§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the impact of special needs pupils on primary school SATs results for(a) England and (b) Shropshire [14791]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Department does not collect separate data on the performance of pupils with SEN and it is not therefore possible to assess their impact on the National Curriculum Assessment Tests.
We have made no specific assessment of the position of pupils with SEN on primary school National Curriculum Assessment Test results in Shropshire. The percentage of 871W pupils with SEN in maintained primary schools in that LEA was 21.1 per cent. in January 2000, compared to the corresponding national figure of 21.6 per cent.
The Department established an SEN Data Strategy Group which, earlier this year, recommended a number of improvements to the collection of data on pupils with SEN. We are now considering how best these recommendations could be implemented, including developing appropriate data collection software and taking the views of schools and LEAs.