Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is possible for a school in a multi-academy trust to opt by resolution of its governing body to become a stand-alone academy; and, if so, how many such schools have done so in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is not possible for a school in a multi academy trust to opt by resolution of its local governing board to become a stand-alone academy
It is possible, however, for an academy to leave a multi academy trust with the mutual agreement of the governing board of the trust and the Secretary of State for Education. Before agreeing to such a move, the Secretary of State for Education would need assurance that it would be in the best interest of all pupils within the trust. However, there have been no recorded instances of this happening during the last 3 years.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to create more new maths schools in England.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The department has announced the approval of 5 new maths schools into the pre-opening stage: Cambridge Mathematics School, Durham Mathematics School, Imperial College London Mathematics School, Lancaster University School of Mathematics and Surrey Mathematics School. These are in addition to King’s Maths School and Exeter Maths School, which are already open, and the University of Liverpool Mathematics School, which opened in September 2020.
The department is working with the proposers to obtain sites and prepare these schools for opening, subject to funding agreements. We are also in discussion with other potential maths school proposers, in order to have a 16-19 maths school in every region. Successful proposals will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what practical support there is to assist pupils with special educational needs and disabilities to learn a musical instrument at school.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Our vision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is the same as that for all children and young people, namely that they are taught a broad and ambitious curriculum.
The department funds a national network of 120 Music Education Hubs who work with the majority of schools to deliver 4 core roles, one of which is to enable children from all backgrounds and every part of England to have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. This includes children with SEND.
In addition, one of the programmes that the department partially funds with Arts Council England is Music for Youth. Working with the Music Education Hubs, this provides over 60,000 young people each year with free opportunities to perform and experience live music through nationwide festivals, concerts and tailored projects. This includes giving pupils with SEND opportunities to both perform and access performances they would not otherwise be able to.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing for (1) secondary schools, (2) music hubs, and (3) national youth music organisations, to give young people opportunities to play in classical music ensembles and orchestras.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
All pupils should have access to an excellent, well-rounded education, and music education is central to this.
The government invested over £300 million of ring-fenced funding in music hubs in 2016-20, to ensure all children, whatever their background, have access to a high-quality music education, including learning to play musical instruments and having the opportunity to play and sing in ensembles.
On 3 January 2020, we announced a further £80 million investment in music hubs for 2020-21. Alongside this investment, charities that help young people learn about different styles of music are also set to receive a further £1 million to support the next generation of musicians. These programmes are In Harmony, National Youth Music Organisations (NYMOs) and Music for Youth.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment has been made of trends in the number of pupils learning lesser-played instruments such as the (1) bassoon, (2) French horn, and (3) double bass, through school music tuition.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The government believes all pupils should have access to an excellent, well-rounded education and the arts and music are central to this.
The government does not hold information on individual school music tuition. However, music is included in the national curriculum and is compulsory in all maintained schools from the age of 5 to 14. Post-14, all pupils in maintained schools must be offered the opportunity to study at least one subject in the arts.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they have been monitoring the effectiveness of measures set out in the guidance on helping children with special educational needs and disabilities to continue their education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The government is committed to supporting local authorities and their partners to ensure children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) continue their education during the COVID-19 outbreak.
We have published a range of guidance for education settings, local authorities, health commissioning bodies and families, and are monitoring the effectiveness of measures through:
We will continue to work with education settings, local authorities, health commissioning bodies and a range of stakeholders to keep the effectiveness of measures in our guidance under close review.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what responsibilities and duties schools have specifically towards pupils who develop eating disorders; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of support offered by schools to pupils with eating disorders.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
When carrying out duties to safeguard children and young people, schools must have due regard to the statutory guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’, which defines safeguarding and promotes the welfare of children. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.
Governing bodies of maintained schools, academies (except 16–19 academies) and pupil referral units are also subject to a duty to support pupils with medical conditions. In meeting the duty, schools must follow statutory guidance, which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
The department’s mental health and behaviour advice includes information about how to identify pupils whose behaviour may be a result of an underlying mental health difficulty, linked to the SEND graduated response process, and provides guidance on how they can adapt their approaches to support these pupils with their individual needs.
It is vital that children and young people with eating disorders have access to effective specialist support. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing £2.3 billion a year into mental health services by 2023-24, which will see spending for children and young people’s mental health services growing faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget. The NHS Long Term Plan also makes a specific commitment to boost investment in children and young people’s eating disorder services over the five years of the plan.
Inpatient treatment should be a last resort, which is why the government announced in 2014 that it would invest £150 million to expand eating disorder community-based care. We are making good progress on this promise, and as a result 70 dedicated new or extended community services are now either open or in development.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of free schools in the pre-opening stage.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are monitoring closely the risk that construction delays caused by COVID-19 might impact on our capacity to deliver free schools, including special free schools, planning to open in September 2020.
Where delays are putting at risk completion of sites by September, we are agreeing appropriate mitigations, including alternative temporary accommodation.
We remain committed to opening all free schools due to open this September, as planned.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how COVID-19 is affecting the delivery of new special free schools; and what steps they are taking to mitigate this impact.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are monitoring closely the risk that construction delays caused by COVID-19 might impact on our capacity to deliver free schools, including special free schools, planning to open in September 2020.
Where delays are putting at risk completion of sites by September, we are agreeing appropriate mitigations, including alternative temporary accommodation.
We remain committed to opening all free schools due to open this September, as planned.
Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to protect teaching and non-teaching staff from COVID-19 when schools re-open.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The school workforce is central to the country’s response to COVID-19 and we thank them wholeheartedly for their support at this difficult time.
As a result of the huge efforts everyone has made to adhere to strict social distancing measures, the transmission rate of coronavirus (COVID-19) has decreased. We therefore anticipate, with further progress, that we may be able, from the week commencing 1 June, to welcome back more children to early years, school and further education settings. We will only do this provided that the five key tests set by government justify the changes at the time.
A range of actions will be taken to prevent transmission of the virus, including protective measures to minimise contact and mixing. Public Health England is clear that if early years settings, schools and colleges implement these measures, and crucially if they are also applying regular hand washing, hygiene and cleaning measures and handling potential cases of the virus as per advice, then the risk of transmission will be lowered.
We have published guidance for education and childcare settings on how to implement protective measures, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings.
Access to testing is already available to essential workers, including all school staff.
These are rapidly developing circumstances. We continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.