Written question asked by John Hayes (Conservative) on Monday, 30 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 February 2006. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Streaming

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made towards the application of streaming in schools as recommended in the Government's 1997 manifesto; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: Our 1997 Manifesto acknowledged that children are not all of the same ability, nor do they learn at the same speed and recommended setting children in classes by ability to maximise progress.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, mathematics, science and modern foreign languages are set by ability and evidence suggests that there are more young people taught in ability sets now, than in 1997. However, schools are best placed to know the learning needs of their pupils and must use their own professional judgement to decide when and how to group pupils and set by ability.We will continue through the National Strategies and our Gifted and Talented programme to offer advice and guidance to schools on classroom practice so that they can make decisions about 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