Mr. Laws:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the costs and benefits of teacher assessment of key stage 2 and key stage 3 tests, with external moderation; and if he will make a statement. [225173]
Jim Knight:
No specific assessment has been made of the costs and benefits of externally moderated teacher assessment at key stages 2 and 3. Experience at key stage 1 does however provide information about the costs of external moderation of teacher assessment. The National Assessment Agency has a budget of £92,000 in the financial year 2008-09 to spend on the external moderation of local authorities' own moderation processes for KS1 assessments.
Schools: Compensation
Michael Gove:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much in compensation was paid by schools to (a) pupils and (b) teachers in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [226442]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry:
The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not collect this information.
Schools: Ethnic Minorities
Michael Gove:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of (a) boys and (b) girls from each ethnic minority group did not achieve any A* to C grades at GCSE in each of the last 10 years. [224805]
Jim Knight:
Figures for 2006-07 are given in the following table. Information for earlier years can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
14 Oct 2008 : Column 1139W
Pupils not achieving any GCSE grades A*-C (or equivalent) by ethnicity and gender in 2006-07
Number of pupils not achieving any GCSE grades A*-C (or equivalent)
Percentage of pupils not achieving any GCSE grades A*-C (or equivalent)
Total number of pupils
African
Female
962
16.4
5,863
Male
1,371
23.9
5,743
Any other Asian background
Female
300
12.5
2,406
Male
654
24.5
2,672
Any other black background
Female
222
17.7
1,253
Male
416
29.3
1,421
Any other ethnic group
Female
380
15.0
2,532
Male
685
23.5
2,913
Any other mixed background
Female
382
14.9
2,566
Male
629
24.6
2,561
Any other white background
Female
991
15.1
6,567
Male
1,477
21.6
6,832
Bangladeshi
Female
376
13.1
2,878
Male
651
23.2
2,803
Caribbean
Female
766
17.9
4,288
Male
1,290
31.8
4,062
Chinese
Female
59
5.2
1,134
Male
89
8.0
1,111
Gypsy/Roman
Female
129
67.2
192
Male
141
77.9
181
Indian
Female
470
7.2
6,559
Male
902
13.2
6,842
Information not obtained
Female
597
24.3
2,453
Male
975
31.7
3,076
Irish
Female
204
18.3
1,112
Male
255
22.6
1,130
Pakistani
Female
1,156
16.6
6,968
Male
2,222
29.2
7,618
Refused
Female
559
18.4
3,034
Male
820
26.3
3,119
Traveller of Irish heritage
Female
53
69.7
76
Male
61
74.4
82
White and Asian
Female
180
12.7
1,419
Male
268
18.6
1,441
White and black African
Female
125
18.0
694
Male
165
24.3
680
White and black Caribbean
Female
600
20.7
2,897
Male
931
34.1
2,733
White British
Female
41,859
17.3
241,854
Male
62,369
25.0
249,913
All students
Female
50,370
17.0
296,745
Male
76,371
24.9
306,933
14 Oct 2008 : Column 1140W
Figures relate to pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 study in maintained schools.
Schools: Finance
Mr. Kidney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what financial support is available from (a) central and (b) local education authority funds for the running of small schools. [225310]
Jim Knight:
The allocation formula for the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) does not separately allocate money to support small rural schools; it is based on local authorities’ spending on schools for 2005-06, which is closely related to the formula for Schools Formula Spending Shares in use that year. That funding formula, which now underlies the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), included an indicator of sparsity which reflects the Government’s recognition of the needs of rural authorities to maintain smaller primary schools on average than other authorities. We calculate that DSG in 2008-09 contains £191 million funding for the extra costs of primary schools which arise due to sparsity of population. It is for local discretion how much of that authorities spend on the increased costs associated with small rural schools and we are aware that some authorities have specific protection for small schools within their local formulae.
The following table sets out estimated amounts within 2008-09 allocations of DSG, derived from the amounts allocated through the schools FSS formula in 2005-06 on the basis of sparsity, updated appropriately, totalling £191 million for the year.
