Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of changing the national curriculum to increase awareness of cancer prevention amongst pupils in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is important to educate people about causes and symptoms of cancer, and we are supportive of efforts to do this at an early age.
Revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025. Cancer awareness and other specific cancer-related content is included. At secondary school, as part of their studies on health protection and prevention and understanding the healthcare system, pupils will be taught the importance of taking responsibility for their own health, including regular self-examination and screening.
Schools may teach about cancer awareness in other areas of the current national curriculum. The secondary science curriculum ensures pupils are taught about non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, and the impact of lifestyle factors. In design and food technology, schools should highlight the importance of nutrition. We are developing a new national curriculum with teachers, curriculum experts, pupils and parents, which schools will start teaching from September 2028.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support children in schools to develop their vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the importance of speaking and listening skills, which has been very clearly set out by the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review. As part of our English curriculum reform, we will make sure that communication skills inherent in curriculum subjects are more clearly expressed through revised programmes of study. We will revise the English and drama programmes of study to add more clarity and specificity in speaking and listening, as well as ensuring that the reformed English language GCSE focusses on the features and use of language as a form of communication. We will also create a new oracy framework to sit alongside the national curriculum that will support primary teachers to help their pupils become confident, fluent speakers, as well as a new secondary oracy, reading and writing framework, which will enable secondary teachers to connect and embed all three of those vital skills in each of their subjects as part of a whole school strategy.
We are also considering whether and how the sequencing of grammatical content in the curriculum should be changed, to enable pupils to master concepts and use them in context.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of outstanding Plan 2 student loan debt in the year the first loans become eligible to be written off; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that debt on Government finances.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The oldest Plan 2 loans will become eligible for cancellation in 2046. For the England-domiciled 2012/13 cohort, the first to receive Plan 2 loans, we forecast a total of £17,036 million in loan balances (including interest) will be cancelled at the end of their 30-year repayment periods.
These cancellations are accounted for at the point of loan outlay. The future cancelled debt is reflected in both the national accounts and the department’s accounts in the year the loan is issued and is then updated annually. It will not result in further losses when the loans reach the end of their 30-year write-off period.
The treatment of student loans in the national accounts is in line the methodology published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/methodologies/studentloansinthepublicsectorfinancesamethodologicalguide.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure schools tackle gender-specific online harm.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The updated relationships, sex and health education guidance ensures that, from September 2026, schools will address gender‑based online harms including from pornography, deepfakes, sextortion and misogynistic content. It places new emphasis on challenging misogyny and supporting pupils to recognise and report harmful behaviours and to understand the impact of harmful online influencers.
In December 2025, the government published a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. We want to protect young people and drive forward education on healthy relationships. We will invest £11 million to pilot the best interventions in schools over the next three years.
‘Keeping children safe in education’, the statutory safeguarding guidance which schools must have regard to, has been strengthened significantly in recent years to reflect evolving online risks. Online safety is embedded throughout, making clear the importance of ensuring a whole school approach to keeping children safe both online and offline.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase training on Personal, Social, Health and Economic education for teachers in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025.
The department will invest £3 million in a teacher training fund over the next two years to ensure that the new curriculum has the greatest impact and £5 million to pilot healthy relationships training delivered by external providers.
Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, we will strengthen financial literacy content and sequencing in citizenship and maths. More details on the conclusions and recommendations from the Curriculum and Assessment Review are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-final-report.
To ensure all pupils benefit from the refreshed national curriculum, we will ensure that core training throughout a teacher’s career has a strong focus on high-quality adaptive teaching, formative assessment and high expectations for all. This includes initial teacher training and the early career framework.
The government commissioned Oak National Academy to develop resources for schools in line with new curriculum requirements.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the requirement to resit Maths and English GCSEs until passing on young people starting their careers and pursuing vocational further education and apprenticeships.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Level 2 English and mathematics skills are essential for progression in work and further study, and providers are required to continue teaching English and/or mathematics to students aged 16 to 19 without these skills. Learners aged 16 to 18 at the start of their apprenticeship are required to achieve English and/or maths qualifications as an exit requirement.
