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Literacy

Answer

The information requested is set out as follows:(a) 5-year-oldsThe available information for the ““Communication, Language and Literacy”” area of learning is shown in the following table. Local authority figures for 2005 were published as an annex (Table B) to the final Statistical First Release ““Foundation Stage Profile: 2005 National Results”” (SFR 03/2006) in February 2006.

The lowest 10 attaining local authorities by percentage of children working securely¹,² within the Early Learning Goals in the communication, language and literacy area of learning—2005
	Percentage
Language for communication and thinking
Reading
Writing
Barking and Dagenham	46
Slough	59
Middlesbrough	63
Leicester	63
Hartlepool	65
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	67
Greenwich	67
Rotherham	68
Tower Hamlets	68
Torbay	69
Linking sounds and letters
Barking and Dagenham	28
Middlesbrough	43
Leicester	43
Greenwich	43
Nottingham	43
Waltham Forest	44
Lewisham	46
Luton	46
Newham	50
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	51
Barking and Dagenham	44
Middlesbrough	48
Leicester	48
Greenwich	52
Hartlepool	56
Waltham Forest	57
Newham	57
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	57
Lewisham	58
Slough	58
Barking and Dagenham	28
Middlesbrough	39
Leicester	41
North Somerset	41
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	43
Greenwich	44
Southampton	45
Luton	45
Reading	47
Medway	47
¹ Care should be taken when comparing the relative attainment levels between local authorities because of the unequal impact of moderation and assessment on the figures. ² A scale score of six or more indicates that a child is working securely within the Early Learning Goals.

The provisional national figures for 2006 recently published on 26 October 2006 in Statistical First Release ““Foundation Stage Profile 2006: National Results 2006 (Provisional)”” (SFR42/2006) suggest that improvements in assessments and moderation may still be impacting widely on the results across the country. Final local authority data are expected to be published in January.(b) 11-year-oldsNational Curriculum assessments at key stage 2 were published on 24 August 2006 (SFR31/2006). The following table shows the percentage of pupils achieving the target level 4 in English in the 10 lowest ranking local authorities.

Provisional key stage 2 National Curriculum test results—2006
LA name	Percentage of pupils achieving Level 4+ English
City of London	64
Hackney	70
Nottingham City	70
Leicester City	71
Manchester	72
Barnsley	72
Sheffield	72
Stoke-on-Trent	72
City of Bristol	73
City of Kingston upon Hull	73
England all schools	79

(c ) 16-year-oldsThe following table shows provisional figures for the percentage of 16 year old pupils achieving a grade A*- C in GCSE English in 2006.

Provisional GCSE results—2006
LA name	Percentage of 16 year olds achieving grades A* to C in GCSE English
Knowsley	36.6
City of Kingston upon Hull	38.9
Nottingham City	39.9
Middlesbrough	40.9
Manchester	42.2
Sandwell	43.4
City of Bristol	43.6
Portsmouth	43.7
Tower Hamlets	44.6
Walsall	45.1
England all schools key stage 4	59

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

451 c963-5W; 98057

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Children Literacy

Link

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