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3 Feb 2009 : Column 1065W—continued
English Language: Pre-School Education
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what recent assessment he has made of the standard of English spoken by staff in childcare settings. [251335]
Beverley Hughes:
No recent assessment has been made. The framework for the early years foundation Stage (EYFS) introduced in September 2008 requires staff to have the right language skills to support children from birth to five to develop communication skills in English and to help ensure that their welfare needs are protected. The requirements for providers working with older children set proportions for the number of staff
required to hold level 2 and 3 qualifications in an area of work relevant to child care (and the common core skills for the voluntary part of the Childcare Register). As part of the requirements candidates need to demonstrate competence in English. Ofsted inspects providers against these requirements. The requirements on settings are designed to help ensure effective standards of communication in settings and to enable parents to choose providers who also speak their home language.
GCE A-level: Disadvantaged
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of free school meals pupils were entered for A-levels in 2008. [251311]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The available information on pupils entered for GCE/VCE A/AS-level identified by eligibility for free school meals is contained within table 13 in the “Attainment by Pupil Characteristics, in England 2007/08” SFR published in November 2008.
This shows that the number of pupils aged 16-18 in maintained schools who were entered for GCE/VCE A/AS-levels in 2008 was 147,394. Of these, 5,049 pupils were eligible for free school meals, a proportion of 3.4 per cent. A further 0.6 per cent. were unclassified.
These figures do not cover pupils in sixth form colleges.
GCSE: Disadvantaged
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families at how many maintained, mainstream schools (a) 75 per cent. or more and (b) 90 per cent. or more of pupils eligible to receive free school meals did not attain any GCSE grades higher than a D in the latest year for which figures are available. [243851]
Jim Knight: In 35 maintained mainstream schools 75 per cent. or more of the pupils eligible to receive free school meals did not attain any GCSE and equivalents grades higher than a D in 2006/07.
In three schools 90 per cent. or more of the pupils eligible to receive free school meals did not attain any GCSE and equivalents grades higher than a D in 2006/07.
Of the 76,568 pupils eligible for FSM attending maintained secondary schools who took any GCSE and equivalents in 2006/07, 30,881 (40.3 per cent.) achieved the equivalent of at least one pass at grade D.
These figures relate to GCSE and equivalent and based on pupils at the end of KS4 in all maintained schools.
Only schools with 10 or more pupils are included in the answer.
Information and Communications Technology
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what progress has been made towards the targets for e-inclusion set by the Riga Ministerial Declaration in June 2006. [248740]
Mr. Paul Murphy: I have been asked to reply.
The Riga Declaration set the target that, to convincingly address e-Inclusion, the differences in
Internet usage between current average use by the EU population and use by older people, people with disabilities, women, lower education groups, unemployed and “less-developed” regions should be reduced to a half from 2005 to 2010.
The European Commission is monitoring progress against the targets for all EU member states, publishing the first baseline analysis based on 2006 data ‘Measuring progress in e-lnclusion—Riga Dashboard' in 2007 which can be found on the internet at
Member states are due to make their first progress report to the European Commissions High Level adhoc e-Inclusion Group by summer 2009.
The following table from recently published independent UK research as a proxy suggests progress in the UK on inclusion as follows:
| Proxy data based in Oxford Internet Institute surveys | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Some of the Riga Target Groups | Regular internet use 2005 | Regular internet use 2007 |
Languages: Teachers
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many teachers with a language specialism in Mandarin Chinese qualified in the last 12 month period for which figures are available. [249231]
Jim Knight: Data relating to the language specialisms of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) trainees are not collected centrally.
In 2006/07 there were three postgraduate ITT trainees who had an undergraduate degree in Chinese Studies.
There are currently no ITT courses which specialise in Mandarin only.
Nurseries: Vacancies
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many full-time vacancies there were in local authority maintained nurseries in each year since 1997; and what the rate of such full-time vacancies was in each of those years. [253623]
Beverley Hughes: The Childcare and Early Years Providers survey collects information on the number of childcare places in maintained nursery schools in England. The following data in table 1 are from the 2007 and 2006 Childcare and Early Years Providers surveys. The information is not available for years preceding 2006. Table 1 shows the number and proportion of vacancies of childcare places in nursery schools in 2007 and 2006.
| Table 1: Number and proportion of vacancies in nursery schools | |||
| Nursery schools | |||
| Total number of places | Number of vacancies | Proportion of vacancies (percentage) | |
Offences Against Children: Databases
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many notifications to List 99 there were in each of the last five years. [250607]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 26 January 2009]: The number of notifications to List 99 in each of the last five years is as follows:
| Notifications | |
When employers in the education sector have ceased to use the services of a person because they consider that person is unsuitable to work with children, or they would have ceased to use the person's services where the person has left their employment, they are required to refer information to the Department. The police also refer to the Department cautions and convictions for those who have been working in educational establishments in accordance with Home Office Circular 6/2006 (The Notifiable Occupations Scheme).
In addition, regulations which came into force on 28 February 2007 extended the range of offences which result in automatic inclusion on List 99. These amended regulations include cautions as well as convictions for sexual offences against children and other very serious offences against adults, regardless of whether the individuals concerned have ever been in employment in the education and children's work force. The Department is notified of relevant offences by the police. The vast majority of the increase in the total number of notifications is as a result of the implementation of these regulations.
Pupil Exclusions: Primary Education
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children between the ages of four and 11 years were (a) suspended and (b) suspended more than once from school in (i) West Chelmsford constituency, (ii) Essex and (iii) England in each of the last five years. [249980]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry [holding answer 22 January2009]: Information on fixed period exclusions was collected for the first time in the school year 2003/04. However these data are not sufficiently reliable to provide the requested information.
In 2005-06 the method of data collection changed and information was collected from secondary schools only. We have consequently provided information for the school years 2004/05 and 2006/07, the only years for which comparable figures are available.
| Primary, secondary and special schools( 1, 2, 3, ) pupils aged four to 11 receiving fixed period exclusions( 4) 2006/07 | ||||
| Number of pupils with one episode of fixed period exclusion | As a percentage of the school population( 5) | Number of pupils with two or more episodes of fixed period exclusion | As a percentage of the school population( 6) | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes CTCs and academies. (3) Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools, excludes general hospital schools. (4) Pupils aged as at 31 August 2006. (5) The number of pupils with a fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the headcount of pupils in January 2007, excluding dual registrations. (6) The number of pupils with two or more fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the headcount of pupils in January 2007, excluding dual registrations. Source: School census | ||||
| Primary, secondary and special schools( 1, 2 ) pupils aged four to 11 receiving fixed period exclusions( 3 ) 2004/05 | ||||
| Number of pupils with one episode of fixed period exclusion | As a percentage of the school population( 4) | Number of pupils with two or more episodes of fixed period exclusion | As a percentage of the school population( 5) | |
| (1) Includes middle schools as deemed. (2) Includes maintained primary, secondary and special schools. (3) Pupils aged as at 31 August 2004. (4) The number of pupils with a fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the headcount of pupils in January 2005, excluding dual registrations. (5) The number of pupils with two or more fixed period exclusions expressed as a percentage of the headcount of pupils in January 2005, excluding dual registrations. Source: Termly Exclusions survey | ||||
Schools: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what national challenge schools are in or near the principal seaside towns of England. [244451]
Jim Knight: A list of such schools below 30 per cent. 5 A*-C including English and maths (and therefore within the National Challenge) is provided as follows. There are 39 such schools in or near the principal seaside towns of England. In addition, we are working with local authorities to provide support for some schools which are above the floor target in order to secure or consolidate their performance.
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