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21 Feb 2005 : Column 291W—continued
Pupil-Teacher Ratios
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many (a) students and (b) teachers there were in Essex county in the 2003–04 school year. [217146]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: In January 2004 there were 200,420 full-time equivalent students and 10,980 full-time equivalent regular teachers in maintained nursery, primary, secondary, special and pupil referral units in Essex local education authority.
Romford Schools
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money is allocated to each school in Romford. [217144]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested is collected at local education authority level. Romford schools fall within Barking and Dagenham, Essex, Havering and Redbridge LEAs. I have placed in the Library tables showing the requested financial data for 2004–05.
SATs Tests
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the grounds on which children can be excused or withdrawn from sitting SATs tests for (a) reading, (b) writing. [216067]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The key stage 2 tests assess levels 3 to 5 of the national curriculum. Schools should enter pupils for the tests in English, mathematics and science except where:
a pupil has been assessed as working at level 2 or below, and will not be working at level 3 by May;
the school is unable to establish whether a pupil is working at the level of the tests, for example because they have recently arrived in the school and cannot speak English; or
a pupil is working at the level of the tests but is unable to access them, for example because of a very severe physical disability.
Details of circumstances in which pupils should not be entered for the key stage 2 tests are set out in section 8 of the Key Stage 2 Assessment and Reporting Arrangements" booklet, published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which is issued to schools and is available on the QCA website.
School Admissions Policy
Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how the local education authority admissions authorities determine which address is used for a child seeking a school place in an oversubscribed school in the case of joint custody; and if she will make a statement. [216100]
Derek Twigg:
Guidance in the statutory School Admissions Code of Practice advises admission authorities that where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the
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oversubscription criteria need to make clear how the 'home' address will be decided in a fair and considered way. It is for the individual admission authority to decide what method they will use.
School Attendance
Mr. Forth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the accuracy of the data provided by schools to her Department for the last three years regarding attendance. [215725]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: We are satisfied the pupil absence in schools data published by my Department is accurate. We have processes in place to quality assure and clean the data submitted by each school prior to its provisional publication each September. The data is checked by schools as part of the School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables exercise and revised figures are published each December.
School Building (Isle of Wight)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) commitments and (b) undertakings she has made to the Isle of Wight Council regarding future capital allocations provided (i) through the Building Schools for the Future programme or (ii) otherwise, whether (A) contingent on or (B) not contingent on school reorganisation. [216280]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: A letter has been sent to all council leaders stating that, for authorities not prioritised in the first three waves of Building Schools for the Future (BSF), including the Isle of Wight, we are determined to make a start on BSF plans between 2005–06 and 2010–11. Our ambition is that in the next full Parliament, subject to future spending decisions, 60 per cent. of all authorities will have started in the BSF programme, or else be given resources to renew at least one secondary school with the greatest need as a school for the future, or as an academy. Each BSF scheme will be judged on its merits, and is not necessarily contingent on school reorganisation. Other capital allocations to the council and its schools were announced on 30 November, and are set out in the following table:
| £000 | |
|---|---|
| 2006–07 | 14,853 |
| 2007–08 | 15,446 |
School Incomes
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for how long her Department has collected information on the income of individual schools; and if she will provide that information and the number of pupils for the first 10 community primary schools and first 10 community secondary schools by her Department's number in each local education authority for each year for which the information is available. [216033]
Mr. Stephen Twigg:
The Department has just finished collecting the second year's worth of Consistent Financial Reporting data from individual schools. I have placed in the Library tables showing the requested
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financial data for 2002–03 and 2003–04. Some authorities have fewer than 10 community primary or secondary schools.
School Leavers (City of Durham)
Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school leavers in the City of Durham moved on to (a) higher education, (b) further education and (c) employment in each of the last five years. [214357]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: Information on 18-year-olds entering HE is collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and is available at constituency level. The number of 18-year-olds entering HE from City of Durham constituency from end 1999 to end 2003 is given in Table 1. The numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.
| End of calendar year | Number of people |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 260 |
| 2000 | 240 |
| 2001 | 260 |
| 2002 | 295 |
| 2003 | 305 |
Estimates of the percentage of young people participating in education and LSC-funded work-based learning (WBL) are not available below the local education authority (LEA) level. The number of 16-year-olds participating in full-time education, and in education and WBL, in Durham LEA, from end 1997 to end 2001, are shown in Table 2. The numbers have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Estimates for end 2002 and end 2003 (provisional) are due to be published in March 2005.
Information on 16 to 19-year-olds in employment (both full and part-time) is available at parliamentary constituency level from the Office for National Statistics. Table 3 following shows the numbers and percentages in City of Durham constituency since 2001. However, sample sizes are very small due to the narrow age band and small geographic area. Therefore, the employment rate is volatile and care should be taken when interpreting the figures. The numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand, with the rates calculated from unrounded numbers.
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| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 3,000 | 86.3 |
| 2002–03 | 3,000 | 49.1 |
| 2003–04(155) | 1,000 | 37.8 |
(155) The employment rate for 2003–04 is based on a sample size of less than 10.
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