---

Ability Grouping

Answer

This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, David Bell, has written to the hon. Member and a copy of his letter has been placed in the Library.Letter from David Bell to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 21 November 2005:"Parliamentary Questions 29556/29557/29558: Setting and Banding by Ability""Your recent parliamentary questions have been referred to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, for reply.""In sum, you asked:""the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will revise Ofsted inspection criteria to include monitoring of the proportion of classes that are banded by ability (PQ 29556)""the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on what basis it was decided to remove the requirement for Ofsted inspectors to distinguish between setting and banding by ability in the information recorded about lessons (PQ 29557)""the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of lessons was recorded as banded by ability in (a) Year 7, (b) Year 8, (c) Year 9, (d) Year 10 and (e) Year 11 in secondary schools inspected by Ofsted in each year between 1995 and 2004 (PQ 29558).""In response to Parliamentary Question 29556, Ofsted introduced a new framework and guidance for inspections under section 5 of the Education Act 2005 from September 2005. Although these will be kept under review, there are no plans to change them in the immediate future. The observation of lessons is no longer conducted in the same way as under the previous inspection regime (under section 10 of the School Inspections Act) and in Ofsted's view it would not be appropriate to ask inspectors to collect information about the proportion of classes that are grouped by ability on every section 5 inspection.""In response to Parliamentary Question 29557, changes were made in 2003/04 so that Ofsted had information about the level of ability of groups as well as whether pupils were grouped by ability for their lessons. The information about ability levels was not previously available. To avoid over-complexity, the distinction between banding and setting was removed. In making judgements, Ofsted felt that it was not important for inspectors to know whether pupils were grouped by ability or not, rather than knowing the precise arrangements through which this was achieved. In some schools the distinction between banding and setting is blurred.""In response to Parliamentary Question 29558, the table (see Appendix 1) includes the information you required for the years 1996/97 to 2002/03. The data were not recorded in 1995/96 and from September 2003 inspectors were not required to distinguish between setting and banding in the information they recorded about lessons.""A copy of this reply has been sent to Jacqui Smith and will be placed in the library of both Houses."

Appendix 1: Percentage of banded lessons, 1996 to 2003
	1996/97			1997/98			1998/99			1999/2000
Year group	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons
Year 7	27,542	6.4	16,414	8.3	22,361	5.3	17,544	4.9
Year 8	27,431	8.1	16,341	9.6	21,792	6.3	16,769	6.1
Year 9	27,161	7.5	16,692	9.2	23,489	6.6	18,810	6.6
Year 10	24,651	3.9	17,047	5.2	24,481	4.0	18,536	3.3
Year 11	38,008	3.6	17,686	4.9	24,543	3.9	18,490	3.3
Total year 7–11	144,793	5.8	84,180	7.4	116,666	5.2	90,149	4.8

	2000/01			2001/02			2002/03
Year group	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons	Total number of lessons observed	Percentage of banded lessons
Year 7	14,011	4.9	12,532	4.6	11,257	4.5
Year 8	13,416	6.1	11,552	5.1	10,255	5.5
Year 9	16,117	6.5	14,388	5.5	13,152	5.9
Year 10	14,802	3.7	13,212	2.7	12,073	3.1
Year 11	15,108	3.2	13,812	2.5	12,982	2.8
Total year 7–11	73,454	4.9	65,496	4.1	59,719	4.3
Notes: 1. Framework changes occurred in January 2000 and September 2003. Changes in the way groupings in lessons were recorded may mean that data are not directly comparable from periods of one framework to another. 2. From January 2000 to July 2003, the inspection arrangements included full and short inspections. The majority of lessons observed will have been in full inspections. The most effective schools had short inspections.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

29557; 439 c2070-2W;439 c2069-72W

Session

2005-06

Related items

Deposited Paper HINF 2005/2002
Monday, 21 November 2005
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Subjects

Education Inspections Office for Standards in Education Teaching methods

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk