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14 Dec 2006 : Column 1394W—continued
Recycling
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will take steps to ensure that all Government-funded schools are made aware of the recycling opportunities available to them. [104008]
Jim Knight: Steps are already being taken by DfES and by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure that schools are aware of recycling opportunities. Under our Sustainable Schools Strategy and framework, “purchasing and waste” is one of the eight areas that schools can take action on to improve their overall performance. Guidance is available to schools on Teachernet (http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools/) and, since April 2006, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has received funding from DEFRA to work with schools.
School Discipline
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will break down by substance involved the number of exclusions listed under Drug and Alcohol Related for London in the answer of 18 April 2006 to the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell), Official Report, columns 176-78W, on school discipline. [108087]
Jim Knight: This information is not held centrally. Schools and local authorities select from 12 categories which best describe the reason for exclusion. One category for reason for exclusion is ‘drug and alcohol related’, but this is not broken down by type of substance.
School Meals
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the calorific content of drinks to be provided in schools under the new schools food regime. [109050]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department has not made such an assessment. On the advice of the School Meals Review Panel and the School Food Trust and in order to encourage the consumption of healthier and more nutritious drinks while at school, the new nutritional standards for school food allow only plain water (still or sparkling) and nutritious drinks such as skimmed or semi-skimmed milk; fruit juices; yoghurt drinks with less than 5 per cent. added sugar; or combinations of these drinks.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of pupils attending each of the 25 schools achieving the (a) highest and (b) lowest percentage of pupils achieving five or more A* to C GCSEs in 2005-06 were entitled to free school meals. [107968]
Jim Knight [holding answer 11 December 2006]: The Department will answer this question and make the answer available in the House of Commons Library when the 2006 secondary school achievement and attainment tables are published in January 2007.
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of pupils received free school meals in each local authority area in (a) 1979, (b) 1992, (c) 1997 and (d) the latest year for which figures are available. [108165]
Jim Knight: The available information has been placed in the Library.
School Waste Management
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was paid by schools in England for the disposal of recyclables in the last year for which figures are available. [105660]
Jim Knight: The Department does not collect expenditure data relating specifically to the disposal of recyclables.
Schools: Funding
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what schemes for schools are directly funded by his Department. [102337]
Jim Knight: The following table shows the recurrent grants available to local authorities for schools in 2006-2007. The grants in the table are those made available to schools over and above their delegated school budgets. School standards grants, school development grant and the devolved school meals grant are allocated to all maintained schools. The distribution of the other grants to schools is determined locally after discussion with the local schools forum.
Local authorities and their schools have also been allocated £12.3 billion for capital investment in schools across the current financial year and the next. This is available for investment in buildings and information technology facilities in primary and secondary schools. It is the responsibility of local authorities and their schools to determine how they allocate these funds to different projects across the primary and secondary estate, taking account of local needs and priorities. Local authorities may supplement this if they are able to secure funding from other sources.
| Recurrent grants available to schools 2006-07 | |
| Allocation (£ million) | |
Schools: Special Measures
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many pupils there are in schools that are in special measures; and what his estimate is of the average funding per pupil in those schools; [105725]
(2) what the socio-economic characteristics are of each school which is in special measures.; [105726]
(3) what the name is of each school which was in special measures in each of the last 10 years; and in which local authority ward each is based. [105727]
Jim Knight: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
Schools: Admissions
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what assessment he has made of the effect of paragraph 2.13 of the draft schools admission code on siblings and selective schools on schools in (a) Herefordshire and (b) elsewhere.; [108945]
(2) what the intended consequence is of paragraph 2.13 on siblings and selective schools of the draft schools admission code; [108946]
(3) how many schools in England select a proportion of their pupils on the basis of (a) aptitude, (b) ability and (c) a combination of both in each local education authority area; [108951]
(4) what modelling exercise has been carried out on the potential effects of paragraph 2.13 of the draft schools admissions code on school admissions. [108995]
Jim Knight: Information on the pattern of admissions for September 2006 is available on local authority and school websites. From this data it is clear that, where a school admits more than 10 per cent. of its pupils by reference to aptitude or ability and also adopts the sibling oversubscription criterion, fewer children who live close to the school have priority for admission. Some of these schools currently admit more than 40 per cent. of their children based on a sibling connection rather than proximity.
The school admissions code will ensure fairness in admission arrangements for all children. This includes families that want their first child or only child to attend a good local school.
We do not consider that the proposed changes will affect schools in Herefordshire as we believe that no Herefordshire school selects more than 10 per cent. of its intake by reference to aptitude, and none admit based on ability.
