Written question asked by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Tuesday, 20 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 January 2006. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 January 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Setting

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what measures her Department is taking to ensure that schools set pupils by ability;

Answer: It is for schools to use their own professional judgment to decide when and how to group pupils and set by ability. We have encouraged schools to use setting since 1997, and putting children in ability groups within a class is now commonplace in primary schools. In secondary schools the majority of lessons in English, maths, science and modern foreign languages are set by ability.The Department has commissioned research to illustrate effective school practice on setting pupils by ability which will report early this year. This will provide the raw materials for any further advice or guidance on setting.Through the National Strategies and our Gifted and Talented programme we will continue to offer advice and guidance to schools on classroom practice so that they can make decisions about where and how to use pupil setting as part of their overall commitment to personalising and tailoring learning to meet the needs of all their pupils.

Secondary information