Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the funding Oak National Academy will require (1) in the period from September 2022 until September 2025, and (2) thereafter on an annual basis.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Government has set aside up to £43 million over the period from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to support Oak National Academy. Funding beyond April 2025 for departments and their Arm’s Length Bodies will be determined at the next Spending Review, which is expected to conclude in late 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will pause the procurement process for Oak National Academy pending the outcome of the ongoing application for judicial review by the British Educational Suppliers Association, the Publishers Association, and the Society of Authors.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the process to set up Oak National Academy as an Arm’s Length Body, the department produced a business case which included an assessment of potential market impact. This was published in November 2022.
The business case draws upon evidence provided by the market. The department estimates the value of the commercial curriculum resources market to be between £200 to £300 million per annum. We do not have a separate estimate for the educational supplies market.
Monitoring market impact is a priority for the department and will be factored into the ongoing evaluation of Oak National Academy, including its review in 2024 as part the wider Public Bodies Review programme. The review will act as a checkpoint to ensure that Oak is acting effectively and will include consideration of the effect on the commercial curriculum resources market.
It is important that teachers and pupils are able to benefit from the high-quality materials that Oak will provide as soon as possible. Oak will therefore be continuing with its activities while the application for judicial review is being considered, including the procurement of curriculum packages according to the planned schedule.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the potential impact on the commercial market for curriculum resources of establishing Oak National Academy as an arm’s-length body.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the process to set up Oak National Academy as an Arm’s Length Body, the department produced a business case which included an assessment of potential market impact. This was published in November 2022.
The business case draws upon evidence provided by the market. The department estimates the value of the commercial curriculum resources market to be between £200 to £300 million per annum. We do not have a separate estimate for the educational supplies market.
Monitoring market impact is a priority for the department and will be factored into the ongoing evaluation of Oak National Academy, including its review in 2024 as part the wider Public Bodies Review programme. The review will act as a checkpoint to ensure that Oak is acting effectively and will include consideration of the effect on the commercial curriculum resources market.
It is important that teachers and pupils are able to benefit from the high-quality materials that Oak will provide as soon as possible. Oak will therefore be continuing with its activities while the application for judicial review is being considered, including the procurement of curriculum packages according to the planned schedule.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the value of the (1) curriculum resources market, and (2) educational supplies market, to the UK economy.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of the process to set up Oak National Academy as an Arm’s Length Body, the department produced a business case which included an assessment of potential market impact. This was published in November 2022.
The business case draws upon evidence provided by the market. The department estimates the value of the commercial curriculum resources market to be between £200 to £300 million per annum. We do not have a separate estimate for the educational supplies market.
Monitoring market impact is a priority for the department and will be factored into the ongoing evaluation of Oak National Academy, including its review in 2024 as part the wider Public Bodies Review programme. The review will act as a checkpoint to ensure that Oak is acting effectively and will include consideration of the effect on the commercial curriculum resources market.
It is important that teachers and pupils are able to benefit from the high-quality materials that Oak will provide as soon as possible. Oak will therefore be continuing with its activities while the application for judicial review is being considered, including the procurement of curriculum packages according to the planned schedule.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the gross amount per student paid by the Office for Students to universities for students studying music courses under the CAH25-02-02 code for the 2020–21 academic year; and what is the amount to be paid for the 2021–22 academic year.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Strategic Priorities Grant, formerly referred to as the Teaching Grant, plays an important role in supporting providers and students to develop the skills and knowledge needed locally, regionally and nationally to support the economy.
We have asked the Office for Students (OfS) to reform the Grant for 2021-22. These reforms include the reallocation of high-cost subject funding towards the provision of high-cost subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost science, technology, and engineering subjects, and subjects meeting specific labour market needs.
One of our proposals is for a 50% reduction in the rate of high-cost subject funding, which is one element of the wider Strategic Priorities Grant, for some subjects in order to enable this reprioritisation.
Under current proposals, outlined in the OfS’ consultation on recurrent funding for 2021/22, the high-cost subject funding rate for students on music courses (CAH25-02-02) will be set at £121.50 in 2021/22, down from £243 in 2020/21. This fall is equivalent to a reduction of around 1% in combined funding from a £9,250 tuition fee and OfS funding. Music students will also attract other elements of OfS funding, such as funding for student access and success, which is unrelated to the subject they study.
