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21 Jun 2005 : Column 1009W—continued

English Grammar

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the teaching of grammar in the English curriculum of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools. [5006]

Jacqui Smith: There are well-established national expectations for what children should achieve as they move through primary school, set out in termly word, sentence and text level objectives. The vast majority of maintained primary schools in England teach these through a daily Literacy Hour as recommended by the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching.

The Framework for teaching English at KS3 and 4 includes guidance on vocabulary, punctuation, sentence construction, grammar and style. It incorporates key principles and activities for the teaching and learning of writing, including sentence-level grammar, appropriate to individual year groups

English SATs

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 13 June 2005, Official Report, column 193W, regarding the Key Stage 3 English test, (1) if she will place in the Library the marking guidelines for that test; [5024]

(2) what proportion of the marks in the Key Stage 3 test in English are explicitly awarded for spelling in (a) the shorter writing test, (b) the longer writing test and (c) overall, as set out in the mark scheme document; [5824]

(3) if she will ask the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to revise marking guidelines for the Shakespeare paper of the Key Stage 3 English Test to ensure spelling is taken into account in assessing performance. [6016]

Jacqui Smith: I have today placed copies of the qualifications and Curriculum Authority's mark scheme for the 2005 Key Stage 3 English test in the Library.

The proportion of marks awarded for spelling in the Key Stage 3 test in English are 20 per cent. for the shorter writing task, none for the longer writing task and 4 per cent. of the overall English marks. As the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority have said that they will keep that allocation under review, I do not plan to ask them to revise the marking guideline for the Shakespeare paper.

EU Students

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the potential for EU students to avoid deferred fee payments made through the PAYE system once they return to their country of origin after graduation. [4207]

Bill Rammell: We anticipate relying on European Council regulation 44/2001 for the recovery of debt from borrowers who live in other parts of the EU. Robust procedures will be in place to ensure that graduates who return to their home countries pay amounts owed when due and that the risk of default is minimised.
 
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Food Programmes

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the forthcoming people first skills strategy will provide an opportunity for non-industry public interest groups to make representations on the need for food preparation and cooking programmes. [5299]

Jacqui Smith: People 1st (the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industries) have developed a strategy for qualifications for the food preparation and cooking sector and are currently scoping units to meet the industry's needs. The development of the content of these units will be done in collaboration with a range of partners including non-industry public interest groups.

GCSEs

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students did not achieve five A* to C passes in each year since 1997. [5405]

Jacqui Smith: The information on the number of 15-year-olds not achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE is provided in the following table.

	Number of 15-year-old pupils not achieving 5 or more A*-C	Number of 15-year-old pupils	Percentage of pupils not achieving 5 or more A*-C grades
2004(34)	297,970	643,574	46.3
2003(35)	292,740	622,122	47.1
2002	293,815	606,554	48.4
2001	301,701	603,318	50.0
2000	294,666	580,393	50.8
1999	302,412	580,972	52.1
1998	308,779	575,210	53.7
1997	321,874	586,766	54.9

⁽³⁴⁾ 2004 figures are revised and based on GCSE and equivalents basis.
⁽³⁵⁾ Figures between 1997 and 2003 only included GCSEs and GNVQs.

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils have left secondary school with a language GCSE Grade C or above in each London borough in each year since 1997. [5150]

Jacqui Smith: The information on the number of 15-year-olds in maintained schools achieving at least one modern language GCSE at Grade C or above in each London borough between 1997 and 2004 is provided in the following table.
 
