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Curriculum: Climate Change

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what (a) guidance and (b) resources have been provided by his Department to schools and colleges to enhance the teaching of climate change issues. [118395]

Jim Knight: The Department’s aim is for all schools in England to be sustainable schools by 2020. In 2006 we consulted on a framework to help schools embed sustainability across all areas of school life including the curriculum. This academic year is a year of action to help schools become sustainable. We are working with partners to develop resources to support the teaching and learning of key issues like climate change such as a pupil ‘detective kit’ and teacher resource pack. A climate change package including a copy of Al Gore’s film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is also being made available to all schools.

The Department has funded the Met Office Education Service to produce a free CD-Rom to aid the teaching of climate change at GCSE and A-level. This year it will produce poster-based teaching resources on climate change for schools. The Climate Challenge Fund was set up in 2006 by DEFRA to provide financial support for communications projects seeking to achieve positive changes in public attitudes about climate change. A number of the projects will create resources for schools, including an e-learning game, education packs and DVDs.

All of the above resources will be available to schools and colleges through the Sustainable Schools area of Teachernet at:

www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools

Curriculum: Driving

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will consider introducing the teaching of safe driving into the national curriculum; and if he will make a statement. [118901]

Jim Knight [holding answer 6 February 2007]: Education about safety is included in the curriculum through the non-statutory framework of personal social and health education (PSHE). In PSHE lessons pupils are taught about rules for, and ways of, keeping safe, to recognise the risks that apply in different situations and then to decide how to behave responsibly. They should be taught to recognise and manage risk, to be aware when pressure from others threatens their personal safety and to develop assertiveness techniques when dealing with unhelpful pressure. Schools may use the issue of safe driving when addressing these learning outcomes.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has been undertaking a review of the secondary national curriculum, including PSHE. The draft programmes of study will be subject to a public consultation from 5 February and views on the inclusion of safe driving can be expressed as part of this consultation.

Curriculum: History

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to reform history teaching in schools. [118468]

Jim Knight: At the request of Government, the QCA is carrying out a review of the secondary curriculum to
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reduce prescription, improve coherence and create further opportunities for schools to meet the needs of their pupils. A formal consultation on the new secondary curriculum will begin on 5 February 2007. Revised programmes of study will be available to schools for planning purposes in September 2007, with implementation beginning in September 2008. In addition QCA has also recently reviewed A-level criteria and is currently reviewing GCSE criteria.

Curriculum: Languages

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made in Lord Dearing’s review of language teaching; and if he will make a statement. [118470]

Jim Knight: Lord Dearing published his interim report on 14 December and put it out for consultation until 31 January. He is due to submit his final report to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State at the end of February.

Education: Barnet

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the per pupil funding allocated to Barnet Education Authority (a) is for 2006-07, (b) is expected to be for 2007-08 and (c) was in 1996-97; and if he will make a statement. [118476]

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Jim Knight: In 2006-07 Barnet local authority received a Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation of £4,081 per pupil and revenue grants of £966 per pupil—a total of £5,047 per pupil to fund the education of nursery, primary and secondary school aged pupils.

For 2007-08 Barnet local authority will receive a Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation of £4,344 per pupil. Revenue grant figures are not yet available for 2007-08.

Figures for 1996-97 are not available on a comparable basis.

Education: North-East Region

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on (a) primary and (b) secondary school education in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North-East and (iv) England in each year since 1997. [118221]

Jim Knight: The Jarrow constituency comprises schools in both South Tyneside and Gateshead local authority, so the available information provided in the following table applies to the South Tyneside and Gateshead local authorities, the North-East Region and England:

School-based expenditure( 1) in local authority maintained primary and secondary schools( 2, 3 ) 1997-98 to 2005-06( 4, 5, 6, 7) —cash terms figures( 8, 9, 10) as reported by local authorities as at 31 January 2007
	South Tyneside( 10)			Gateshead( 10)
	Primary( 2)	Pre-primary and primary( 2, 3)	Secondary	Primary( 2)	Pre-primary and primary( 2, 3)	Secondary
1997-98(4)	—	23,933,000	20,902,000	—	29,995,000	27,070,000
1998-99(4)	—	26,215,000	23,212,000	—	31,560,000	27,655,000
1999-2005(5)	27,558,000	28,383,000	25,027,000	33,957,000	34,335,000	28,547,000
2000-01	30,420,000	31,761,000	28,370,000	38,122,000	38,891,000	33,960,000
2001-02	35,560,000	37,254,000	33,973,000	38,793,000	40,669,000	34,180,000
2002-03(6, 7)	34,070,000	—	33,656,000	40,746,000	—	38,245,000
2003-04	36,784,000	—	36,935,000	43,292,000	—	43,304,000
2004-05	37,531,000	—	39,765,000	45,000,000	—	46,612,000
2005-06(8)	39,051,000	—	42,712,000	48,803,000	—	49,459,000

