Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average cash balance held by schools in England as a percentage of their annual budget was on 31 March (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The latest available revenue balances for Local Authority (LA) maintained schools are given in the table below. They are on an accruals rather than cash accounting basis. Equivalent figures for academies are not available as they report on academic years ending 31 August.
Total revenue balance1 as a % of total revenue income2 in LA maintained schools
Date | % |
31 March 2014 | 6.7 |
31 March 2015 | 8.2 |
Source: Consistent Financial Reporting survey
1. A school's total revenue balance is calculated from the combination of any unspent allocations and the cumulative balance of income minus expenditure from revenue funding sources during the financial year and any balances carried forward from previous years.
2. A school's total revenue income for the year includes all revenue funding available in the year as well as any additional income generated by the school. This does not include any revenue balances carried forward from previous years.
These data are published annually, most recently in the Department’s Statistical Release LA and school expenditure: 2014 to 2015 financial year, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-education-and-childrens-services-spending-2014-to-2015
Figures for 31 March 2016 will be published in December 2016.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of (a) trends in the take-up of academy places and (b) the performance of academies in Stafford constituency.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The number of pupils on roll in academies in the Stafford Constituency from January 2012 to January 2015 was as follows:
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
The Weston Road Academy | 824 | 819 | 797 | 813 |
The Rural Enterprise Academy | N/A | 40 | 84 | 94 |
Rowley Park Primary Academy | N/A | N/A | N/A | 161 |
John Wheeldon Primary Academy | N/A | N/A | N/A | 428 |
Source: School Census, January 2012 to 2015
The percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2 in 2015 (the first year for which the academies had results) for primary academies in Stafford constituency was as follows:
| 2015 |
Rowley Park Primary Academy | 83% |
John Wheeldon Primary Academy | 62% |
Source: School Performance Tables
The percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs at key stage 4 in 2014 to 2015 of the secondary academies in Stafford constituency was as follows:
| 2014 | 2015 |
The Rural Enterprise Academy | 22% | 40% |
The Weston Road Academy | 55% | 51% |
Source: School Performance Tables
The Weston Road Academy also has a Sixth Form where 79% of pupils passed at least 3 A-Levels (A*-E) in 2015.
Data for key stage 4 for years before 2014 are not comparable due to reforms to qualifications, notably the removal of many previous equivalent vocational qualifications and counting only the first attempt at a qualification in the performance tables in English Baccalaureate subjects.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England offer the International Baccalaureate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is not possible to identify how many schools offer the International Baccalaureate. However, the Department for Education publishes information on schools that entered students for the different aspects of the International Baccalaureate in a particular year as part of the school performance tables. This information is available online at:
www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/download_data.html (2014_16-18_Underlying_Data_Institution_Level.zip (Tables 6 to 9)).
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) take-up of places in and (b) performance of academies in Stafford constituency.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Stafford constituency has four open academies:
1) John Wheeldon Primary School (opened 1 September 2014, sponsored by Staffordshire University)
2) Rowley Park Primary Academy (opened 1 August 2014, sponsored by Victoria Park Primary Academy)
3) The Weston Road Academy (converted to academy status in October 2011)
4) The Rural Enterprise Academy (opened August 2012 as a free school, sponsored by South Staffordshire College, Veolia and the National Farmers Union).
Both John Wheeldon and Rowley Park are at or near capacity. The Rural Enterprise Academy has been open since 2012 and has a phased intake admitting up to 60 pupils in each year. There are currently under 100 pupils on roll. The Weston Road Academy is almost 80% full.
We make regular assessments of all academies to monitor performance.
John Wheeldon and Rowley Park converted in September 2014 and it is too early to say what impact academy conversion has had. Rural Enterprise Academy was rated Good by Ofsted in March this year. The Weston Road Academy was rated Good by Ofsted in October 2013 and overall performance is above the national floor targets.