§ Dr. SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many schools catering for children with severe learning difficulties have invoked the national curriculum disapplication procedure, by local education authority, in each of the last three years. [1816]
§ Mrs. GillanInformation is available only for 1994 and does not distinguish disapplication from modification of national curriculum requirements. The following table shows, for each local education authority in England, the number of maintained special schools approved to cater for pupils with severe learning difficulties which reported pupils for whom the national curriculum had been modified or disapplied in January 1994.
440W
Maintained special schools approved to cater for pupils with severe learning difficulties and who have pupils for whom the national curriculum has been modified or disapplied January 1994 Local education authority Number of schools City of London — Camden — Greenwich 1 Hackney 1 Hammersmith and Fulham — Islington — Kensington and Chelsea — Lambeth 1 Lewisham 1 Southwark 1 Tower Hamlets 1 Wandsworth 1 Westminster — Barking — Barnet — Bexley — Brent — Bromley — Croydon 1 Ealing 1 Enfield — Haringey — Harrow — Havering — Hillingdon — Hounslow — Kingston upon Thames 1 Merton — Newham — Redbridge — Richmond upon Thames — Sutton — Waltham Forest — Birmingham 3 Coventry — Dudley 2 Sandwell 3 Solihull — Walsall 2 Wolverhampton 2 Knowsley 1 Liverpool 2 St. Helens 1 Sefton 1 Wirral — Bolton — Bury — Manchester — Oldham 2 Rochdale 1 Salford 1 Stockport 1
Maintained special schools approved to cater for pupils with severe learning difficulties and who have pupils for whom the national curriculum has been modified or disapplied January 1994 Local education authority Number of schools Tameside — Trafford 1 Wigan — Barnsley 1 Doncaster 3 Rotherham 1 Sheffield — Bradford 1 Calderdale — Kirklees 1 Leeds 1 Wakefield — Gateshead — Newcastle upon Tyne — North Tyneside 1 South Tyneside 2 Sunderland — Isles of Scilly — Avon 3 Bedfordshire 2 Berkshire — Buckinghamshire 2 Cambridge 2 Cheshire — Cleveland 2 Cornwall 3 Cumbria 3 Derbyshire Devon 5 Devon — Dorset 1 Durham 2 East Sussex 1 Essex 1 Gloucestershire 2 Hampshire 4 Hereford and Worcester 3 Hertfordshire 2 Humberside — Isle of Wight — Kent 1 Lancashire 7 Leicestershire — Lincolnshire 6 Norfolk 4 North Yorkshire 3 Northamptonshire 1 Northumberland — Nottinghamshire 1 Oxfordshire 2 Shropshire 2 Somerset — Staffordshire 6 Suffolk — Surrey 1 Warwickshire 2 West Sussex 3 Wiltshire — England 121
§ Dr. SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what guidance she has issued as to the circumstances in which a school for children with severe learning difficulties should apply for the disapplication of national curriculum procedure. [1818]
§ Mrs. GillanThe revised national curriculum statutory documents state that study material may be selected from earlier or later key stages where this is necessary to enable 441W individual pupils to progress and demonstrate achievement. This flexibility should reduce the necessity for formal disapplication or modification of the requirements.
§ Dr. SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the disadvantages for a school catering for children with severe learning difficulties of applying for national curriculum disapplication for some of its pupils. [1817]
§ Mrs. GillanMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made no such assessment. Pupils should be allowed to benefit from the national curriculum to the extent of their abilities, but it is not always possible to reconcile the difficulties of certain children with an entitlement to the full national curriculum. In these cases disapplication or modification may be appropriate.