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10 Feb 2009 : Column 1962W—continued
Pre-School Education: Manpower
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of staff in the childcare sector in (a) the 10 per cent. most deprived areas, (b) 10 per cent. least deprived areas, (c) five per cent. most deprived areas and (d) five per cent. least deprived areas were qualified to at least level three in each of the last 30 years. [252069]
Beverley Hughes: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey collects information on the level of qualification held by all paid staff by type of child care provider. Table 1 following shows the number and proportion of staff in England with at least a level three qualification in 2006 and 2007, by type of provision and by level of area deprivation. Data for previous years and data for (a) the 10 per cent. most deprived areas, (b) 10 per cent. least deprived areas, (c) 5 per cent. most deprived areas and (d) 5 per cent, least deprived areas are not available.
| Table 1: Staff with at least a level three qualification—child care providers, by level of deprivation | ||||
| 30 per cent. most deprived areas | 70 per cent. least deprived areas | |||
| 2006 | 2007 | 2006 | 2007 | |
Pre-school Education: Standards
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the answer of 18 November 2008, Official Report, columns 274-5W, on pre-school education: standards, how many and what proportion of early years settings deemed inadequate by Ofsted since 1 September 2008 were (a) in the 10 per cent. of most deprived areas, (b) childminders, (c) private, voluntary and independent settings, (d) Montessori nurseries and (e) Steiner nurseries. [249525]
Beverley Hughes
[holding answer 20 January 2009]: These are matters for Ofsted. The Chief Inspector,
Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and copies of her replies have been placed in the Library.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 30 January 2009:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for a response.
The numbers and proportions of early years settings deemed inadequate by Ofsted since 1 September 2008 are shown in the tables below. The figures in Table A are taken from provision inspected between 1 September 2008 and 31 October 2008, in line with the figures supplied for Parliamentary Question 233559. The figures are supplied in Table B cover provision inspected between 1 September 2008 and 31 December 2008.
The 10% most deprived areas in England were identified using the Government's ‘Indices of Deprivation 2007’ (an index published once every three years), available at
Ofsted does not, as a matter of course, collect our data in line with the sector types specified in the question (private, voluntary and independent early years settings), as it has no mandatory requirement to do so. The figures given in response to part (c) of your question represent settings that we are able to identify as private or voluntary, within our categories of ‘childcare on domestic premises’ and ‘childcare on non-domestic premises’. Please note, however, that these do not represent the full picture, as data are not held for all providers and should, therefore, be treated with caution.
Similarly, Ofsted does not, as a matter of course, collect data on whether provision is Montessori or Steiner. The figures provided in response to parts (d) and (e) of your question represent settings where ‘Montessori’ or ‘Steiner’ appears in a free text field on setting details. This may not represent all settings of these types and so this data must be treated with caution.
Please note that that the selection of provision for inspection each year is not random. We select providers for inspection each year based on a number of factors, including the period since their last inspection and the grade awarded them at that inspection. Therefore, these figures should not be used to make judgements about the standards of national provision.
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
| Table A: Settings judged to be inadequate in Early Years Register ( E YR) inspections between 1 September and 31 October 2008( 1,2) | |||||
| Provider Type | Number of inspections | Number of providers deemed inadequate | Percentage of providers deemed inadequate as a proportion of all inspections of this provider type (%) | Percentage of providers deemed inadequate as a proportion of all EYR inspections deemed inadequate (%) | Percentage of providers deemed inadequate as a proportion of all EYR inspections (%) |
| (1) Percentages are rounded to nearest whole number (2) The explanatory descriptions in this response outline where data in this table are not representative of all providers and should be treated with caution. | |||||
Primary Education: Mathematics
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many mathematics specialists have been officially appointed in primary schools since 1 June 2008. [253394]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally at present. The primary mathematics specialist is a new role recommended by Sir Peter Williams in his 2008 “Independent Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early Years Settings and Primary Schools”. We aim to train 13,000 teachers to become maths specialists by 2019 in line with Sir Peter's recommendation. A small pathfinder project is currently running to test issues relating to the training for maths specialists.
Pupils: Leisure
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment his Department has made of the effect of time spent by school children playing computer games and watching television on their school performance. [254893]
Jim Knight: The Department has made no such assessment in relation to watching television and school performance by school pupils.
In 2005 the University of Sheffield conducted a study on behalf of DFES of the educational impact of children’s use of computers at home (Valentine et al, 2005). It found that, overall, the use of computers at home was linked to higher levels of educational performance than expected given prior attainment and other factors.
However, where children used computers extensively for leisure purposes, focused predominantly on computer games, there was a small but significant negative impact. The researchers concluded that the negative impact was not a direct result of game playing, but of impact on time spent on school work.
In 2006 the Department commissioned the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) to produce a publication that gave an overview of the current use of games in learning, the impact of such approaches on learning and importantly the needs of the teacher in this context. The publication released by ELSPA on 4 October 2006, “Unlimited Learning: Computer and video games in the learning landscape” offers a snapshot of what is happening across education and, importantly, offers an evidence base from which informed decisions can be taken by industry and education alike.
There is a growing body of evidence that some characteristics of games have a role in supporting learning, but the relationship between learning of this sort and performance requires further research. Becta is working closely with Futurelab to build the evidence base. Games vary considerably in nature. Some games are more appropriately designed for supporting academic performance than others. These others may support other skills such as problem-solving, providing authentic or ‘real life’ learning experiences, making decisions, or communicating with others.
A recent survey by Becta found that 11 to 14-year-olds spend an average of four hours per week playing games, and boys spend twice as much time as girls (Luckin et al, 2008). 80 per cent. of seven to 11-year-olds reported playing games at home (Cranmer et al, 2008).
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