Written question asked by Mark Hoban (Conservative) on Wednesday, 8 June 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 June 2005. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 June 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Key Stage Learning

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the actions her Department will take to ensure that children who have not achieved the expected standards of numeracy and literacy at Key Stage 2 receive support at secondary school to achieve these standards; and whether these will include (a) curriculum flexibility,(b) targeted reading materials and (c) increased resources.

Answer: Children who have not achieved the age-related expectations in numeracy and literacy on transfer to secondary school remain a key priority for this Government. The 14–19 White Paper and our recent manifesto set out our actions and proposals for improving the support for and schools' focus on these pupils. These include reviewing the Key Stage 3 curriculum to create more space to help those who have fallen behind; strengthening the support and guidance already provided to secondary schools by the Secondary National Strategy, and extending it to Key Stage 4; and strengthening the Achievement and Attainment Tables to include English and maths in the GCSE 5A* -C measure.

Secondary information