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Grafton Village School

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) if she will meet parents of children from Grafton Village School to discuss its possible closure; [50054]

(2) on what basis the decision was made to close the Grafton Village School in Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency. [50088]

Jacqui Smith: Since September 1999 decisions on school closures have been determined by either (a) the relevant local authority (for proposals it published where there were no objections), (b) the local School Organisation Committee (SOC) or, (c) where the SOC has been unable to agree a unanimous decision, the independent school adjudicator. Provisions contained within the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 do not allow Ministers to intervene in such cases.

At their meeting on 15 September, Shropshire SOC unanimously agreed to approve the proposal submitted by Shropshire county council and the Governing Body of Bicton Primary school to discontinue Grafton Primary school and enlarge Bicton Primary school. Approval being conditional upon planning permission being granted for an enlargement to Bicton school.

As they were already reported, their reasons were:

significant deficiencies in the present premises at both schools;

the children of both schools would benefit from education provided in 21st century surroundings;

implications of further travel to school did not outweigh the clear benefits of the new provision;

the proposal did not reduce denominational provision and admissions and the admissions policy was not based on denominational criteria.

Overall, the Committee considered that the evidence presented was strongly in favour of the proposals and that the best interests of both staff and pupils would be met by SOC approval. Shropshire county council are now under a statutory duty to implement the proposal
 
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as approved by the SOC. Given this statutory position the Secretary of State is unable to meet the parents of children from Grafton school.

Grammar Schools

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what percentage of pupils who are being educated in a grammar school live outside the school's local education authority boundary; [53545]

(2) what proportion of pupils who live inside the local education boundary are being educated at a grammar school within that local education authority. [53546]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 6 March 2006]: The information requested has been provided in the following table.
England

	Number and percentage
Number of resident pupils attending secondary schools within local authroity(67)	749,148
Number of resident pupils attending grammar schools within local authority	87,257
Percentage of resident pupils attending grammar schools within local authority	11.6
Total grammar school pupils	110,983
Grammar school pupils residing outside school local authority	23,377
Percentage of grammar school pupils residing outside school local authority	21.1
Grammar school pupils with unknown residence	349

⁽⁶⁷⁾ Includes secondary, middle deemed secondary, academies and city technology colleges.
⁽⁶⁸⁾ Includes pupils aged 15 and under.
Source:
Annual Schools Census 2005

Grange School, Shrewsbury

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will visit Grange School in Shrewsbury to meet teachers and pupils. [55941]

Ruth Kelly: I have no plans to visit Grange School in Shrewsbury at present.

Higher Education

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students who entered higher education in each year since 1996 went to universities that are members of (a) the Russell Group, (b) the 1994 Group and (c) the Coalition of Modern Universities; and what proportion in each category were from each socioeconomic group. [43021]

Bill Rammell: Information on the social background of entrants to higher education is published annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in Performance Indicators in Higher Education". For every higher education institution in the UK, the figures show the numbers and proportions of young, full-time entrants to first degree courses from social classes HIM, IV and V (for 2001/02 and earlier) and socio-economic groups 4, 5, 6 and 7 (from 2002/03). This gives a partial picture due to the exclusion of entrants to other
 
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undergraduate courses, part-time and mature students from the figures. The aggregate figures for the various institutional groupings are summarised in the table.
Young entrants to full-time first degree courses 1997/98 to2001/02

Total young entrants	Russell Group	1994 group	CMU	All HEIs
1997/98	50,205	17,610	57,135	216,210
1998/99	51,610	17,640	57,575	216,130
1999/2000	53,110	18,250	57,215	219,790
2000/01	53,265	19,045	55,670	221,140
2001/02	56,885	20,500	56,360	229,750
of which:
Percentage from social classes HIM, IV, V(69)
1997/98	15.8	16.6	33.3	25.0
1998/99	15.6	17.4	33.2	25.0
1999/2000	16.0	17.2	33.7	25.3
2000/01	16.5	17.7	33.7	25.4
2001/02	16.4	17.5	34.6	25.8

⁽⁶⁹⁾ The percentages are based on students who provided details of their background, and exclude non-respondents. Social classes HIM, IV and V cover students from skilled manual, semi-skilled and unskilled backgrounds.
Note:
Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 and percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.
Source:
HESA




Young entrants to full-time first degree courses 2002/03 to2003/04

Total young entrants	Russell Group	1994 group	CMU	All HEIs
2002/03	58,480	21,890	56,945	239,180
2003/04	61,370	22,355	56,755	241,445
of which:
From socio-economic groups 4–7(70)
2002/03	19.1	19.1	36.7	28.4
2003/04	19.0	20.3	36.7	28.6

⁽⁷⁰⁾ The percentages are based on students who provided details of their background, and exclude non-respondents. National Statistics socio-economic classifications (NS-SEC) 4–7 cover students from small employers and own account workers, lower supervisory and technical, semi-routine and routine occupational backgrounds.
Note:
Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 and percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.
Source:
HESA

Home Teaching

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate she has made of the proportion of children of school age who are being educated at home. [55439]

Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 23 January 2006, Official Report, column 1916W.

Home-School Agreements

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the schools which use home-school agreements in each local education authority. [53493]

Jacqui Smith: We do not collect information centrally on which schools use Home-School Agreements in each local authority area. However, we expect all maintained
 
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schools to have a Home-School Agreement in place as this has been a legal requirement since 1 September 1999.

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the maintained schools in each local education authority which do not give information on pupils' progress to parents at least three times a year. [53494]

Jacqui Smith: The Department does not collect information on how frequently maintained schools give information on pupils' progress to parents.

There is currently a legal requirement for maintained schools to provide a written pupil report to parents once a year and an opportunity for face-to-face discussion of that report with the pupil's teacher.

The White Paper, Higher Standards, Better Schools For All", sets out our plans for providing information to parents. We want all schools to provide information to parents on the progress of their child at least three times a year with regular opportunities to discuss with teachers how they can support their child's learning.

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