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4 Feb 2008 : Column 923W—continued
The £5.5 million in 2005-06 in 2005-06 includes £0.9 million in respect of a targeted capital fund (TCF) scheme, and the £53.9 million allocation in 2006-07 includes £20.2 million in respect of TCF schemes and £27.4 million for a One School Pathfinder.
Science: Teachers
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many maintained mainstream schools did not have a specialist science teacher in the latest period for which figures are available. [182232]
Jim Knight: This information is not available in the format requested.
A sample survey of heads of science departments in maintained secondary schools carried out for the DFES in 2005 found that 1 per cent. of schools had no biology specialists, 7 per cent. had no chemistry specialists and 16 per cent. had no physics specialists.
Secondary Education: Standards
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent steps his Department has taken to raise standards in secondary schools. [178716]
Jim Knight: The Children’s Plan, published in December 2007, includes an overview of the key activities we are undertaking to raise standards in secondary schools. Some key facts are:
Record numbers of 16-year-olds are now achieving five good GCSEs. In total over 470,000 more young people have gained at least five good GCSEs over the period 1997-2007. Total funding per pupil has increased by 87 per cent. in real terms since 1997, and the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of
teachers in local authority maintained secondary schools has increased by 27,400 and 69,500 for FTE teaching assistants and other support staff.
2007 provisional results show there has been a 17 percentage point increase in the number of 14-year-old pupils achieving level 5 or above in English, a 16 percentage point increase in mathematics and a 13 percentage point increase in science at key stage 3 since 1997. At key stage 4, 60.8 per cent. of pupils aged 15 achieved five or more good GCSEs—a 15.7 percentage point increase since 1997—which means the 2008 60 per cent. target for the percentage achieving 5+ A*-C grades has been achieved a year early.
Through the Building Schools for the Future and Academies programmes we are investing £9.3 billion over the three years 2007-2008 to 2010-2011 to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England.
More than 2,800 secondary schools—88 per cent. of the total—have specialist school status and we are on track to achieve the target of every eligible school achieving specialist status by next year. More than 300 schools have either become Trusts or are working towards Trust status enabling them to work with external partners to create a distinctive ethos and direction for their school.
There are now 83 academies open in 49 local authorities. The Government are firmly committed to establishing 400 academies and regard the scaling up of the programme as a national imperative, supported by the growing body of evidence—improved GCSE results and key stage 3 results; and independent reports by the National Audit Office, PricewaterhouseCooper and Ofsted that academies are proving to be highly effective. A further 50 academies are projected to open in each of the following three years, (2008 to 2010), thereby exceeding the target of 200 academies by 2010.
There is more work still to do. In recent years, the number of children eligible for free school meals achieving five good GCSEs has improved faster than the national average, but we need to do more to tackle some of the gaps between economically disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and between boys and girls.
The Secondary National Strategy for School Improvement is at the heart of our work to transform secondary education and spreads effective teaching and learning to all schools through training and materials, a comprehensive development programme for teachers and support from local consultants who are experts in their field. This year we will be renewing the secondary frameworks for teaching to provide teachers with resources to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the new secondary curriculum to accelerate progress for all pupils.
To ensure that all pupils are able to fulfil their potential, we continue to seek to improve attendance and behaviour in schools. Our national programme will strengthen schools’ capacity, to increase significantly the two-thirds of secondary schools judged good or outstanding by Ofsted in standards of behaviour. The Children’s Plan set for all local authorities the goal of 5 per cent. or fewer ‘persistent absentees’ amongst their secondary pupils by 2011, reducing the level by a third compared to 2006.
Special Educational Needs: Somerset
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in Somerset had special educational needs in each year since 2001, broken down by category of special educational need. [183449]
Kevin Brennan: Since 2004, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has collected data on pupils' type of special educational need (SEN) as part of the School Census. There are a range of factors which may affect the data recorded, including:
local interpretation of definitions;
classification of children with multiple needs;
differences in diagnoses between education and health professionals; and
availability of school-based provision.
To minimise the impact of these factors, revised guidance was available to schools from October 2005. The data collected on pupils' type of need is suitably reliable and robust to analyse at local authority level from January 2006 onwards. The available figures covering 2006 and 2007 have been placed in the Library. Information on the primary type of need is only collected for pupils with statements of special educational needs or at “School Action Plus”. It is not collected for pupils at “School Action”.
