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Grammar Schools
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) when she last visited a state grammar school on official business; [53825]
(2) how many visits she has made to state grammar schools on official business since 5 May 2005; and to which schools. [53826]
Ruth Kelly: Since my appointment as Secretary of State for Education and Skills, I have not visited any state grammar schools on official business.
Gypsies/Travellers
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what targeted programmes have been introduced to address under-performance of pupils from Gypsy and Traveller communities. [53540]
Jacqui Smith: We are concerned that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are among the lowest achieving in our schools. In 2003 the Government launched a national strategy to tackle the underachievement of minority ethnic pupils. This included a range of initiatives aimed at supporting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people, including a national pilot project testing strategies to improve attendance and raise attainment.
The findings from this pilot have informed the development of a national programme of work to support local authorities and schools with large numbers of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils to better meet their needs. This will be launched in 12 local authorities in April 2006 and follows up a commitment we made in the Schools White Paper.
Head Teachers
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the average salary paid to head teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools was in each year since 1995; [46408]
(2) what the average age of head teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools was in each year since 1995; [46409]
(3) how many head teachers (a) retired and (b) were appointed in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in each year since 1995; [46410]
(4) what the average salary of head teachers was in 2004–05, broken down by region. [47341]
Jacqui Smith:
As a result of the data issues explained in my response to the hon. Member's question of 31 January on the publication Statistics of Education:
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The School Workforce in England", the most recent data currently available are for March 2003, (except for retirements) which are available for 2004. The figures provided for 2001 onwards are the best currently available but may be revised following further analysis. Any revisions will be made available on the Research and Statistics Gateway 1 . The available data are shown in the tables.
Information on the average salary of head teachers by region is not currently available.
1 The Research and Statistics Gateway is the web portal that provides access to all DfES statistics, it can be found at the following address: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/
The following table provides the average salary and average age of full-time regular qualified head teachers employed in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England, March 1995 to March 2003, the latest information available.
Source:
Database of Teacher Records
Average salaries are rounded to the nearest £100.
Schools and local authorities have flexibility to award recruitment and retention incentives and are able to set a head teacher's salary above the top of the pay spine.
The following table provides the number of head teachers who retired and the number of teachers promoted to head teacher in each year from 1995–96 to 2003–04, the latest information available.
n/a = not available
(58) Includes teachers whose last day of service may have been some years earlier than the retirement award date.
(59) Promotions exclude teachers who were not previously in service or in service outside of the maintained sector.
(60) The effect of the change in the Teachers' Pensions Scheme as from 31 August 1997 was that many more teachers took early retirement in 1996–97 and 1997–98 than in previous and subsequent years.
(61) Standards Fund money was made available in 2000–01 and 2000–02 to support early retirement scheme specifically aimed at head teachers.
Note:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
Database of Teacher Records and Pensioner Statistics Database
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Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many and what proportion of applicants for the National Professional Qualification
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for Headship were required to retake (a) the school-based assessment and (b) the final assessment in each year since 1997; [47337]
(2) how many and what proportion of teachers with the National Professional Qualification for Headship qualified through each available route; [47338]
(3) what the pass rate for the National Professional Qualification for Headship was in each year since 1997; [47339]
(4) how many people have been awarded the National Professional Qualification for Headship in each year since 1997; [47340]
(5) what proportion of headteachers have the National Professional Qualification for Headship. [47373]
Jacqui Smith: On the basis of information provided by the National College of School Leadership (NCSL), which has run the revised National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) since its introduction in 2001.
Candidates must pass the school-based assessment before they can move to the final stage. There is no obligation to retake an assessment, but these candidates would have to do so if they were to obtain the NPQH. The following table shows how many candidates did not meet the assessment criteria in each year since 2001.
14,526 candidates graduated with the NPQH in the period 2001–05. The number and percentage of candidates that qualified via each route is shown in the following table.
| Number of graduates | Percentage of graduates | |
|---|---|---|
| Route 1 | 4,646 | 32.0 |
| Route 2 | 8,484 | 58.4 |
| Route 3 | 1,396 | 9.6 |
| Total | 14,526 | 100.0 |
The three routes for the revised model of the NPQH are access (route 1); development (route 2); accelerated (route 3). For each intake, all three routes start at the same time but conclude at different rates, from around six months (accelerated route) to two years (access route).
There are two intakes for NPQH each calendar year, and the following table shows the percentage of candidates in each intake that have graduated as at January 2006. Successful candidates will achieve the NPQH at different rates, from around six months (accelerated route) to two years (access route). From intake 7 (March 2004) onwards, the percentage of those who have graduated is lower than for previous intakes because some candidates will still be working towards NPQH, as would be expected.
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The following table shows the number of people that have been awarded the revised NPQH in each year since 2001.
| Number of candidates awarded revised NPQH | |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 387 |
| 2002 | 2,783 |
| 2003 | 3,282 |
| 2004 | 3,838 |
| 2005 | 4,236 |
| Total | 14,526 |
As of January 2005, there were 22,860 full-time serving headteachers in the maintained sector in England. The NCSL estimates that around 23 per cent.
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of these headteachers now hold the NPQH. From 1 April 2004, it has been mandatory for all those appointed to their first headship post in local authority maintained schools, and non-maintained special schools, to hold the NPQH or be working towards it.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many vacancies there were for headteacher positions in each year from 1997 to 2005 in (a) Leicestershire and (b) England. [51725]
Jacqui Smith: The following table gives the number of full-time head teacher vacancies and temporarily filled head teacher posts in maintained schools in Leicestershire and Leicester local authority and in England, in each year, January 1997 to 2005, the latest information available.
(62) Advertised vacancies for permanent appointments (or appointments of at least one term's duration). Posts filled by somebody on a contract of a term or more are not counted as being vacant.
2. Temporarily filled full-time permanent appointments (including vacancies). The definition is wider than the vacancy definition above (items b to d as follows are in addition to the normal definition).
a. where there is no incumbent who is expected to return to the post.
b. whether or not filled on a temporary basis, i.e either without a contract or on a contract of less than one year,
c. whether or not advertised,
d. where an appointment has been made but not yet taken up.
(63) In April 1997 Leicestershire was reorganised into two authorities, Leicestershire and Leicester. Information on temporarily filled posts were not collected before 1998.
Note:
Figures for England are rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
DfES annual 618G survey.
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