To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to the Statement of 30 June 2009, Official Report, columns 165-80, on 21st century schools, what criteria he plans to use to identify children who are behind at the end of their primary school education who are to be offered additional tuition at the start of their secondary education; what arrangements will be made for allocating funding to meet expenditure on such tuition; and whether the tuition offered will be in hours outside those provided for the teaching of the secondary school curriculum. (284068)

Every pupil who leaves primary school at the end of the summer term 2010 without reaching the expected National Curriculum level 4 in either English or mathematics will be guaranteed extra support when they start secondary school through one-to-one or small group catch-up tuition in year 7. Local authorities will be responsible for allocating funding to their secondary schools to support any year 7 pupils who need one-to-one tuition. If pupils are identified for small group tuition or other catch-up support, money has already been included within school budgets up to 2011 to support personalised learning.

It is up to schools to decide when and how to offer the catch-up tuition. The new secondary curriculum which we began implementing from September last year gives schools more scope to provide catch-up support during the school day if they judge this the most appropriate option for their pupils.