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23 Feb 2009 : Column 454W—continued
History: Secondary Education
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he is taking to encourage the study of history at GCSE and A-level. [253806]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: History is a statutory subject for all pupils to the end of key stage 3, normally age 14, and at key stage 4 students are entitled to follow a humanities course (comprising geography and history).
The review of statutory requirements for key stage 3 was completed in 2007 and new programmes of study are being implemented in the current academic year for children in year 7. The range and content of the key stage 3 programme of study set out the aspects of British, European and world history on which teachers
should draw when teaching the skills of historical enquiry, use of evidence and communicating about the past. The new programmes of study also allow for joint working on issues such as diversity and ethnicity; and there are strong links between citizenship education and the teaching of history. More detailed information can be found on the QCA website:
History remains popular at KS4 and beyond, with 202,753 pupils entered for GCSE in 2007 and 67 per cent. of pupils achieving grades A* - C. In the same year, 40,542 pupils entered for A-level history; 25 per cent. achieved a grade A and 27 per cent. a grade B.
Home Education: Public Consultation
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what steps he has taken to ensure that people who do not have access to the internet are able to respond to his Department's consultation on home educators; [255910]
(2) what steps he has taken to inform home educators about his Department's consultations on home education; [255912]
(3) what representations he has received from local authorities about his Department's consultations on home education; and if he will make a statement. [255913]
Jim Knight: The team carrying out the independent review of home education has invited stakeholders including home educators and local authorities to offer evidence to inform the review. This call for evidence is not a public consultation.
The Department has notified a number of key stakeholders about the review. These include local authorities and all the representative groups from the home education community that the Department is aware of. Evidence can be supplied to the review team using an online form, through email or by writing to the review team.
All local authorities have been invited by the review team to complete a questionnaire and 48 responses have been received.
Information System for Parents and Providers
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) what information will be published from the Information System for Parents and Providers; [257020]
(2) what agreed suppliers there are in each local authority for the Information System and Parents for Providers; [257059]
(3) when each local authority will bring the Information System for Parents and Providers into operation. [257060]
Beverley Hughes:
The Information System for Parents and Providers (ISPP) will provide a web-based comprehensive directory of information, advice and support services to parents, front line workers in local authorities and third sector services working with parents. The directory will include information collected by Ofsted and local authorities in England on childcare
provision and other services which may be of benefit to parents, prospective parents, children and young people together with information provided by the Department on service providers who operate nationally. The system supports local authority delivery of their duty under section 12 of the Childcare Act 2006 to provide such service information to parents.
The ISPP, which will be publicly known as the Parent Know How directory, will significantly enhance parents’ access to information on a far wider range of parenting and childcare topics than is currently available.
The Department has provided funding to local authorities to purchase their own information management systems according to local needs and so the choice of supplier is a matter for each local authority, based on guidance from the Department on requirements for these systems.
We expect each English local authority to implement their local information management system connected to the ISPP so that it can go live in September 2009.
International General Certificate of Secondary Education
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department plans to fund the International General Certificate of Secondary Education approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. [257024]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The iGCSE awarding organisations (Edexcel and Cambridge International) have not submitted any iGCSEs for accreditation by Ofqual.
Ofqual has recently accredited a number of Cambridge International Certificates, which have similarities to Cambridge International’s iGCSEs. They have just been submitted for approval for funding purposes and we shall consider them in the normal way.
Music Standards Fund
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been allocated to the Music Standards Fund in each of the next three years. [256085]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: £82.56 million has been allocated to the Standards Fund Music Grant in each year of the current three year funding settlement, which runs from 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Music: Education
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will publish his response to the Ofsted report on Making More of Music. [256699]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We welcome this thorough analysis of music education which clearly shows what works in school music teaching and what does not. The report rightly illustrates how music can have much wider benefits to children and young people in terms of their engagement with education; their levels of self-esteem; and their progress across the whole of the national curriculum.
We will not be producing a written response to the report but will instead concentrate our efforts on continuing
with our programme of work to make the most of the unprecedented funding that we have committed for music education—£332 million to 2011—and we will work with members of the Music Programme Board to address the recommendations that Ofsted makes.
Music: Teachers
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many staff were responsible for musical instrument teaching in (a) headcount and (b) full-time equivalent terms in maintained (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in each year since 1997. [255921]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The information requested is not available.
The number of music teachers in maintained primary schools is not collected centrally; the number of teachers of music in maintained secondary schools in England is collected as part of the Secondary School Curriculum and Staffing Survey. This is an occasional survey that does not provide a full time series.
The following table gives data from the 2002 and 2007 surveys, the most recent years available, for full-time and full-time equivalent teachers (headcounts are not available). Please note, much musical instrument teaching is likely to be carried out by local Music Service staff, who will not be included in these figures:
| Number of music teachers in maintained secondary schools in England; 2002 and 2007 | ||||
| Full-time( 1) | Full-time equivalent( 1) | |||
| 2002 | 2007 | 2002 | 2007 | |
| Music | ||||
| (1) Full-time teacher numbers are provided for 2002 and 2007; full-time equivalent teacher numbers (which includes part-time teachers) were only collected in 2007. Note: Teachers are counted once under each subject they teach. A teacher is included in the total if they teach at least one period per timetable rotation of Music. Source: Secondary School Curriculum and Staffing Survey, 2002/07 | ||||
National Curriculum Tests
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make it his policy to implement online marking for Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests. [253697]
Jim Knight: In his report into the 2008 test delivery difficulties, Lord Sutherland recommended that the testing and assessment system should be modernised to include piloting on-screen marking. We accepted his recommendations in full and QCA is working with my officials to review the technological advances which would support test delivery from 2010 onwards.
