sixth forms.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what work her Department has undertaken on the formula for top-slicing funding from LEAs to fund school sixth forms under the new arrangements to be introduced in 2002–03 for funding sixth forms through the Learning and Skills Council. [5819]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Work is proceeding on the sixth form baseline funding transfer from the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions to the Department for Education and Skills; and on the implications of this for local authorities. Ministers will announce the transfer arrangements in due course.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools have seen a fall in the number of pupils in their sixth forms in each of the last three years; and if she will list those schools. [5823]
Mr. Timms: Of the 1,719 maintained secondary schools with sixth forms 1 for which information is available for each of the last three years, 313 show a decrease in pupils of sixth form age in each year.
A table showing the 313 maintained secondary schools has been placed in the Library.
- 1 For the purpose of this exercise a school with a sixth form has been defined as being a maintained secondary school with eight or more pupils aged 16 and eight or more pupils aged 17.
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on differences in performance at GCSE between state secondary schools (a) with and (b) without a sixth form. [6095]
Mr. Timms: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library.
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