HC Deb 14 September 2004 vol 424 cc1563-4W
Mr. Jenkins

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what assessment the Department has made of citizenship lessons within the national curriculum since their introduction; [188120]

(2) what (a) assistance and (b) guidance the Department gives on teaching the citizenship curriculum in secondary schools. [188124]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

The Department has commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER) to conduct an eight year longitudinal study Al the impact of the subject on pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills. The study began in 2002 and reports of the first two years are available at www.nfer.ac.uk. Ofsted's section 10 inspections and QCA's monitoring reports provide effective progress reports on school practice and provision and have shown that good progress is being made. They are available from www.ofsted.gov.uk and www.qca.org.uk respectively.

The QCA has developed and sent to all schools a range of guidance to support the introduction of citizenship education, including schemes of work and guidance on assessment and curriculum planning. The Department published in June a self evaluation tool for schools to help them monitor progress in developing citizenship education. The Department has also put in place a package of support for continuing professional development of teachers in citizenship education.