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26 Jun 2007 : Column 703W—continued
GCSE: Gender
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of (a) girls and (b) boys in maintained schools were awarded (i) 5 A*-C at GCSE and (ii) 5 A*-C at GCSE including mathematics and English in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by (A) parliamentary constituency, (B) local education authority and (C) region. [143357]
Jim Knight [holding answer 18 June 2007]: Information on the performance of pupils in GCSE examinations is available on the Department's website at
This provides information on the achievement of 5 A*-C grades and 5 A*-C grades including English and mathematics at GCSE at local authority and regional level, split by gender.
The proportion of pupils achieving 5 grades A*-C at constituency level is available at
This is not split by gender. Figures for the proportion of pupils achieving 5 A*- C grades at GCSE including English and mathematics at constituency level can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Home Education: Finance
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to fund and support children receiving home education. [145674]
Jim Knight: The Government believe that school is the best educational setting for most children. However, we respect the right of parents to choose education at home for their children. There is no Government funding available to support home education, nor any plans to change current arrangements. On 8 May we published draft guidelines for consultation which set out how local authorities can best support home educating parents.
National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children have joined the National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth since July 2006. [140097]
Jim Knight: 34,436 pupils have joined the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth since July 2006.
Primary Education: Teaching Methods
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to the answer of 4 June 2007, Official Report, column 498W, on primary education: teaching methods, what information his Department collects on personalised learning in primary schools in (a) English and (b) mathematics. [144448]
Jim Knight: As defined in the report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group, personalised learning means taking a highly structured and responsive approach to each child and young person's learning, in order that all are able to progress, achieve and participate.
Many schools and teachers have tailored curriculum and teaching methods to meet the needs of children and young people with great success for many years. What is new is our drive to make the best practices universal across all schools, particularly for children whose needs can be the most challenging to meet. Personalised learning can therefore be described as effective day-to-day teaching and learning which is assessment-centred and which enables each learner to engage and ‘own’ their own learning. It can also encompass a wide range of more specific practices, such as Assessment for Learning and small group and one-to-one work with pupils.
The success of personalising teaching and learning will therefore be measured in improvements in the attainment of all pupils—especially in English and maths—in narrowing the gaps between different groups and in all reports of the quality of teaching and learning. We do not gather information on personalised learning as a separate programme or initiative, but Ofsted inspection reports, attainment data, evaluation of the ‘Making Good Progress’ pilots and a wide range of information sources can be used to build up a picture of personalised learning in both primary and secondary schools.
Procedures Relating to Soham Murders Inquiry
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether he plans to introduce a central scheme pursuant to recommendation nineteen of the Bichard Inquiry Report. [140279]
Mr. McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
A central vetting scheme created to deliver recommendation 19 of the Bichard Inquiry Report will be launched in autumn 2008.
Full information on the progress of the development of this new scheme is available in the Fourth Progress
Report on the Bichard Inquiry Recommendations (pages 45 to 49 inclusive) published by the Home Office in May 2007.
Pupils: Intimidation
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will bring forward plans to carry out research to assess best practice in (a) preventing and changing bullying behaviour and (b) supporting those being bullied in schools. [145916]
Jim Knight: As a result of the recent Education and Skills Committee enquiry into bullying, and subsequent report, and an independent evaluation of the Department’s work with the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), the Department is in the process of assessing its overall strategy of work to identify upcoming priorities and will shortly be competitively tendering for elements of work to be carried out in the next financial year. One of these elements will be research into bullying. This will look at what strategies are most effective in tackling bullying.
The Department currently commissions Goldsmiths College London, through the ABA, to provide research aligned with policy needs. In the last financial year, the projects undertaken on behalf of the Department included reviews of disability and bullying and on bullying in the community. Research projects this year will look at how schools can best support young people displaying bullying behaviours; young people at risk of anti-social behaviour; and bullying of looked-after children. The Department has also undertaken research with young people on the subject of cyberbullying to inform and develop key, relevant messages for our planned digital information campaign.
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will bring forward plans to audit how different schools across the country respond to bullying in schools. [145917]
Jim Knight: The Department currently has no plans to collect statistical data from schools or conduct a formal audit on how schools respond to bullying. As stated in the Department’s recent response to the Education and Skills Committee report on bullying, there are logistical difficulties involved in asking schools to record incidents of bullying and their responses to incidents. In particular, there are issues around consistency of definition and how bullying might be reported if it continues over a significant period of time. There is also a question of how we might interpret an increase in reported incidents, which might occur as the result of an improved anti-bullying policy and new focus on openness. These complications could lead to more bureaucracy and greater workload for schools.
The Department will continue to recommend in its revised anti-bullying guidance that schools record incidents of bullying and report the statistics to their local authority. The guidance will further advise that the LA should analyse the information gathered from schools to identify any issues of particular concern. This will enable the authority to be better informed in the development of appropriate strategies to tackle
bullying across its area. The data will also enable LAs to support and challenge schools in their duties to promote the welfare of pupils.
In addition, the forthcoming “Tellus 2” survey should give us more comprehensive data on young people’s experiences of bullying in schools. It will be an annual survey (starting this year), covering all LAs. Data will be considered by Ofsted in their annual performance assessment (APA) of each LA’s services, and could lead to Ofsted looking more closely at anti-bullying practices in a particular authority.