We do not routinely monitor information on how many schools have partially selective arrangements, or the type of arrangements such schools adopt; neither do we require schools which admit 10 per cent. of their intake by reference to aptitude under section 102 of the SSFA 1998 to notify the Government.
We know there are 164 wholly selective (by ability) grammar schools. Of the 41 partially selective schools, of which we are aware, four select a proportion of their intake by aptitude, 28 by ability and nine by a combination of each.
In 2001, 45 of the then 685 specialist schools reported that they selected 10 per cent. of their intake by reference to aptitude. This is the most up-to-date data available.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of applications at the age of transfer from primary to secondary education for a place at secondary school did not result in the pupil concerned being placed in their first choice of secondary school in each local education authority in the last year for which figures are available. [107966]
Jim Knight [holding answer 11 December 2006]: The Department does not collect this data. Research carried out by Sheffield Hallam university in 2001 showed 92 per cent. of parents were offered a place at their first choice of school; 96 per cent. were offered a place at a school for which they had expressed a preference; and 4 per cent. of parents were not offered a place at any school for which a preference was expressed.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 4 December 2006, Official Report, column 134W, on schools admissions, (1) what estimate he has made of the number of partially selective schools that will be permitted to continue to give priority to siblings under the proposed school admissions code; on what grounds an adjudicator may decide under the code to allow partially selective schools to give priority to siblings; whether it is his policy that an adjudicator should only grant permission to deviate from good practice guidance under the code in exceptional circumstances; and what research his Department has conducted on the effect on giving siblings priority at partially selective schools; [108932]
(2) what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of pupils at partially selective schools who were admitted (i) on the grounds of sibling priority, (ii) on the grounds of sibling priority where the sibling attending the school had been admitted on the grounds of ability or aptitude and (iii) who were admitted neither on the grounds of ability or aptitude nor sibling priority. [108935]
Jim Knight: The Department knows of 41 schools which have partially selective arrangements. The draft code proposed that these schools should not give priority to siblings. This is not an absolute prohibition: it would remain open to such schools to determine to give priority to siblings. Responses to the consultation are currently being considered.
Data on admission arrangements for 2006/07 was available for 23 of the 41 partially selective schools on their local authority and school websites. The data do not provide the level of detail requested by the hon. Member. However, nine of those schools admitted over 40 per cent. of their intake based on sibling criteria and a further seven admitted between 20 per cent. and 39 per cent. based on sibling criteria. With the proportion of pupils admitted to selective places up to 40-50 per cent. in some schools, this can mean that fewer than 20 per cent. of a school’s places may be allocated to local families.
The Schools Adjudicator is independent of the Secretary of State and reaches his own decisions based on the facts of the case before him. However, section 84 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 as amended by section 40 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 will require the adjudicator to ‘act in accordance with the Code’. In reaching his decision on any objection, the adjudicator will take into account advice in the code.
Schools: Attendance
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his estimate is of pupil numbers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each of the next 10 years. [107969]
Jim Knight [holding answer 11 December 2006]: The Department’s estimates for the number of pupils in England are shown in the following table.
| Projected numbers of pupils( 1) (in thousands) in maintained primary and secondary schools | ||
| Thousand | ||
| January | Maintained primary schools( 2) | Maintained secondary schools |
| (1 )Full-time equivalents, counting each part-time pupil as 0.5. The numbers have been rounded to the nearest one thousand. (2 )Pupil numbers in maintained primary schools includes those in nursery classes. | ||
The figures given in the table exclude academies and city technology colleges.
Projections are shown up to 2011 only because of the increasing degree of uncertainty over time, particularly for post-compulsory schooling.
Schools: Construction
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to ensure that companies contracted to carry out the Building Schools for the Future programme recruit under 25 year-olds previously not in employment, education or training (NEETs); and how many former NEETs are working for companies on such contracts. [108260]
Jim Knight: Whilst DfES supports the employment of NEETs, the private sector contractors engaged in the Building Schools for the Future programme are responsible for the recruitment of their own employees and, as such, also hold any data identifying the make-up of their workforce. It is not possible to tell how many young people who were once NEET are working for particular companies.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) whether meeting the BREEAM environmental standard is one of the criteria for spending on school infrastructure under the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme; [108297]
(2) how many schools’ buildings in England meet the BREEAM environmental standard; [108298]
(3) what environmental criteria are applied to schools' bids under the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme. [108299]
Jim Knight [holding answer 11 December 2006]: DfES has made it a condition of funding that all major new build and refurbishment projects valued at:
over 500,000 for primary schools and
£2 million for secondary schools
and involving rebuilding or complete refurbishment of more than 10 per cent. of the floor area of a school should be subject to a schools BREEAM assessment(1).
(1) www.breeam.org/schools.html
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