§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what recent representations he has received regarding government targets for literacy and numeracy. [120781]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggMinisters recently met and talked with over 2000 primary headteachers at conferences across the country. They shared our ambitions for raising standards but asked us to consider how we could help to motivate them and their staff to achieve improved pupil performance.
We agree with them that primary schools should have targets which are not only stretching, but realistic and signed up to by everyone in the school. Targets in literacy and numeracy provide a clear focus for what we need to achieve. All children who have the potential to do so should achieve Level 4 in English and maths at age 11. Our document 'Excellence and Enjoyment: a strategy for primary schools' published in May announced that in future schools will be empowered to set their own challenging but appropriate targets for individual pupils at age 11.