Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 12 March (HL6256), what assessment they have made of the extent to which it would aid the spread of good practice in the effective use of the PE and Sport Premium if schools which felt that they had used that Premium particularly well were encouraged to broadcast that message and supporting information on social media on 4 April using a common hashtag.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department supports schools sharing good practice to maximise effective use of the premium through social media and other channels. It is up to schools to decide how and when to do so but the department’s blog for teachers, provides a way for schools to share how they are using their PE and Sport Premium. The department’s blog is available at: https://teaching.blog.gov.uk/category/pe-and-sport-premium/. The department will also look at whether there are further ways to support schools to share how they use the funding.
Other sources of shared good practice for schools include the attached Ofsted report published in October 2014, which identifies and shares good practice to maximise effective use of the funding. Sport England has also produced short films on using the PE and sport premium effectively; the films can be viewed at: http://www.sportengland.org/our-work/children-and-young-people/primary-school-sport/.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why studying for a PhD does not count as work for the purposes of qualifying for free childcare.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
30 hours free childcare aims to support working parents with the costs of childcare so that they can take up paid work if they want to, or work additional hours. That is why, in general, parents who do not work are not eligible for the additional hours.
The government recognises the value of parents continuing and returning to education, and provides support to those enrolled in recognised education courses through other schemes such as the childcare grant. This scheme, available to parents who are in full time higher education, offers parents support with up to 85% of their childcare costs depending on their household income, including those studying for a PhD. In addition, all three and four year olds are eligible for 15 hours of funded early education a week.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which primary schools have used their PE and Sport Premium to successfully encourage substantially more children to walk to school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally.
Through the primary PE and sport premium, the government has invested over £600 million of cross-government ring-fenced funding direct to primary schools to be spent on the improvement of PE and sport for all pupils. The government has doubled the premium to £320 million a year from September 2017 using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. Head teachers have the freedom to decide how the funding should best be used to improve their PE and sports. The department’s guidance to schools on the use of the premium indicates that they can use it to embed physical activity into the school day through active travel to and from school. Schools need to publish how they spend the funding and report the impact on their website by 4 April 2018.
National Walk to School Week takes place from 21-25 May, and the department expects schools will use this opportunity to further promote active lifestyles outside of school.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will commence the review of school exclusions and implications for pupil groups disproportionately represented in exclusion statistics, including those with special needs and disabilities.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government launched the attached review of school exclusions, led by the former Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families (Edward Timpson) on Friday 16 March. The review will help us to understand how and why schools use exclusion, what drives the variation we see in exclusion rates and, in particular, the disproportionate exclusion of some groups including black Caribbean boys, Children in Need, Looked After Children, and those with Special Educational Needs. The review will also explore and identify effective practice, which can be shared across the system.
As part of this review, we also published our call for evidence, at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-absence-and-exclusions-team/exclusions-review-call-for-evidence/. We are seeking views from parents, children, schools, local authorities and other organisations, about their experiences, practice and evidence. Responses should be submitted by 6 May 2018.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether a place where only religious matters are taught to children who do not reside there is required to register as a school; and if not, to what extent the teaching of general subjects, such as English and maths, is necessary before such a place is required to register as a school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
To be registered as an independent school, an institution must meet the definition of a school in Section 4 of the Education Act 1996, which requires it to provide primary and/or secondary education. The provision of a single discipline, such as religious education alone, does not meet this requirement.
Registered independent schools are expected to provide the full range of subjects specified in the attached independent school standards as prescribed in regulations - which include linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical, and aesthetic and creative education.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of recent amendments to the Pupil Registration Regulation requiring schools to improve the information provided to local authorities when a child is removed from school rolls.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Nothing is more important than keeping children safe and in suitable education. That is why, in September 2016, the department amended the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, to include further duties on schools to improve the information they provide to local authorities when a child is removed from their roll. This will better enable local authorities to carry out vital enquiries to ensure children are safe from harm.
The government has committed to reviewing the impact of the regulation changes by September 2019.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 24 January (HL4624), when they will make an announcement on the outcome of the call for evidence on out of school settings.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government is committed to improving oversight of out-of-school settings. As part of our Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper (published on 14 March), we announced a package of activity aimed at enhancing local capacity to identify and tackle settings of concern, with a view to spreading best practice on the use of existing powers. Out-of-school settings vary considerably in their characteristics, and types of education and activities they offer. We want to ensure any future regulation is effective and carefully takes into account the differences across such a broad and diverse sector. The department will publish a response to the call for evidence soon.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to collect information from Ofsted on the number of children who are electively home educated, given that this information is already requested by Ofsted as part of the child-level data in its local authority inspections and may be raised by Ofsted during its annual engagement meetings.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Publication or release of information gathered by Ofsted is primarily a matter for that body, but in any case it is unlikely that collation of this data on a national basis would result in accurate information on the total numbers of children educated at home, since it is collected for different local authorities at different times, and relies on varying systems within those authorities. The survey conducted by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services in the autumn of 2017, based on local authority data supplied at the time, is likely to produce a more accurate overall estimate.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 14 December 2017 (HL3782, HL3783 and HL3786), when they expect to publish the guidance on joint working between Ofsted, the Department for Education and local councils to tackle unregistered schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The guidance was published on 14 March and is attached. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulating-independent-schools.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish at local authority level the annual information obtained through SEN2, regarding (1) the number of children entering home education with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), and (2) the number of children home educated on census date with an EHCP, subject to the needs of confidentiality for very low numbers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There is currently no intention to publish this data at a local authority level.
The department does not collect information on the number of children entering home education with an education, health and care plan (EHCP).
The department does collect the number of pupils with a statement of special educational needs or EHCP and the number of pupils for whom an EHCP has been made for the first time during the calendar year, where arrangements have been made by parents in accordance with Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. This data is currently published at a national level and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2017.