The information has been taken from the Statistical First Release “Special Educational Needs in England” which is published annually. The latest figures, for 2007, can be accessed at:
Teachers
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many qualified teachers trained in (a) food technology, (b) history and (c) a modern language in each year since 1997. [182280]
Jim Knight: The tables show the number of teachers gaining Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) for history and modern foreign languages by Mainstream and Employment Based Routes (EBR) Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Data for food technology are not available separately as they are included within aggregate figures for design and technology.
| Table 1 Mainstream ITT; Teachers gaining QTS: Academic years 1997/98 to 2005/06 —England | ||
| Modern foreign languages | History | |
| Notes: 1. Includes Universities and other Higher Education institutions, SCITT and Open University, but excludes employment based routes. 2. Rounded to the nearest 10. 3. Cases where QTS is granted on assessment without a course on ITT are not included in the table. Source: TDA Performance Profiles | ||
Teachers: Training
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many institutions have brought together training for early years professional status and qualified teacher status and awarded both concurrently; [178671]
(2) how many Bachelor of Education courses include training on working with children from birth to the age of three. [178699]
Jim Knight [holding answer 29 January 2008]: None so far, but the Training and Development Agency for Schools and Children's Workforce Development Council will soon be discussing this with training providers of initial teaching and early years professional status to explore the feasibility of such training being offered.
None. The Secretary of State's requirements for initial teacher training (which includes PGCE as well as BA and BEd courses) only covers the ages three to 19. However, beyond initial teacher training, degree courses to provide training on working with children in the 0-3 age-range are available via the Early Years Sector Endorsed Foundation Degree and the Early Years Study Degree. Training towards the award of Early Years Professional Status is also available for graduates who wish to develop their knowledge and experience of working with 0-3 year olds.
Urdu: Teachers
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many qualified teachers were trained to teach Urdu last year. [182277]
Jim Knight: The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) did not fund any initial teacher training (ITT) courses in Urdu for the academic year 2006/07.
Young People
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what mechanisms his Department has established to determine the prevalence of positive activities, as defined in its 2007 strategy, Aiming high for young people: a 10 year strategy for positive activities. [183203]
Beverley Hughes: The Government are putting in place a performance indicator to gather information on the participation of young people in positive activities. This will form part of the national indicator set which gathers data on the performance of local authorities. It is planned that the indicator set will be in place from April 2008.
Physical Education: Teachers
Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many initial teacher training places were available for physical education teachers at Loughborough University in each of the last three years; and how many will be available in 2008-09. [183662]
Jim Knight [holding answer 31 January 2008]: In 2008/09, there will be 1,570 places available for physical educational initial teacher training (ITT). This includes school centred ITT and employment-based routes ITT, but does not include teach first.
The following table show the number of initial teacher training (ITT) places which were allocated for physical education at Loughborough university for academic years 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.
| Physical education ITT allocation to Loughborough university | |
| Allocated places for physical education at Loughborough university | |
| Source: TDA’s ITT Trainee Number Census. | |
Duchy of Lancaster
Civil Servants: Codes of Practice
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will place in the Library a copy of the Cabinet Office guidance for civil servants on restrictions on political activity. [181306]
Mr. Watson: The restrictions on the involvement of civil servants in political activities are set out in Section 4.4 of the Civil Service Management Code, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what products featuring departmental or Government branding were procured by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years. [179795]
Mr. Watson: The information requested for the Cabinet Office is not held centrally and is therefore available only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many posters or displays there are in the offices of his Department and its agencies displaying the names and photographs of Ministers; and what the cost has been of producing such posters or displays in the last five years. [179840]
Mr. Watson: The Cabinet Office has not produced posters or displays focused on Ministers for general display in office buildings.
On occasion the Department may produce material for display and distribution within the Department. For example, departmental organisation charts. Any such material is produced in-house and the costs are not separately identifiable.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Walker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list the special advisers employed in the Cabinet Office since 6 May 1997; and what the (a) start and (b) end date of employment was in each case. [184380]
Mr. Watson: Since 2003, the Government have published on an annual basis the names and numbers of special advisers in each pay band. For the most recent information I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister on 22 November 2007, Official Report, columns 147-50WS.
Information on the employment of special advisers prior to 2003 was provided at regular intervals and is available in the Library of the House.
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