Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Fabian Society Primary Colours, published on 11 January.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department has noted the Fabian Society Primary Colours report and the concerns it raises about arts education.
The department is committed to ensuring that all children have access to a high-quality arts education. All schools have to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, and Ofsted is currently consulting on proposals for a new inspection framework. These proposals have a strong emphasis on schools providing a broad and balanced curriculum for all their pupils.
On 11 January 2019, the department announced that a model music curriculum is being developed, overseen by an independent panel of music education experts. This will help teachers plan lessons that deliver a world class music education and reduce their workload.
Between 2016-20, the department is providing £300 million for a network of music education hubs. This is part of almost half a billion pounds we are investing in a range of music and cultural programmes between 2016-20, which is more than any other subject, except PE. In 2016-17, the hubs supported 91% of all primary schools and taught 711,241 pupils to play instruments in whole classes.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that every child has access to a broad array of arts experiences at primary school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department has noted the Fabian Society Primary Colours report and the concerns it raises about arts education.
The department is committed to ensuring that all children have access to a high-quality arts education. All schools have to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, and Ofsted is currently consulting on proposals for a new inspection framework. These proposals have a strong emphasis on schools providing a broad and balanced curriculum for all their pupils.
On 11 January 2019, the department announced that a model music curriculum is being developed, overseen by an independent panel of music education experts. This will help teachers plan lessons that deliver a world class music education and reduce their workload.
Between 2016-20, the department is providing £300 million for a network of music education hubs. This is part of almost half a billion pounds we are investing in a range of music and cultural programmes between 2016-20, which is more than any other subject, except PE. In 2016-17, the hubs supported 91% of all primary schools and taught 711,241 pupils to play instruments in whole classes.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how many children learn to play a musical instrument in school; and whether the number has risen or fallen since 1997.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Information regarding the total number of children who have learned to play musical instruments at school since 1997 is not held centrally. However, according to the data for 2016/17, recently published by Arts Council England, 711,241 pupils learned to play instruments together as a whole class through the music education hub network. The equivalent figure for 2012/13 was 531,422.
Music is compulsory in the National Curriculum for pupils aged 5-14. The National Curriculum programmes of study for music say that children should be taught to play instruments in key stages 1, 2 and 3. In maintained schools, pupils also have an entitlement in key stage 4 to study an arts subject (which includes music) if they wish.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role played by co-operative schools in England; and whether they plan to support further expansion of the sector.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government has not undertaken a review of the role played by co-operative schools. It is for schools themselves to consider whether they should adopt co-operative status.
The department only collects information on categories of schools as set out in legislation. Co-operative schools are not a separate category but form a sub-set of foundation schools and academies, therefore information is only collected on foundation schools and academies.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing to encourage the playing of cricket in schools by both boys and girls.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is clear that physical education and extra-curricular sport is important for all pupils. This government seeks to foster a lifelong love of physical activity and healthy habits in young people from an early age. Sport can help all pupils to develop skills such as confidence, team work and resilience that can be carried through to adulthood. It is up to schools to decide which sports to offer to pupils.
Through the primary PE and sport premium, the government has invested over £920 million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. The government has doubled the premium to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. Schools can use the premium to engage external coaches to best meet the needs of their pupils. We know that some schools engage external cricket coaches to provide specialist lessons for all pupils, which includes boys, girls and pupils with disabilities.
Through the Essential Life Skills fund, the department has recently funded the national cricket charity, Chance to Shine. The funds will be used to provide extra-curricular sport to young people in Stoke-on-Trent, one of the department’s twelve Opportunity Areas. In addition, Sport England supports children and young people in England by ensuring that there is a good sports and activity offer before and after the school day. This includes investing £28 million into Satellite Clubs between the period 2017 to 2021.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enable children to play a musical instrument at school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Music is a statutory subject in the National Curriculum for 5-14 year olds in state maintained schools. The National Curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. To support that, between 2016-2020 we are spending £300 million on a network of music education hubs. The hubs ensure that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument; provide opportunities to play in ensembles; ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable for all; and ensure that every pupil has the opportunity to sing regularly. In 2015/16, 662,871 pupils learned to play a musical instrument through whole class ensemble teaching that was provided or supported by music education hubs.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of career advice and work experience services provided to young people by local authorities.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Local authorities do not have direct responsibility for providing careers advice and work experience to young people. Responsibility was devolved to schools in 2012, when they were given a legal duty to secure independent careers guidance for years 8-13 pupils. Statutory guidance underpins this duty and makes clear that schools should offer work placements, work experience and other employer-based activities as part of their careers programme.
The Government has established The Careers & Enterprise Company to improve opportunities for young people to learn about the world of work. There are now 2,019 Enterprise Advisers appointed in the Company’s Enterprise Adviser Network, connecting with just under 2,000 schools and colleges to improve young people’s, careers and enterprise strategies and engagement with employers.
Local councils continue to play an important role in supporting young people to participate in education or training. They ensure that 16 and 17 year olds have agreed post-16 plans and have received an offer of a suitable place in post-16 education or training under the ‘September Guarantee’, and that they are assisted to take up a place. Schools work closely with local councils to identify those at risk of not participating post-16.
We will publish a careers strategy this year, with a clear focus on social mobility. We have worked with a number of external partners, including the Local Government Association, to examine best practice and develop proposals to improve the quality and coverage of careers guidance.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment have they made of the recently published <i>State of the nation 2016</i> report by the Social Mobility Commission.
Answered by Lord Nash
We welcome the Commission’s report, published last week. It is a wide ranging, valuable piece of work that draws out some important findings.
The Commission’s approach to social mobility is in line with work going on in the Department: looking at the opportunities of a group beyond the most disadvantaged; solidly focusing on areas of the country which are falling behind; and addressing wider obstacles to opportunity, like the need for high quality advice. Officials are engaging with the Commission’s findings as part of this wider work programme.
Opportunity Areas, launched last month, will be the vanguard of our approach to social mobility in areas where there are the greatest challenges and the fewest opportunities and will benefit from our energy, ideas and resources to address the barriers to social mobility. These areas are all social mobility coldspots identified by the Commission.
The Commission points out that the barriers to social mobility will not be fixed overnight. It will require long term effort from the Government, business, civil society and communities to ensure that talent and hard work leads to success, wherever you live or whatever your background.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the decision in the Ashers Bakery appeal, whether they intend to speak to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on the issues raised in that case.
Answered by Lord Nash
The judgment in the Ashers Bakery appeal was made in accordance with the equality law that is in force in Northern Ireland rather than the Equality Act 2010 which applies in the rest of the UK. Any consideration of the issues raised in that case is therefore a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly in the first instance.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their plans to make all schools convert to academy status, what will be the status of the National Curriculum after those conversions.
Answered by Lord Nash
In 2014, we introduced a new, more ambitious national curriculum which was developed to reflect the views of subject experts and teachers and the findings of international best practice comparisons.
An academised system means that the national curriculum will become a benchmark. It will serve an important role in setting out the level of knowledge-based, ambitious, academically rigorous education which every child should experience.
If autonomous academies or multi-academy trusts (MATs) wish to deliver the national curriculum in their schools, they can do so confidently. We want academies to use their freedom to innovate and build more stretching curricula to meet the needs of their pupils or their local area or the particular ethos of the school.