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30 Mar 2004 : Column 1397W—continued

School Innovation

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of

30 Mar 2004 : Column 1398W

18 March 2004, Official Report, column 475W, on school innovation, how many schools have been granted the power to innovate, broken down by area of innovation. [164624]

Mr. Miliband: There have been four schools whose applications to the Power to Innovate have been granted. These are as follows:

Quantity(Schools)	Relevant legislation	Innovation
3	The Changing of School Session Times (England) Regulations 1999	To extend the length of the school day mid academic year, rather than wait until the beginning of the new school year. The purpose of the innovation was to provide extra curricular activities for pupils, freeing up time for teachers to work on planning, preparation, and to draw up education plans for individual pupils
1	The Changing of School Session Times (England) Regulations 1999	To change the timings of the school day without the requirements set out in regulations to give the minimum of three months notice to parents and to consult parents at a meeting (instead parents were consulted by correspondence). The purpose of the innovation was to end the school day one hour early on alternate Wednesdays from September 2003, allowing staff to have a dedicated two-hour period once a fortnight for planning, preparation, assessment, and to hold meetings.

School Computers

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much public funding has been spent on computers for schools in Greater London, broken down by local education authority, in each of the past seven years. [163729]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Funding for information and communications technologies (ICT) in schools has been allocated through the Standards Fund since 1998–99. Details of funding for schools in London (including local education authority matched funding) have been placed in the Libraries.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils per computer there are in schools in Greater London, broken down by local education authority. [163730]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is not available centrally.

Figures for England, which were derived from a sample of schools, are shown in the table.

Average number of pupils⁽³⁹⁾per computer (used solely or mainly for teaching and learning purposes) by type of school—England—year end March 2003

2003	Number
Maintained Primary Schools	7.9
Maintained Secondary Schools	5.4
Maintained Special Schools	3.0

⁽³⁹⁾ Full-time equivalent numbers of pupils.

The latest information on ICT in schools was published in Statistical Bulletin "Survey of Information and Communications Technology in Schools 2003", which is available on the Department's website www. dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.

North Tyneside LEA

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students living in North Tyneside local education authority have benefited from New Opportunities bursaries since the scheme was set up. [164370]

Alan Johnson: Information about Opportunity Bursaries is held at the level of institutions that provide higher education provision. Apart from that, it is not possible to extract from the data the number of awards for students in any given area.

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what investment there has been in (a) sports and (b) music in schools in North Tyneside local education authority in each of the last seven years. [164377]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information is not held centrally. Within the context of the statutory National Curriculum, where music is compulsory for pupils aged 5 to 14, and Physical Education (PE) is compulsory for pupils aged 5 to 16, it is for individual schools to use their budgets as they judge appropriate.

The Government are investing more than £1 billion in England to transform PE, school sport and club links. The funding will help deliver an ambitious Public Service Agreement target, shared with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to increase the percentage of 5 to 16-year-olds who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75 per cent. by 2006.

The Department is providing £909,086 to support the delivery of 2 School Sport Partnerships in the North Tyneside LEA area. The partnerships include 12 secondary and 51 primary schools and provide enhanced sports opportunities for all young people and ensure that their pupils spend a minimum of two hours a week on high quality PE and School Sport.

The Music Standards Fund (MSF) supports Local Education Authority Music Services, which provide activities including workshops, festivals, small group and ensemble tuition and curriculum support. Since 1999, the following MSF payments have been made to North Tyneside LEA Music Service.

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	£
2003–04	213,983
2002–03	203,983
2001–02	154,000
2000–01	73,470
1999–2000	53,375

Note:

£203,983 has been allocated for 2004–05.

Furthermore, the New Opportunities Fund has provided schools in the North Tyneside LEA area with £3,528,950 to specifically enhance music, PE and school sport facilities.

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) teaching assistants, (b) teachers and (c) teaching vacancies there were in schools in North Tyneside local education authority in each of the last seven years. [164380]

Mr. Miliband: The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent teaching assistants, regular teachers and full-time teacher vacancies in maintained schools in North Tyneside Local Education Authority in each January between 1997 and 2003.

	Teaching assistants	Teachers	Teacher vacancies
1997	105	1,650	0
1998	216	1,640	0
1999	217	1,630	26
2000	237	1,600	16
2001	274	1,820	14
2002	184	1,690	8
2003	305	1,650	5

Source:

Annual School Census and the annual survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies (618G)

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the level of local education authority funding per pupil in Tyneside (a) is for 2004–05 and (b) was in 1996–97. [164418]

Mr. Miliband: The following table provides total revenue funding per pupil (age three to 19) figures for North Tyneside and South Tyneside for 2004–05 and 1997–98—the first year for which comparative data are available. 2004–05 figures are still provisional.

	North Tyneside	South Tyneside
1997–98	2,620	2,750
2004–05	3,570	3,820

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much North Tyneside schools have received in Standards Fund Grant in each year since its introduction. [164362]

Mr. Miliband: Standards Fund grants are allocated to local education authorities (LEAs), not directly to schools. It is not possible to identify separately the amounts allocated to schools by LEAs. The following table shows allocations for the Standards Fund for North Tyneside local education authority since the Standards Fund was introduced in 1998–99. The

30 Mar 2004 : Column 1400W

allocations include both Government and local authority contributions. The figures for 1998–99 to 2002–03 include class size grant, worth £0.4 million in 2002–03. Since 2003–04, funding for class size grant is distributed via Education Formula Spending Shares (EFSS).

Standards fund allocations to North Tyneside local education authority£

	Revenue	Capital
1998–99	2.1	1.5
1999–2000	3.8	2.2
2000–01	7.9	4.8
2001–02	10.0	6.8
2002–03	12.2	8.5
2003–04	12.6	9.1

School Places (Ribble Valley)

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many new school places have been created in each year since 1997, in schools in the Ribble Valley parliamentary constituency.[R] [163928]

Mr. Miliband [holding answer 26 March 2004]: We do not hold the information in the form requested. However, funding to support the provision of new pupil places in Lancashire local education authority (LEA) has been based on the following numbers of new places.

Year	Primary	Secondary
1998–99	124	215
1999–2000	—	548
2000–01	—	436
2001–02	—	40
2002–03	—	111
2003–04	180	35

Note:

Allocations related to the authority's forecast of new pupil places required three years hence.

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