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	North-East			England
	Primary( 2)	Pre-primary and primary( 2, 3)	Secondary	Primary( 2)	Pre-primary and primary( 2, 3)	Secondary
1997-98(4)	—	387,380,000	393,033,000	—	7,277,910,000	5,775,271,000
1998-99(4)	—	412,727,000	412,503,000	—	7,834,434,000	6,049,029,000
1999-2005(5)	444,482,000	458,999,000	447,885,000	8,602,543,000	8,842,996,000	8,257,736,000
2000-01	483,885,000	502,500,000	496,833,000	9,425,272,000	9,761,443,000	9,093,528,000
2001-02	544,838,000	571,112,000	557,576,000	10,495,632,000	10,918,773,000	10,261,440,000
2002-03(6, 7)	537,799,000	—	569,583,000	10,584,953,000	—	10,621,927,000
2003-04	572,380,000	—	631,797,000	11,379,539,000	—	11,768,559,000
2004-05	596,563,000	—	672,642,000	11,900,153,000	—	12,603,303,000
2005-06(8)	638,133,000	—	718,537,000	12,721,978,000	—	13,480,547,000
(1) School-based expenditure includes only expenditure incurred directly by the schools. This includes the pay of teachers and school-based support staff, school premises costs, books and equipment, and certain other supplies and services, less any capital items funded from recurrent spending and income from sales, fees and charges and rents and rates. This excludes the central cost of support services such as home to school transport, local authority administration and the financing of capital expenditure which cannot be attributed to a particular phase of education. (2) Expenditure was not distinguished between the pre-primary and primary sectors until the inception of Section 52 for financial year 1999-2000. (3) School-based expenditure in LA maintained nursery schools was not recorded in 2002-03 and comparable figures are not available for 2003-04 onwards. (4) Spending in 1997-98 reflects the transfer of moneys from local government to central Government for the nursery vouchers scheme. These were returned to local government from 1998-99. (5) The 1999-2000 figures reflect the return of grant maintained schools to local authority maintenance. (6) 1999-2000 saw a change in data source when the data collection moved from the RO1 form collected by the ODPM to the Section 52 form from the DfES. 2002-03 saw a further break in the time series following the introduction of Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) to schools and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The change in sources is shown by the blank row. (7) The calculation for 2002-03 onwards is broadly similar to the calculation in previous years. However, 2001-02 and earlier years includes all premature retirement compensation (PRC) and Crombie payments, mandatory PRC payments and other indirect employee expenses. Also, for some LAs, expenditure that had previously been attributed to the school sectors was reported within the LA part of the form from 2002-03 and would therefore be excluded, though this is not quantifiable from existing sources. (8) 2005-06 data is subject to change by the local authority. (9) Figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000. (10) Financial data is collected at a local authority level and not at constituency level and consequently figures for the constituency of Yarrow are not available. Yarrow has schools in both South Tyneside LA and Gateshead LA and consequently figures are provided for both.

Educational Attainment

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how each of the coefficients used in the calculation of the 2006 key stage 2 to 4 contextual value added were calculated; [117649]

(2) what the (a) value and (b) upper and lower confidence limit was of each of the underlying coefficients used in the calculation of the 2006 key stage 2 to 4 contextual value added score. [117648]

Jim Knight: The coefficients were calculated on the full national dataset of approximately 600,000 pupils reaching the end of Key Stage 4 in 2006, taking account of their KS2 and KS4 attainment together with the individual pupil level characteristics collected in the Annual School Census in January 2006. The coefficient for a particular characteristic shows the average effect of that characteristic on pupil attainment, after taking account of each pupil’s prior attainment and all the other characteristics included in the model. The coefficients were derived using the package MLwiN using multi-level modelling techniques. Separate models were calculated for maintained mainstream schools, and for special schools.

The values and confidence limits of the coefficients for each of the models are as follows:

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