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23 Jan 2006 : Column 1926W—continued
School Clubs
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools had (a) after school clubs and (b) breakfast clubs in each year for which figures are available. [43948]
Jacqui Smith: Precise information is not available. However, my Department recently commissioned MORI to undertake a survey of study support (out of school hours learning) activities in England. This showed that 90 per cent. of primary schools and 98 per cent. of secondary schools offer some study support. Of those, 96 per cent. of primary schools and 97 per cent. of secondary schools provided after school activities, with breakfast clubs provided by 30 per cent. of primary and 49 per cent. of secondary. All local authorities receive funding from my Department to provide study support, as part of the School Development Grant.
School Finance
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what measures are being taken to help schools who face financial problems due to unexpected falling rolls. [43297]
Jacqui Smith: With the introduction of a new funding methodology for schools from 2006–07, all local authorities will be required to use a single pupil count, based on numbers in January before the financial year, in the calculation of school budget shares. Using the single pupil count will be a significant contribution to improved certainty of funding and will offer protection to schools which suffer unexpected falling rolls during the year.
Local authorities are currently able to include factors in their local funding formulae to provide additional funding where schools have a high turnover of pupils during the year; where they have higher than average salary costs; or where they have reductions in budget year on year beyond a threshold set by the authority. With the introduction of the new funding methodology from 2006–07, local authorities will still be able to retain such factors in their local funding formulae if they consider they are necessary.
School Performance
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills which schools her Department classed as (a) low-attaining and (b) under-performing in its analyses of school performance in (i) 2003 and (ii) 2004. [42037]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries.
School Toilets
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding is available to schools to (a) refurbish and (b) upgrade pupils' toilet facilities. [43521]
Jacqui Smith:
Capital allocations are made by the Department to local authorities and direct to schools, and prioritisation on individual expenditure is determined locally in accordance with local Asset
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Management Plan. Accordingly, the Department maintains no central records of (a) refurbishment and (b) upgrading of pupils' toilet facilities.
Capital allocations to local authorities and schools are higher than ever before. In 2005–06 they are £5.5 billion and they are planned to rise to £6.3 billion in 2007–08.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she will take to ensure that adequate toilet facilities are provided for pupils in schools over the extended school day. [43522]
Beverley Hughes: The Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 set out the requirements regarding washrooms in schools. The regulations do not specify what the distribution of washrooms should be, but facilities must be adequate for the ages, sex and numbers of pupils and any special requirements they may have. It is for schools and local authorities to plan services and facilities in schools over the extended school day. They will need to take into account in their planning that adequate toilet facilities must be provided for children attending extended services. We have committed £840million for extended schools from 2003–08, which schools and local authorities can use flexibly, including to support small capital projects.
Schools (Aylesbury Vale)
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the cost of additional (a) post-16 years and (b) special school provision in Aylesbury Vale arising from planned expansion of housing. [43306]
Jacqui Smith: No such estimates have been made by the Department. New provision for young people is planned locally. Our capital programmes are designed to support local responsiveness to meet the demands and needs of forecast population changes.
Revenue funding for pre and post 16 provision depends on numbers of pupils in a local authority's schools: extra pupils from planned expansion of housing will therefore generate extra funding for the local authority.
School Admissions
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on how many occasions the Admissions Adjudicator has ruled on complaints that schools should not be allowed to interview pupils and parents under the Admissions Code; and how many of these rulings have been successfully challenged by the schools concerned. [42771]
Jacqui Smith: Since 1999, there have been three objections to school's proposals to interview parents and/or pupils as part of their admissions process. One fell to the Schools Adjudicator to consider, while two fell within the Secretary of State's remit.
Schools Provision
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 9 January 2006, Official Report, column 429W, whether the projections for children of secondary school age take into account the additional new houses that are being built under the Milton Keynes South Midlands Regional Strategy. [42524]
Jacqui Smith: Population projections are the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics.
The mid-2003 based subnational population projections are based on assumptions about local fertility, mortality and migration levels derived from the five-year reference period 1999 to 2003. They are demographic trend-based projections and take no account of any future growth or development policies of an area.
The effects of the Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub-Regional Spatial strategy will be covered in future sets of projections when they are observed in the mid year estimates and historic migration estimates that are used to set the projection assumptions.
Schools White Paper
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the (a) workload and (b) time commitments for (i) governors and (ii) chairs of governing bodies of trustschools under the proposals in the Schools White Paper. [37667]
Jacqui Smith: On average, governors will spend 6 to 8 hours per month on governing body business and chairs of governors will spend at least twice as much time. We would expect a similar commitment in future Trust schools.
Science Graduates
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students graduated in the academic year 2004/05 in (a) pure chemistry, (b) pure physics, (c) electrical engineering, (d) mechanical engineering and (e) avionics; and how many graduated in each subject (i) five, (ii) 10 and (iii) 20 years ago. [27212]
Bill Rammell: The latest available information is given in the table. Data for 20 years ago is not available at this level of detail.
n/a = not applicable
(91) In 2002/03 a new coding frame for subject of study was introduced, as was a new method of allocating students between subjects studied. As such, figures for 2002/03 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years.
2 Figures for 2004/05 include students qualifying from dormant modes of study. In 2004/05 there were just under 10,000 first degree students who qualified from dormant modes of study.
Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.
Source:
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record
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