QCA has already undertaken some trialling of on-screen marking of the December 2008 round of single level tests, part of the Making Good Progress pilot. QCA and DCSF are considering the evidence from this pilot and its implications for the National Curriculum tests.
Additionally, an Expert Group has been established by the Secretary of State to advise on proposed assessment arrangements and their delivery. The Group will take full account of Lord Sutherland’s recommendations
and will draw on a wide range of evidence—including that emerging from the pilot of Single Level Tests—in reaching its conclusions.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many pupils who achieved a level 5 in English in their Key Stage 2 examinations in 2004-05 also achieved a level 7 or higher in English in their Key Stage 3 examinations in 2007-08; [257165]
(2) how many pupils who achieved a level 5 or higher in mathematics in their Key Stage 2 examinations in 2004-05 achieved a level 7 or higher in mathematics in their Key Stage 3 examinations in 2007-08; [257166]
(3) how many pupils who achieved a level 5 in science in their Key Stage 2 examinations in 2004-05 also achieved a level 7 or higher in science in their Key Stage 3 examinations in 2007-08. [257170]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: 2007/08 data are not available. Data for 2006/07 can be found in table 8 of the Statistical First Release: National Curriculum Assessments at Key Stage 3 in England, 2006/07 (Revised), which can be found at:
Nursery Schools
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children were in nursery education in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [256461]
Beverley Hughes: The number of part-time equivalent, free early education places, filled by three and four-year-olds can be found in table 4 of the Statistical First Release; “Provision for Children Under Five Years of Age in England: January 2008”. This publication can be viewed on the Department for Children, Schools and Families website at:
Pre-school Education
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether his Department plans to undertake a regulatory impact assessment on the planned extension of the entitlement to free nursery care from 12.5 to 15 hours per week in 2010. [258194]
Beverley Hughes: Extending the highly popular free early education entitlement from 12.5 hours a week to 15 hours, delivered more flexibly, is important both to ensuring all children benefit from high quality early education and parents are supported in balancing their work and family life. As part of the process towards extending the free entitlement, we will be making changes to regulations under section 7 of the Childcare Act and consulting widely on a revised code of practice for local authorities. We will include an impact assessment as part of the process.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he expects free early learning to be available to all two-year-old children; and if he will make a statement. [256981]
Beverley Hughes: We will extend the offer of free early learning and child care to 15 per cent. of the most disadvantaged two-year-olds in every local authority as the priority in our long term vision of a universal offer for all two-year-olds.
This will reach around 23,000 children per year and cost around £57 million in total. Decisions regarding the pace of further rollout will need to be taken based on evidence gathered from the pilot and in light of wider fiscal considerations as part of the next spending review.
Pre-school Education: Arson and Vandalism
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (1) how many and what proportion of (a) all childcare settings and (b) childcare settings in the (i) five per cent. most deprived, (ii) 10 per cent. most deprived, (iii) five per cent. least deprived and (iv) five per cent. most deprived areas have closed for a period of one day or more as a result of an act of arson in each year for which records are available; [257628]
(2) how many and what proportion of (a) all childcare settings and (b) settings in the (i) five per cent. most deprived, (ii) 10 per cent. most deprived, (iii) five per cent. least deprived and (iv) five per cent. most deprived areas have closed for a period of one day or more as a result of an act of vandalism in each year for which records are available. [257619]
Beverley Hughes: Data are not collected centrally on the temporary closure of child care settings.
Therefore, it is not possible to provide this information.
Pre-School Education: Finance
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families with reference to the answer of 16 October 2008, Official Report, column 1498W, on pre-school education finance, when the Child Care Strategy will be published. [249641]
Beverley Hughes: The child care strategy document was published on 28 January 2009.
Primary Education: Admissions
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children entered primary schools in each local education authority (LEA) in (a) 2000 and (b) 2005; what estimate he has made of the number of children who will enter primary schools in each LEA in (i) 2010, (ii) 2013, (iii) 2015, (iv) 2017 and (v) 2020; and what estimate he has made of the (A) number and (B) cost of primary school places required in each LEA in each of those years compared with 2009 requirements. [255716]
Jim Knight: A table showing the number of admissions to primary schools in 2000/01 and 2005/06 in each local authority area has been placed in the Libraries.
Pupil projections by individual age are available at national level. At a local authority level, the Department relies upon authorities to prepare their own pupil projections.
National pupil projections are available for each year to 2017. There is an increasing degree of uncertainty in projecting over longer time periods, influenced mainly by the underlying population trends. The following table shows the actual number of pupils in primary schools from 2003 to 2008, and projected figures for 2009 to 2017. Figures for pupils aged five, and rising fives, are separately shown (this is the nearest available information for new admissions to primary schools).
| Local authority maintained primary schools: full-time equivalent number of pupils (1,000s)( 1) . Position in January each year: 2003 to 2008 (actual), 2009 to 2011 (projection). England | ||
| Pupils aged | ||
| Rising 5s( 2) | 5-years-old | |
| (1) Includes dually registered pupils. (2) Pupils who turn 5 between 1 September and 31 December of the relevant academic year. (3) Source: School Census | ||
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