The OfS’ methodology for calculating funding allocations, which are done at subject price group-level rather than on an individual subject basis, means that the total amount of high-cost subject funding cannot be calculated for individual subjects such as music. However, illustrative modelling performed by the OfS on funding allocations, which accompanied their consultation, calculated that the total amount of funding for C1.2 subjects, which includes performing arts, creative arts, media studies and archaeology, decreased from £36 million in academic year 2020/21 to £19 million in academic year 2021/22. We have asked the OfS to invest an additional £10 million in our world-leading specialist providers. Many of these specialise in arts provision such as the Royal College of Music or the Royal Academy of Music which are both world-leading institutions for music education. We want to ensure that our specialist providers receive additional support, and that grant funding is used to effectively support students.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of secondary schools in England employ a full-time music teacher.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information on the number of music teachers employed in state funded secondary schools in England is published in table 11 of the publication ‘School workforce in England 2017’, attached. This shows that there were 6,500 music teachers in state funded secondary schools as at November 2017.
Information at school level is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of curriculum time was allocated to music in state schools in Key Stage 3 in (1) 2010 and (2) 2017.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2010, 60,300 hours were spent teaching music to key stage 3 classes in state-funded secondary schools, which represents 3.3% of all hours taught. In 2017, 53,200 hours were spent teaching music, which represents 3.1% of all hours taught.
These are national figures and it is up to individual schools to decide how much time to allocate to teaching each subject.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pupils in state-funded schools in England learning to play instruments in lessons for whole classes provided, or supported, by Music Education Hubs progressed to learn a musical instrument once the whole class tuition ended since 2012.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Music is a compulsory part of the national curriculum for 5 to 14 year olds. The department does not collect information on the number of secondary school academies that teach Key Stage 3 music at least once a week.
The table below is school workforce census data. It shows that the proportion of time spent teaching music at state funded secondary schools overall has remained broadly stable since 2010.
Percentage of total teaching hours spent on music in years 7-13 in state-funded secondary schools per year | |||||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.3% | 2.3% |
Information on the number of pupils who continued to learn an instrument after receiving whole class ensemble teaching since 2012 is contained in a survey published by Arts Council England, and can be found on pages 43 and 44 of the attached document.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many secondary school academies teach music at Key Stage 3 at least once a week.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Music is a compulsory part of the national curriculum for 5 to 14 year olds. The department does not collect information on the number of secondary school academies that teach Key Stage 3 music at least once a week.
The table below is school workforce census data. It shows that the proportion of time spent teaching music at state funded secondary schools overall has remained broadly stable since 2010.
Percentage of total teaching hours spent on music in years 7-13 in state-funded secondary schools per year | |||||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.3% | 2.3% |
Information on the number of pupils who continued to learn an instrument after receiving whole class ensemble teaching since 2012 is contained in a survey published by Arts Council England, and can be found on pages 43 and 44 of the attached document.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote the teaching of music in academies across all key stages, and particularly in key stage 3.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Music is compulsory in the national curriculum for 5 to 14 year olds. Data from the Omnibus Survey in 2017 reveals that the average amount of teaching time in primary schools was broadly similar to the amount of time spent teaching history and geography. At secondary schools, the data from the school workforce census shows that the proportion of time spent teaching music between 2010 and 2017 has remained broadly stable. In 2010 2.4% of total teaching hours were spent teaching music, compared with 2.3% in 2017. Full details are in the table below.
Proportion of total teaching hours spent on music in years 7-13 in state-funded secondary schools per week | |||||||
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.4% | 2.3% | 2.3% |
The network of music education hubs have four core roles, including ensuring that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument in whole classes. Data published recently by Arts Council England shows that in 2016-17, 91% of primary schools and 88% of secondary schools worked with their music education hub on at least one of the hubs’ core roles. It also shows that 711,241 pupils in state-funded schools learned to play instruments in lessons for whole classes that were provided or supported by music education hubs.
Academies are not obliged to follow the national curriculum, but they are required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum.