Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, or have taken, to ensure that schoolgirls who become pregnant can continue their education during pregnancy and after their baby's birth; whether they have held any consultations on this issue in the last five years; and if so, with whom they consulted.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department published the attached guidance for local authorities in January 2013: ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’.
In this guidance, we made clear that local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, and for other children who – because of illness or other reasons – would not receive suitable education without such provision. This means that where a child cannot attend school because of a health condition or any other condition, for example pregnancy, and would not otherwise receive a suitable full-time education, the local authority is responsible for arranging provision and must have regard to this guidance.
The department has not consulted on this issue in the last five years.
The department is committed to improving education to ensure young people are supported to make informed decisions around sexual health. The department is making Relationships and Sex Education compulsory at secondary, in all schools in England and has completed an engagement process including a call for evidence with over 23,000 responses, including from young people. From these findings, the department will develop draft regulations and guidance for public consultation shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they intend to take to ensure that free speech is maintained in university settings following guidance issued to universities by the Higher Education Funding Council for England under their Prevent counter-extremism strategy.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universities and certain other higher education providers are required by the Education (No.2) Act 1986, to take reasonable steps to secure freedom of speech within the law for staff, students and visiting speakers. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, specifically requires providers that are subject to the statutory freedom of speech duty, to have particular regard to that duty when carrying out their responsibilities under Prevent. The Higher Education Funding Council for England monitors the implementation of the Prevent duty in relevant higher education bodies and issues relevant guidance.
The Higher Education and Research Act extends the freedom of speech duty to all higher education providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS). The current OfS consultation is seeking views on proposals around institutions’ freedom of speech responsibilities.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in developing guidance for schools on the teaching of relationship and sex education as required by section 34 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017; when they expect the draft guidance to be published; and when they expect to lay the relevant regulations before Parliament.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Children and Social Work Act (2017) places a duty on the Secretary of State for Education to make Relationships Education mandatory in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education mandatory in all secondary schools, in England.
As part of our next steps, the Department intends to conduct thorough and wide ranging engagement on Relationships Education and Relationships and Sex Education. This will determine the content of the regulations and statutory guidance, covering subject content, school practice and quality of delivery. We will ensure the subjects are carefully designed to safeguard and support pupils whilst being deliverable for schools.
The Department is committed to this programme of work and will set out shortly more details about the engagement process, the timetable and the work to consider age appropriate subject content.
This will result in draft regulations and guidance on which we will consult. Following consultation, the regulations will be laid in the House allowing for a full and considered debate.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Nash on 24 November, when they expect to announce a date for the introduction of statutory sex and relationship education in all state schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
Sex education is already compulsory in secondary maintained schools, and the Government is clear that all schools should make provision for high quality, age-appropriate sex and relationship education, which is a vital part of preparing young people for life in modern Britain.
The Secretary of State agreed that we need to look again at how schools deliver high quality personal, social, health and economic education including sex and relationship education. The Government is considering all the options and will give a view in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultation they have held on the proposal to remove the 50 per cent cap on religious selection for existing schools as well as new schools, and which groups they have consulted.
Answered by Lord Nash
On 9th September the Prime Minister announced that we will remove the 50 per cent cap for new faith free schools and consult on a new set of much more effective requirements to ensure that new faith schools are properly inclusive. The consultation is available to view at consult.education.gov.uk/ under ‘Schools that work for everyone'. We would welcome your views on our proposals.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the admission arrangements of St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School in Richmond.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department does not actively police the admission arrangements of individual schools.
Each school has an admission authority to set its admission arrangements and ensure those arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code (“the Code”). The admission authority for St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School is the School’s governing body.
If a parent has concerns about the admission arrangements of a school they can object to the Schools’ Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator finds that the school’s arrangements are unlawful, the admission authority must revise their arrangements to ensure they comply with the Code and other admissions legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of recent polling of the views of parents on religious selection in state-funded schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
We are consulting on proposals to enable more high quality providers of schools to establish new schools and we are keen to hear the views of parents as part of the consultation. Many faith schools are successful and popular with parents and we want to provide sufficient high quality places to meet demand. We will take account of all the responses received when considering the government’s response to the consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they plan to take to promote the education of United Kingdom citizens about the events of 1948 in Palestine.
Answered by Lord Nash
The new national curriculum for history, to be taught in maintained schools in England from September 2014, requires that 11-14 year olds be taught about the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world from 1901 to the present day. This can cover Britain's place in the world since 1945, including the events of 1948 in Palestine. It is for schools to decide what to teach and how to teach it. In accordance with Section 407 of the Education Act 1996, we would expect that the teaching of any issue in schools be consistent with the principles of balance and objectivity.