21 Jun 2005 : Column 1011W
 

Number and percentages of 15-year-old pupils in maintained schools achieving at least one modern language GCSE at Grade C or above

	1997		1998		1999		2000
	No./percentage		No./percentage		No./percentage		No./percentage
City of London
Camden	638	38	711	41	790	48	752	44
Greenwich	544	23	530	23	659	28	523	23
Hackney	358	27	364	27	515	36	453	32
Hammersmith and Fulham	261	26	394	40	551	57	418	40
Islington	307	22	332	24	379	27	337	25
Kensington and Chelsea	209	38	237	43	301	51	244	41
Lambeth	267	22	283	23	361	29	292	23
Lewisham	415	21	490	24	584	28	600	29
Southwark	315	18	352	20	366	20	304	17
Tower Hamlets	758	32	790	35	832	37	797	34
Wandsworth	392	24	472	29	604	35	603	35
City of Westminster	368	28	401	31	472	37	431	32
Barking and Dagenham	336	20	308	18	393	23	382	22
Barnet	1,323	41	1,534	47	1,902	58	1,662	50
Bexley	850	34	903	36	1,065	42	1,054	40
Brent	701	33	789	36	867	39	874	38
Bromley	1 ,223	41	1,296	44	1,708	55	1,409	48
Croydon	1,238	38	1,016	31	1,225	39	1,179	37
Ealing	801	32	916	38	1,045	43	943	39
Enfield	1,049	33	1,060	34	1,500	48	1,256	39
Haringey	502	29	559	31	654	37	708	38
Harrow	797	38	833	40	1,027	52	931	45
Havering	756	27	938	34	1,088	41	975	37
Hillingdon	670	27	784	32	948	38	878	35
Hounslow	811	31	908	36	981	39	869	34
Kingston upon Thames	560	43	638	48	720	54	669	50
Merton	374	24	399	25	427	27	479	31
Newham	770	29	806	29	1,001	35	950	32
Redbridge	1,013	39	1,181	45	1,471	54	1,348	46
Richmond upon Thames	535	35	541	38	690	47	568	40
Sutton	862	43	924	47	1,304	64	1,083	53
Waltham Forest	694	31	656	28	752	32	686	29
London	20,697	31	22,345	34	27,182	41	24,657	37

	2001		2002		2003		2004(36)
	No./percentage		No./percentage		No./percentage		No./percentage
City of London
Camden	709	43	600	42	526	37	587	41
Greenwich	616	27	550	23	432	18	466	18
Hackney	475	34	451	31	430	31	424	33
Hammersmith and Fulham	448	43	457	42	495	44	492	42
Islington	341	25	423	31	416	32	410	29
Kensington and Chelsea	282	48	281	49	300	51	284	49
Lambeth	308	24	333	26	374	28	386	28
Lewisham	655	30	644	30	583	26	597	26
Southwark	347	19	401	21	357	18	428	21
Tower Hamlets	809	33	832	35	883	35	754	31
Wandsworth	656	37	647	36	587	33	575	31
City of Westminster	467	37	484	37	505	38	496	35
Barking and Dagenham	357	21	284	17	295	17	302	15
Barnet	1,678	49	1,756	51	1,678	48	1,786	50
Bexley	1,111	39	999	36	1,016	34	1,064	35
Brent	902	38	1,020	39	1,002	38	1,030	39
Bromley	1,455	45	1,511	45	1,365	40	1,411	39
Croydon	1,247	37	1,291	39	1,146	33	1,175	32
Ealing	987	41	879	36	992	37	974	36
Enfield	1,333	40	1,264	38	1,304	39	1,321	39
Haringey	718	39	714	37	657	33	734	34
Harrow	904	44	952	46	922	43	993	45
Havering	1,140	40	1,213	42	1,213	42	1,350	44
Hillingdon	821	31	795	31	768	29	887	30
Hounslow	951	36	977	38	957	36	974	37
Kingston upon Thames	702	51	692	50	707	50	683	46
Merton	433	29	394	25	407	26	421	26
Newham	1,081	36	1,085	37	988	32	1,140	36
Redbridge	1,438	51	1,476	51	1,415	47	1,379	46
Richmond upon Thames	646	44	603	41	604	41	553	37
Sutton	1,120	51	1,240	55	1,197	51	1,364	52
Waltham Forest	783	33	806	34	736	31	784	30
London	25,920	38	26,054	38	25,257	36	26,224	36

⁽³⁶⁾ 2004 figures are revised.



 
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