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23 July 2007 : Column 843W—continued

City Academies: Sponsorship

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with which potential sponsors of city academies his Department is holding discussions. [148917]

Jim Knight: Potential sponsors are those who have not yet formally entered into a funding agreement. Those who have projects which are in the public domain are listed as follows.

A number of potential sponsors are in very early discussions about academy projects. Their details have therefore not been provided.

The list of potential sponsors the Department is currently in discussions with are:


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Classroom Assistants

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what change there has been in the number of teaching assistants in England since 1996-97; what assessment he has made of the effects of that change on levels of pupil attainment; and if he will make a statement. [150691]

Jim Knight: In January 2007, there were approximately 162,900 (full-time equivalent) teaching assistants in schools in England. This is an increase of 102,300 since 1997, more than doubling the number of teaching assistants.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families, in conjunction with the Welsh Assembly Government, have commissioned a five-year research study (2004-09) to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of support staff on teaching and learning, in addition to comprehensive and reliable information on the types, characteristics and deployment of support staff (including teaching assistants) in schools in England and Wales. Early findings published in 2006 (Blatchford et al, DfES Research Report 776) suggested that many teachers felt support staff were having a positive effect on pupil learning and behaviour. Teachers also felt that support staff benefited their teaching in a number of ways, for example, by allowing them to differentiate the work for more pupils. Subsequent publications will report in more detail on the role of support staff in teaching and learning and provide a systematic analysis of the effect of support staff on pupil outcomes, including attainment.

In 2002, Ofsted reported that

(Applies to primary only. Source: Teaching Assistants in Primary Schools: An Evaluation of the Quality and Impact of their Work April 2002).

In 2006, the National Foundation for Educational Research concluded that

(Source: The deployment of teachers and support staff to deliver the maths and science curriculum in secondary schools—NFER 2006).

In January 2003, the National Agreement, “Raising Standards, Tackling Workload” was signed by the Government, employers, and the majority of the school work force unions. The agreement set out the shared vision for the school work force of the future and featured a series of phased reforms to help schools raise standards of achievement of all their pupils and tackle work load issues. It is vital that schools make the most effective use of teachers’ time, ensuring that they spend their time only on activities that really need the professional skills and judgment of a teacher. The increased use of teaching assistants (and other support
23 July 2007 : Column 846W
staff) in schools, providing high quality support in the classroom and by taking on a number of administrative tasks previously carried out by teachers, has therefore been integral to the Government’s drive to raise standards for pupils and tackle teacher work load.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many teaching assistants are employed in each (a) Government region and (b) local education authority. [151182]

Jim Knight: The following tables provide the number of full-time equivalent teaching assistants employed in local authority maintained schools in England by Government Office region and local authority, January 2006.

Local authority figures for January 2007 are expected to be published on 27 September.


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Full-time equivalent( 1) teaching assistants in local authority maintained schools: by Government Office region and local authority area in England, January 2006
Teaching a ssistants( 2)

England

153,100

North East

6,930

Darlington

300

Durham

1,100

Gateshead

480

Hartlepool

310

Middlesbrough

520

Newcastle upon Tyne

620

North Tyneside

430

Northumberland

1,040

Redcar and Cleveland

380

South Tyneside

470

Stockton-on-Tees

430

Sunderland

850

North West

22,020

Blackburn with Darwen

650

Blackpool

480

Bolton

1,070

Bury

640

Cheshire

1,740

Cumbria

1,310

Halton

330

Knowsley

460

Lancashire

3,890

Liverpool

1,130

Manchester

1,920

Oldham

830

Rochdale

860

Salford

780

Sefton

780

St. Helens

610

Stockport

780

Tameside

660

Trafford

440

Warrington

630

Wigan

980

Wirral

1,020

Yorkshire and the Humber

17,330

Barnsley

680

Bradford

2,000

Calderdale

860

Doncaster

840

East Riding of Yorkshire

950

Kingston Upon Hull, City of

920

Kirklees

1,490

Leeds

2,500

North East Lincolnshire

690

North Lincolnshire

600

North Yorkshire

1,710

Rotherham

900

Sheffield

1,590

Wakefield

1,090

York

500

East Midlands

13,490

Derby

930

Derbyshire

2,190

Leicester

1,090

Leicestershire

1,730

Lincolnshire

2,370

Northamptonshire

1,940

Nottingham

1,060

Nottinghamshire

2,060

Rutland

120

West Midlands

17,430

Birmingham

4,390

Coventry

770

Dudley

1,200

Herefordshire

420

Sandwell

970

Shropshire

750

Solihull

630

Staffordshire

2,080

Stoke-on-Trent

830

Telford and Wrekin

640

Walsall

820

Warwickshire

1,630

Wolverhampton

720

Worcestershire

1,580

East of England

17,290

Bedfordshire

1,340

Cambridgeshire

1,880

Essex

3,920

Hertfordshire

2,910

Luton

820

Norfolk

2,570

Peterborough

1,050

Southend-on-Sea

650

Suffolk

1,540

Thurrock

630

London

22,820

Inner London

9,660

Camden

640

City of London

10

Hackney

720

Hammersmith and Fulham

430

Haringey

960

Islington

620

Kensington and Chelsea

280

Lambeth

750

Lewisham

720

Newham

980

Southwark

1,070

Tower Hamlets

1,320

Wandsworth

800

Westminster

370

Outer London

13,160

Barking and Dagenham

560

Barnet

1,070

Bexley

570

Brent

680

Bromley

620

Croydon

980

Ealing

670

Enfield

1,160

Greenwich

920

Harrow

550

Havering

660

Hillingdon

800

Hounslow

680

Kingston upon Thames

380

Merton

460

Redbridge

910

Richmond upon Thames

350

Sutton

360

Waltham Forest

760

South East

22,360

Bracknell Forest

220

Brighton and Hove

510

Buckinghamshire

1,100

East Sussex

1,330

Hampshire

3,210

Isle of Wight

430

Kent

4,660

Medway

930

Milton Keynes

680

Oxfordshire

1,630

Portsmouth

660

Reading

250

Slough

530

Southampton

660

Surrey

2,720

West Berkshire

490

West Sussex

1,660

Windsor and Maidenhead

330

Wokingham

380

South West

13,440

Bath and North East Somerset

270

Bournemouth

460

Bristol, City of

1,110

Cornwall

1,630

Devon

2,380

Dorset

1,350

Gloucestershire

1,030

Isles of Scilly

(3)

North Somerset

430

Plymouth

870

Poole

460

Somerset

1,380

South Gloucestershire

640

Swindon

380

Torbay

300

Wiltshire

750

(1) Includes both full-time and the full-time equivalent of part-time support staff.
(2) Includes nursery nurses, nursery assistants, literacy and numeracy support staff and any non-teaching staff regularly employed to support in the classroom expect from special needs and minority ethnic pupils support staff.
(3) Nil or negligible.
Note:
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Source: School Census

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