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3 Mar 2008 : Column 2158W—continued
Pupils: Internet
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance he has issued on technical means of restricting pupils' access to inappropriate content via the internet at school. [188391]
Jim Knight: Advice on how to filter internet access in schools is provided by the British Educational and Communications Technology Agency, Becta. Advice is available on Becta's Schools site at http://schools.becta.org.uk under e-safety. Schools are also encouraged to ensure that their ICT facilities meet the requirements of Becta's functional and technical specifications for institutional infrastructure.
With regard to internet access, schools are encouraged to employ content and email filtering systems. The above specifications recommend these are managed by local authorities and/or regional broadband consortia (RBCs) as appropriate, in discussion with schools. Becta also maintains an accreditation process for providers of internet services to education. This is open to local authorities and RBCs as well as commercial providers. Becta strongly encourages all organisations providing internet services to education to put their service forward for accreditation.
Becta also publishes a range of e-safety guidance for schools. The following are freely available from Becta's publications website at http://publications.becta.org.uk:
Safeguarding children online - a guide for school leaders (published January 2008)
Safeguarding children in a digital world (published February 2006)
E-safety (revised): Developing whole-school policies to support effective practice (published February 2006)
In addition to Becta's own advice, the Department and Becta have provided support to Childnet to produce two CD ROMs in the ‘Know IT All’ series. The first provides advice and guidance to parents to promote safe use of the internet in the home by children. ‘Know IT All For Schools’ is aimed at secondary schools.
Safety Value Fund
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether Milton Keynes Unitary Authority made an application for the safety value fund before the closing date of 29 February. [188811]
Jim Knight: Milton Keynes Unitary Authority made an application for the Basic Need Safety Valve before the closing date of 29 February.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much the application by Milton Keynes Unitary Authority for the safety valve fund was for. [189195]
Jim Knight: Milton Keynes’ application for additional funding for new pupil places is the subject of ongoing discussion between the Department’s officials and officers from the local authority. Accordingly, agreed application figures are not available at this stage.
Schools
Mr. Hayes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many children
are being taught in schools with (a) between 500 and 999 and (b) less than 500 pupils; [188576]
(2) how many school children were in schools with over (a) 1,000 and (b) 2,000 pupils in the latest year for which figures are available. [188584]
Jim Knight: The requested information relating to maintained schools in England is shown in the following table.
| Maintained schools: number of schools by size( 1) —January 2007 | ||||
| England | ||||
| Primary schools( 2) | ||||
| Size of school | Number of schools | Headcount of full time pupils | Headcount of part time pupils | Total headcount |
| England | ||||
| Secondary schools( 2) | ||||
| Size of school | Number of schools | Headcount of full time pupils | Headcount of part time pupils | Total headcount |
| England | ||||
| Maintained special schools | ||||
| Size of school | Number of schools | Headcount of full time pupils | Headcount of part time pupils | Total headcount |
| England | ||||
| Pupil referral units | ||||
| Size of school | Number of schools | Headcount of full time pupils | Headcount of part time pupils | Total headcount |
| England | ||||
| Total | ||||
| Size of school | Number of schools | Headcount of full time pupils | Headcount of part time pupils | Total headcount |
| # = Less than 5. (1) Based on a headcount of pupils in schools. Excludes dually registered pupils. Includes pupils with other providers in pupil referral units. (2) Includes middle deemed schools. Note: Pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: School Census | ||||
Schools: Catering
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of schools in each English local authority area that do not have kitchen facilities capable of serving daily hot meals; and if he will make a statement. [181788]
Jim Knight: The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not collect this information. However, in its second annual survey of take-up of school meals in England, published in September 2007, the School Food Trust collected data by region. The data is in the following table.
Providing a hot meal does not require every school to have a kitchen. There are several ways of reheating food on school premises, such as microwave ovens; or schools may use a centralised preparation and delivery service.
Over the next three years, we are providing a record £21.9 billion of capital support for investment in school buildings. Much of this funding is devolved to local authorities and schools for their local priorities, which can include installing or improving school kitchens and dining areas. As part of this funding, we are making available from April 2008 £150 million of targeted capital grant to those authorities with high need.
| Table 8: Facilities for food preparation in primary and secondary schools in England (percentage of schools), by region | |||||
| Full production kitchen | Regen or mini kitchen | No facilities—hot food transported from another school | No Facilities—hot food transported from another source | No facilities—sandwich/cold food only | |
| Note: base (unweighted): primary: 93; secondary: 79 analysis: weighted by number of schools | |||||
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