We are currently looking at how we might use data derived from the survey to inform future policy development. We are also working with the National Strategies to undertake some localised auditing of how schools deal with bullying. The National Strategies are identifying secondary schools with weak or ineffective anti-bullying policies and practice. Regional advisers and local authority consultants will provide support and challenge to these schools, working with them to embed good practice, as well as development of appropriate intervention strategies at both staff and pupil level. Progress on this work will be monitored and reported to the Department on a regular basis.
School Meals: Standards
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people have achieved a Level 1 qualification in Providing a Healthier School Meal Service in each year since it was introduced. [145880]
Mr. Dhanda: It is estimated that the Vocationally Related Qualification (VRQ) “Providing Healthier School Meals Service” has been obtained by 4,405 candidates since its introduction in September 2005. This represents 1,285 candidates in the academic year September 2005-August 2006 and 3,120 candidates so far in the present academic year (September 2006-mid June 2007).
Schools: Counselling
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how much will be spent on providing independent school-based counselling services for children and young people in each of the next three years; [145915]
(2) if he will bring forward plans for a comprehensive national independent school-based counselling service for children and young people who need to access it; [145918]
(3) how many children in England have access to independent school-based counselling services. [145919]
Mr. Dhanda: We believe that individual schools are best placed to decide the arrangements which should be put in place to meet the needs of their pupils; if a school decides to provide a counselling service, it is free to choose an external provider or directly to provide the service on an ‘in-house’ basis. The Department does not collect data on the amount spent on independent school-based counselling services or on the number of children who have access to such services.
There are already many alternative sources of help for pupils experiencing difficulties within and outside school, including learning mentors, Connexions personal advisers and Behaviour and Education Support Teams (BESTs). They can all help pupils tackle problems in schools (e.g. bullying, poor attendance) and they can provide young people with access to specialist services that treat problems such as anxiety, depression, eating problems, drug addiction and family breakdown.
Supporting the psychological well being and mental health of pupils is already a key component of school based programmes such as the National Healthy Schools programme and social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL). Through the development of comprehensive Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) we are seeing increasing numbers of CAMHS teams working in more effective and innovative ways with their local schools and extended schools.
Schools: Disability Aids
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many text books are available in electronic form to enable schools to convert them to Braille; and what plans he has to make more text books available to schools in electronic form; [132924]
(2) what plans he has to make sheet music printed in Braille available in schools. [132925]
Mr. Dhanda: Part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 requires schools and local authorities to plan to improve access to the curriculum and written materials for disabled pupils over time. This includes all National Curriculum taught subjects, such as music.
With regard to the availability of text books and materials in electronic format for schools, I refer the hon. Lady to the reply I gave on 19 March 2007, Official Report, column 721W, to my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown).
Schools: Languages
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many secondary schools in England teach non-European modern languages to (a) GCSE and (b) A-level standard. [144692]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not held.
Schools: Sports
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much was spent on (a) the provision of sport equipment, (b) the training of teachers in sports-related activities and (c) the recruitment of coaches to provide sports lessons in (i) primary schools and (ii) secondary schools in each year since 1997. [144258]
Jim Knight: Data relating to the amount of money which schools spend on sports equipment and the recruitment of coaches to provide sports lessons in schools are not collected centrally.
The PE and school sport professional development programme, part of the National School Sport Strategy, has been running since 2003 and aims to raise the quality of teaching and learning in PE and school sport for all pupils. Over 156,000 training places have been taken up on the programme since it began. Funding for the five years that the professional development programme has been running is as follows:
| Programme funding (£) | |
Secondary Education: West Lancashire
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the allocation to each secondary school in West Lancashire constituency was for extended schools development in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [143536]
Beverley Hughes: The Department does not hold information on how much funding each secondary school in West Lancashire constituency was allocated for extended schools development in either 2006-07 or 2007-08, and the information requested can be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
The Government have allocated a total of £384 million to local authorities in England over the period 2006-08 to support the development of extended schools. The Department for Education and Skills encourages all local authorities to devolve their extended schools funding to their schools. This should be done in line with their plan for rolling out extended schools which they will have drawn up in discussion with all their schools. Lancashire has received £3,531,061 in 2006-07 and £4,515,291 in 2007-08. We do not break down funding by parliamentary constituency.
In addition to this, schools are able to use their school standards grant to support the development of extended services. This is a wide-ranging grant that schools can use for any purpose of the school and which from 2006-07 can also be used for extended school provision. It is entirely for the school to decide how they use this funding depending on their particular priorities.
To date, good progress is being made in Lancashire towards the Government’s aim of all schools providing access to extended services by 2010. Thus far, 66 schools in Lancashire are providing access to the full range of extended services of which 11 are secondary schools.
Special Educational Needs: Lancashire
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children aged five to 16 attending schools in the Ribble Valley are registered with a statement of special educational needs. [145961]
Mr. Dhanda: The available information is given in the table.
| All schools: number and percentage of pupils with statements of special educational needs (SEN) ( 1,2) as at January 2007 Ribble Valley parliamentary constituency | ||||||||||||
| Pupils with statements of SEN | ||||||||||||
| Pupils aged ( 3) : | ||||||||||||
| Under 5 | 5 to 10 | 11 to 15 | 16 and over | Total aged 5 to 15 | Total all ages | |||||||
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| n/a = Not available. (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2 )Excludes dually registered pupils. (3) Age as at 31 August 2006. (4) The number of pupils with statements of SEN expressed as a percentage of all pupils in the same age group attending the same type of school. (5) 1 or 2 pupils (6 )Secondary suppression, to prevent disclosure of 1 or 2 pupils (7 )Not applicable, no schools of this type or no pupils in this age range Source: School Census | ||||||||||||
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