Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase teacher recruitment in (a) Hertfordshire and (b) England.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education wants to attract the best and brightest graduates into teaching. Teaching continues to be a hugely popular career with more teachers in England’s classrooms than ever before and record levels of top graduates entering the profession, with 17% of postgraduate entrants to initial teacher training in 2014/15 (one in six) holding a first class degree and 73% holding a 2:1 or better. However, we recognise that we must continue our efforts to attract top graduates, which is why the Department is offering increased bursaries worth up to £25,000 tax free to those training to teach physics, maths, chemistry, computing and languages. Furthermore, the Prime Minister announced on 8 December a range of measures to up-skill 15,000 existing teachers and to recruit up to 2,500 additional specialist maths and physics teachers over the next Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department gives to schools on the relative risk of pupils with neurofibromatosis 1 also having autism or attention deficit disorder.
Answered by Edward Timpson
A new duty was introduced on 1 September 2014 for governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions and to have regard to statutory guidance, which came into force on the same date. The guidance focuses on the needs of each individual child and how their medical condition impacts on school life. We would expect those arrangements to apply to pupils suffering from neurofibromatosis.
The guidance advocates the use of individual healthcare plans, which may include details of associated conditions, and the support required for their wider educational, social and emotional needs.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that schools are aware of social, psychological and health problems that pupils with neurofibromatosis 1 may encounter; and what guidance her Department gives to schools to ensure that pupils with that and other genetic conditions receive adequate support to ensure that they do not feel socially excluded.
Answered by Edward Timpson
A new duty was introduced on 1 September 2014 for governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions and to have regard to statutory guidance, which came into force on the same date. The guidance focuses on the needs of each individual child and how their medical condition impacts on school life. We would expect those arrangements to apply to pupils suffering from neurofibromatosis.
The guidance advocates the use of individual healthcare plans, which may include details of associated conditions, and the support required for their wider educational, social and emotional needs.