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26 Apr 2007 : Column 1292W—continued
Funding for the three years from 2008-09 to 2010-11 will be agreed as part of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review 2007.
Education and Skills
Secondary Schools: Parental Choice
12. Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what initiatives his Department is pursuing to increase parental choice of secondary schools. [133964]
Jim Knight: The Government are committed to creating a real choice of excellent schools for parents. We have placed new duties on local authorities to plan schools with a view to increasing parental choice and to respond to parents. We have created opportunities for new providers to set up schools through competitions. We have introduced a fairer admissions system, with help for parents to exercise their choices, and we have extended parents’ rights to free school transport.
Accessible Textbooks
14. Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance his Department has issued to local education authorities on the provision of accessible textbooks; and if he will make a statement. [133967]
Mr. Dhanda: The Department has published a training resource “Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act in schools and early years settings” for schools and local authorities to help them meet their duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
This includes guidance to schools to help them develop their accessibility plans, covering planning improvements to the provision of written materials for disabled pupils over time. All schools can obtain a copy of the resource from DfES Publications.
Framework for Excellence
15. Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps the Learning and Skills Council plans to take to reflect the different roles and objectives of further education and sixth form colleges when aggregating performance measures into a single star rating as proposed under the framework for excellence. [133970]
Bill Rammell: The framework for excellence arrangements will take account of the aims and missions of individual colleges and providers. The Learning and Skills Council will pilot the arrangements for the framework fully during the academic year 2007-08, including developing and testing the processes and criteria for deriving each institution’s overall performance rating. The LSC will publish further details on the piloting arrangements in about two months’ time.
Secondary School Standards
16. Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to raise standards in secondary schools. [133971]
Jim Knight: We are investing over £1 billion in personalising learning by 2008.
The Secondary National Strategy provides training and support for teachers, including resources and materials for intervention and personalised learning.
As a result, the number of schools with less than 25 per cent. of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs is down from 616 to 47, and 86,555 more students achieved that standard than in 1997.
Reforms at 14-19 will improve vocational skills and will ensure that pupils leave school with functional skills in English, maths and ICT.
Academy Schools
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many academy schools are planned to open in the next 12 months. [133966]
Jim Knight: There are currently 47 academies open, and we anticipate that around 35 further academies will be opened in the next 12 months.
Adult Education: Copeland
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many adult learners entered higher education in Copeland in 2005-06. [133483]
Bill Rammell: The latest available information is given in the table.
| Number of entrants to undergraduate courses( 1) from Copeland parliamentary constituency by age—UK higher education institutions—academic year 2005/06 | |
| Age | Number of entrants |
| (1) Covers full-time and part-time modes of study. Note: Figures are based on the HESA Standard Registration Population and are rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |
City Academies: Sponsorship
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who the sponsor or sponsors are of each academy; and how much each has contributed. [133035]
Jim Knight: There are 47 academies now open. Information on the sponsor of each academy and the sponsors’ donations received to date towards open academies' capital costs—rather than total sponsorship committed—is given in the following table.
Sponsorship for the first academies has been provided in the form of a contribution to the capital costs of buildings. However, we have changed the sponsorship model and sponsors will now, as the norm, establish an endowment fund worth £2 million (or £1.5 million for the fourth or subsequent academy for sponsors of multiple academies), with a minimum of £500,000 payable in the first year. Payment of the endowment will normally be over five years. To date, only one open academy, St Mark's academy in Merton, has this form of sponsorship.
Sponsors’ donations contributing to capital costs are normally made over the lifetime of the building costs of the project, so in some cases a number of payments towards capital costs remain to be made. In other cases, sponsors' payments have been made, but are not recorded in the table as auditors have not yet completed their checks on whether these were spent on capital or recurrent costs.
We do not keep a record of sponsors' non-capital donations to academies.
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