§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will permit clusters of schools to apply jointly for specialist school status. [23599]
§ Mr. TimmsThe published assessment criteria for each specialism permit joint specialist school applications involving two schools. The criteria also allow for collaborative approaches involving associated applications. Arrangements for associated applications involve a group of schools making solo applications or a combination of solo and joint applications, across a range of specialisms as part of a strategic approach to specialist school provision across an area. Each application succeeds or fails on its own merits.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what information she has collated on the targets agreed by specialist schools consequent on that status and their success in achieving them. [23679]
§ Mr. TimmsInformation on the specialist school targets agreed by individual arts, language, technology and sports colleges is not collated but is contained in the development plans and progress reports of each of the 685 specialist schools. These plans and progress reports are retained on individual school files and used in the assessment process for redesignation. Typically, the four-year development plans of an applicant school set between 100 and 400 targets, which focus on a range of school and community strands.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what information she collates on the success of specialist schools in achieving targets agreed consequent on their status. [23680]
§ Mr. TimmsSpecialist schools are required to provide annual reports of the progress they have made in implementing their development plans. Information on the achievement of the targets set in the plans is taken into account alongside a new development plan when they seek redesignation as specialist schools.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will seek a report from HM Chief Inspector of Schools on the level of success of specialist schools in achieving targets consequent on that status. [23681]
§ Mr. TimmsAs part of Ofsted's survey of specialist schools, published in October, HMI assessed the progress of schools visited in relation to their targets in order to 411W examine the impact of the programme on attainment and he quality of provision in designated schools; to evaluate how specialist schools were managing their role and to illustrate good practice. The first main finding in the report confirms that four out of five specialist schools covered by the survey.
are in large measure achieving the aims of the specialist schools programme and making good use of the advantages it brings".We believe Ofsted's report will help all specialist schools sustain and accelerate their achievements and see no need at present to commission another survey. However, we do continually review the need for evaluation evidence about the progress of specialist schools in meeting their targets, including the information my Department requests of them in their annual reports.
§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list for each specialist school(a) the names of sponsors, (b) the amount of money contributed in aggregate by external sponsors and (c) the additional resources contributed by her Department. [23682]
§ Mr. TimmsA list of the names of sponsors of each specialist school can be provided only at disproportionate cost. The aggregate contribution of external sponsorship to specialist schools to date is at least £58 million. The additional resources provided for the specialist schools
Academic year 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 England—percentage achieving One or more grades A*-C 70.5 71.4 72.6 73.6 74.0 Five or more grades A*-C 45.1 46.3 47.9 49.2 50.0 Buckingham—percentage achieving One or more grades A*-C 77.1 82.0 81.8 80.2 82.2 Five or more grades A*-C 54.1 54.4 57.7 56.0 60.6