The department does not set entry requirements for further education (FE) courses and guidance is clear that decisions to enter students into English and mathematics exams should be based on readiness to improve their grade.
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper outlined further support for providers to improve outcomes for all students, on study programmes. We have introduced teaching hours requirements and will also introduce new Level 1 preparation for GCSE qualifications. We are working with the FE Commissioner to share effective practice. Proposed reforms to level 2 and 3 vocational and technical pathways will also be designed to ensure there is sufficient time to continue studying English and mathematics.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support she is providing to students who want to pursue a creative course for further education but cannot due to not obtaining English and Maths GCSEs despite resits.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Level 2 English and mathematics skills are essential for progression in work and further study, and providers are required to continue teaching English and/or mathematics to students aged 16 to 19 without these skills. Learners aged 16 to 18 at the start of their apprenticeship are required to achieve English and/or maths qualifications as an exit requirement.
The department does not set entry requirements for further education (FE) courses and guidance is clear that decisions to enter students into English and mathematics exams should be based on readiness to improve their grade.
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper outlined further support for providers to improve outcomes for all students, on study programmes. We have introduced teaching hours requirements and will also introduce new Level 1 preparation for GCSE qualifications. We are working with the FE Commissioner to share effective practice. Proposed reforms to level 2 and 3 vocational and technical pathways will also be designed to ensure there is sufficient time to continue studying English and mathematics.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government at what stage of development is the Department for Education Content Store; what information, if any, it contains about pupils; who has access to it; for what purposes; and how ongoing developments will be reported to Parliament or made public.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Education Content Store programme is currently preparing for public beta phase. This phase will provide access, on a test basis, to publicly available materials which have been optimised for use with artificial intelligence. This will not include pupil work.
The Education Content Store contains no information about pupils. A limited amount of anonymised pupil work was included in the pilot, with written permission from parents.
During the pilot phase, a small number of British educational technology companies had access to the content store. Some of these were selected through the Contracts for Innovation competition with UK Research and Innovation, and others were participating in non-commercial user testing activities. The pilot phase has now ended, and only those working on the development of the store, or related programmes across government, including the National Data Library, currently have access.
We will publish a full report on the content store pilot phase before the end of the academic year.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish (a) the analysis identifying the need for additional 16 to 19 places in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and (b) the impact assessment on existing providers that was used to support the approval of the Eton Star Oldham free school.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Mainstream free school projects were evaluated in line with consistent criteria focusing on assessing the need for places and value for money. This included considering whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer and whether they would risk negatively impacting other local schools or colleges.
As part of one of the largest city regions outside London, Oldham benefits from a large pool of potential learners. Well developed transport links will allow the school to attract learners from across a broad geographical area.
Conditions attached to the school will ensure both Eton and Star work with local schools and colleges to ensure the new school sits coherently within the existing local offer, with a focus on improving GCSE outcomes and progression rates into post-16 provision across the local area, as well as into top universities.
The responsibility for undertaking a Section 10 consultation prior to the school opening sits with the Academy Trust. The Secretary of State will take the findings into account when considering whether to enter into a funding agreement.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to (1) track, and (2) publish, the number of learning days lost to extreme weather events, such as those that cause flooding or overheating.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department publishes attendance data, including reasons for absence such as setting closures.
Decisions on closures rest with individual settings and responsible bodies, based on their own risk assessments.
Closures should be a last resort, with the priority to keep settings open where safe. Settings are expected to provide remote education and the department’s emergency planning guidance explains how schools should deliver remote education. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings#exam-and-assessment-disruption.
Drawing on lessons from Covid, the department has strengthened monitoring of disruptions to provide faster support and reduce lost learning time.