Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 30 July (HL1619), when the Secretary of State for Education intends to respond to Parliament on the recommendations of the Education Commissioner.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government is clear that there is no place for extremism in our schools. As my Rt hon. friend the Secretary of State for Education set out in her recent evidence to the Education Committee, a great deal of progress has been made in implementing Peter Clarke’s thorough and wide-ranging recommendations. The Secretary of State has appointed Sir Mike Tomlinson as Education Commissioner to work with Birmingham City Council to oversee its improvement. New trust members are in place in the four academies in special measures, and several teachers have been suspended. We have strengthened guidance on governance and set out the importance of promoting fundamental British values. The Secretary of State plans to update Parliament with further progress shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the educational impact on infant pupils of being taught in classes of over 30 pupils.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education has reviewed academic studies on the relationship between class size and attainment. The effect of class sizes on attainment in primary schools has long been contested and complicated by debates about how it can be accurately measured. The most robust studies have been reviewed and suggest class sizes have little effect beyond the early years when smaller classes have some positive impact.
The review ‘Class size and education in England evidence report’ was published on the Department’s website in December 2011 and is available online at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/class-size-and-education-in-england-evidence-report
Children are only permitted to join classes of 30 or more in exceptional cases - if for instance they are in care or from military families and admitted outside the normal admission round. On 12 June, the Department published data that showed the average infant class size currently stands at 27.4, which is well within the statutory limit of 30 pupils per teacher. This is published online at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2014
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what resources are being made available to support the implementation of foreign language teaching at primary school level from September 2014; and how this roll-out will be monitored.
Answered by Lord Nash
It is for schools to decide which resources they use to support their teaching. The Government is providing funding of £1.8 million over two years for continuous professional development for primary and secondary teachers to support delivery of the new modern languages curriculum. The training is being funded through nine organisations, whose performance will be monitored against the agreements the Department for Education is making with them.
In addition, links to sources of support that schools can use to support modern languages teaching in primary school are hosted on the website of the Association for Language Learning.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria will be used to assess proposals by academy chains planning to outsource all non-teaching posts to profit-making providers.
Answered by Lord Nash
The criteria that all academy trusts must adhere to in conducting their financial affairs are set out in the Academies Financial Handbook, which can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-financial-handbook
Paragraph 1.5.21 of the handbook explains that the accounting officer of a trust must ensure that the trust’s financial conduct is regular, proper and represents good value for money. In addition, paragraph 3.3.1 of the handbook explains that all novel and/or contentious transactions must be referred to the Education Funding Agency (EFA) for prior authorisation.
In the case of a novel and/or contentious transaction, the EFA would always seek strong assurance from the trust that its proposal represented excellent value for money and that there was no risk of irregularity or impropriety. If there were any doubt about a trust’s ability to provide this assurance, authorisation would not be granted.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the formal relationship between Regional School Commissioners and Ofsted; and how information will be shared between the two.
Answered by Lord Nash
Ofsted forms a key part of the overall accountability system for schools and is responsible for judging the quality of education in all maintained schools and academies.
The eight Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are responsible for taking decisions regarding academies (including free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools) on behalf of the Secretary of State in their regions. This includes:
encouraging and approving new academy sponsors to operate in their regions;
taking decisions on the creation of new academies;
a phased role on free school applications;
decisions about changes to open academies; and,
monitoring performance and intervening to secure improvement in underperforming academies, free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools.
The Department for Education has regular contact with Ofsted. At a regional level, each RSC will have an operational working relationship with the Ofsted Regional Director to ensure that information is shared and the necessary action is taken in academies where there are concerns.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to boost teacher training applications, particularly in subjects with known shortages, in the light of a shortfall in applications in the last three years.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Government is committed to supporting recruitment to initial teacher training (ITT) and we are continuing our focus to recruit the best graduates, particularly in subjects where they are most needed.
