To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the effects of giving International School Awards for those schools which have begun to integrate global issues and international awareness into the curriculum; and if he will make a statement. (247270)

The International School Award (ISA) is administered by the British Council on behalf of my Department.

In 2006, an OFSTED review concluded that:

“It was clear from scrutiny of the self-evaluation forms and the reports that in many schools which had an ISA a significant amount of teachers' and pupils' time was involved in international work. Almost all schools which had completed a SEF mentioned their international work or their ISA within it.”

The report is available at:

www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Leadership/Governance/Evaluating-internationalism-in-schools/(language)/eng-GB.

An evaluation report conducted for the British Council in 2008 found that there was:

“...strong evidence of the benefits that international work is bringing to the curriculum in schools and to pupils' engagement with learning.”

I have placed copies of the evaluation report in both Libraries.