UCAS data from 15 September shows that 138,610 applications had been made for just 34,890 ITT places in 2014/15, indicating that teaching is a popular choice. However, some subjects fell below published targets in 2013/14 following strong recruitment between 2010/11 and 2012/13, and others such as physics represent a consistent challenge. The Department for Education will not know the final figures for ITT 2014/15 until the ITT census is published in November 2014. We recognise that, as the economy recovers, the labour market is becoming increasingly competitive, which is why we announced increases to ITT bursaries and scholarships for 2015/16.
The Department has again increased tax-free bursaries for mathematics, physics, chemistry, computing and languages trainee teachers, which are now worth up to £25,000 for 2015/16. In addition, the Department continues to work jointly with the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics and BCS, and the Chartered Institute for IT, to offer scholarship awards of £25,000 in order to attract the most talented graduates into ITT.
We have extended our School Direct (salaried) training programme to encourage more experienced graduates to enter teacher training. School Direct (salaried) is an employment-based route for high-quality, experienced graduates who earn a salary whilst training. For those training in 2015/16 in maths, physics and computing, we have made additional funding available to schools so they can offer salaries of £21,000 nationally and £25,000 in London.
We are also continuing to fund subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses for those who need to build up or refresh their subject knowledge in order to teach. To support ITT in 2015/16, SKE is available in maths, physics, chemistry, computing, languages and design and technology.
In September 2014, the Department launched a new marketing campaign ‘Your Future | Their Future’ which promotes teaching and persuades top graduates and career changers to enter teacher training.
Specific support is also provided for individuals interested in teaching shortage subjects through targeted marketing, personal advisors and help securing school experience.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what language qualifications primary school teachers will be expected to have in order to teach the new foreign language curriculum.
Answered by Lord Nash
There are no subject-specific entry requirements for entry to primary courses of initial teacher training (ITT). However, ITT entrants are required to satisfy a rigorous selection process, which is designed to assess their suitability to teach, and providers of ITT are required to ensure trainees can demonstrate a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) to deliver the curriculum which, in the case of primary trainees, includes teaching languages in primary schools.
Teaching of modern languages is already taking place in over 90% of primary schools. The Government is providing £1.8 million funding over two years for the continuous professional development of primary and secondary teachers in order to support the delivery of the new modern languages curriculum.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that school intakes are reflective of their local communities.
Answered by Lord Nash
The School Admissions Code requires all admission authorities to consult publicly for eight weeks when drawing up or proposing changes to its published admission arrangements, thus ensuring the views of the local community are considered before those arrangements are finalised. This consultation period allows parents, other schools, religious authorities and the local community to make known their views and raise any concerns they may have about what is proposed. Subject to consultation, it is for admission authorities to decide what oversubscription criteria would be most suitable for the school taking account of local circumstances.
Once admission arrangements have been determined, anyone who believes they are unfair or unlawful can object to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator whose decision is binding and enforceable.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the oversight in place to monitor the application of school admissions policies at a local and national level.
Answered by Lord Nash
The School Admissions Code (the Code) provides a robust framework that governs the determination of school admissions policies and the allocation of school places,whereby 86.5% of parents secured a place at their first preference school in 2014.
All admission arrangements must comply with the Code and must be consulted on at a local level. Anyone who feels a school’s admission policies and arrangements are unfair or unlawful may object to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. Where a local authority is of the view that a school’s admission arrangements may not be lawful, they have a duty to refer them to the Adjudicator, whose decision is binding and enforceable.
Local authorities also have a duty to report annually to the Chief Schools Adjudicator on the effectiveness of admissions in their area, and to publish their report locally. These reports inform the Adjudicator’s annual report to the Secretary of State.
The Department for Education also receives feedback on the operation of local admission policies from parents, local authorities, schools and other bodies.
Taken together these measures allow the Department to monitor the effectiveness of the Code at both the national and local level.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they will take in response to the recommendation in the report of the Education Commissioner published on 22 July into allegations concerning Birmingham schools that "unless there are genuinely exceptional circumstances, there should be a presumption that an individual will only be a governor at a maximum of two schools at any one time".
Answered by Lord Nash
We are considering all the specific recommendations made in the report and the Secretary of State will return to the House of Commons in the autumn on steps to be taken on these matters.