Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 14 January (HL3982 and HL3983), where in any of the National Curriculum documents of recent years there appear Programmes of Study on vocabulary that provide the degree of informed and specialised detail together with clear guidance on progression accorded to spelling and grammar.
Answered by Lord Nash
Vocabulary development is embedded with the information on grammar in the section of the National Curriculum framework document entitled ‘Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation’, which also sets out the terminology that pupils should be taught to use to discuss their writing.
The National Curriculum framework does not contain a separate programme of study for vocabulary, nor did it in draft form. Vocabulary development is instead emphasised and integrated throughout the programmes of study, and linked to reading, writing and spelling. Reading widely and often, together with reading for pleasure, is also reinforced throughout the programmes of study, and attention to the quantity and quality of reading will support vocabulary development.
The National Curriculum framework sets a clear expectation that teachers develop pupils’ vocabulary actively, building systematically on pupils’ current knowledge.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 14 January (HL3983), why the section of the National Curriculum in England framework document entitled "Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation" contains detailed material on the latter two subjects but nothing on the first.
Answered by Lord Nash
Vocabulary development is embedded with the information on grammar in the section of the National Curriculum framework document entitled ‘Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation’, which also sets out the terminology that pupils should be taught to use to discuss their writing.
The National Curriculum framework does not contain a separate programme of study for vocabulary, nor did it in draft form. Vocabulary development is instead emphasised and integrated throughout the programmes of study, and linked to reading, writing and spelling. Reading widely and often, together with reading for pleasure, is also reinforced throughout the programmes of study, and attention to the quantity and quality of reading will support vocabulary development.
The National Curriculum framework sets a clear expectation that teachers develop pupils’ vocabulary actively, building systematically on pupils’ current knowledge.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, with reference to the National Curriculum in England framework document published in December 2014, why in the section "Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation" there is nothing on vocabulary.
Answered by Lord Nash
The importance of vocabulary development is emphasised and integrated throughout the National Curriculum framework. This covers both general vocabulary development and the subject-specific language that pupils need to be able to use to progress in, for example, mathematics and science. Both the reading and writing domains of the English programmes of study emphasise the importance of building pupils’ vocabulary, so they understand and can use a wide range of words.
The approach to developing vocabulary is first through securing word reading and comprehension and second through pupils developing an understanding of how words and meaning can be created using prefixes and suffixes. Morphology and etymology are emphasised at Key Stage 2 to further develop pupils’ capacity for understanding and developing vocabulary. This is brought together in the appendix covering vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, which also sets out the terminology that pupils should be taught to use to discuss their writing.
The National Curriculum Framework document was updated in December 2014 to include the new science programmes of study for Key Stage 4. The English programmes of study remain unchanged since their original publication in September 2013 for Key Stages 1-3 and June 2014 for Key Stage 4.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the statement in the National Curriculum in England framework document published in December 2014 that "pupils' acquisition and command of vocabulary are key to their learning and progress across the curriculum" in the section "vocabulary development", why under the section on programmes of study there is no programme for vocabulary.
Answered by Lord Nash
The importance of vocabulary development is emphasised and integrated throughout the National Curriculum framework. This covers both general vocabulary development and the subject-specific language that pupils need to be able to use to progress in, for example, mathematics and science. Both the reading and writing domains of the English programmes of study emphasise the importance of building pupils’ vocabulary, so they understand and can use a wide range of words.
The approach to developing vocabulary is first through securing word reading and comprehension and second through pupils developing an understanding of how words and meaning can be created using prefixes and suffixes. Morphology and etymology are emphasised at Key Stage 2 to further develop pupils’ capacity for understanding and developing vocabulary. This is brought together in the appendix covering vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, which also sets out the terminology that pupils should be taught to use to discuss their writing.
The National Curriculum Framework document was updated in December 2014 to include the new science programmes of study for Key Stage 4. The English programmes of study remain unchanged since their original publication in September 2013 for Key Stages 1-3 and June 2014 for Key Stage 4.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the Ofsted Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2013–14, with respect especially to (1) secondary schools (a) tolerating bad behaviour, (b) failing to challenge the most able, and (c) providing inadequate careers guidance, and (2) further education institutions (a) showing weakness in the teaching of English and mathematics, and (b) failing to provide useful careers advice<i>.</i>
Answered by Lord Nash
We welcome Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s report which highlights continuing improvement in schools and further education. The report shows that there are now over a million more children being taught in good and outstanding schools than in 2010. The Chief Inspector is right to highlight areas which require further improvement and these matters will form part of the regular discussion between ministers and Ofsted. As part of its role, the Commons Education Select Committee will be taking evidence from the Chief Inspector about the Annual Report at its hearing on 28 January 2015 and we will consider the evidence from that session as part of our ongoing discussions with the Chief Inspector. As a government we are committed to ensuring high standards in schools across the country.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 23 October (HL2026), why students without grade C maths and English whose school leaving age was raised in 2013 will have to wait until September 2015 for the new core maths level 3 and will be without a special "stepping stone" qualification in English.
Answered by Lord Nash
The new core maths qualification is designed for students who have already achieved a GCSE grade C and wish to continue studying maths but not necessarily at AS/A level.
Qualifications are already available for students that have not achieved a GCSE C grade in either maths or English but are not yet ready to retake their GCSE.
A list of 263 stepping stone qualifications for teaching from September 2014 was published on 17 July and is updated regularly. 178 of those qualifications are specifically for English, 79 for maths and 6 combined.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to address the concerns of HM Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills, Sir Michael Wilshaw, that schools "faced with an influx of children from other countries" need to be given "the resources and capacity to deal with it".
Answered by Lord Nash
As part of our plan for education the Government is ensuring that local authorities have the resources and flexibility to provide the school places needed by their communities.
We are giving councils £5 billion to spend on new school places over the course of this parliament and have announced a further £2.35 billion to create the places needed by September 2017. This has already enabled local authorities to create 260,000 additional pupil places between May 2010 and May 2013, with many more in the pipeline for September 2015.
Funding for the day-to-day running of a school is based primarily on the number of pupils in the school. Local authorities are able to allocate additional funding for pupils with particular needs – including pupils for whom English is not their first language.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether further consideration is being given to extending Ofsted’s remit to cover all state-funded schools; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Nash
As set out in section 5(2) of the Education Act 2005 (as amended) all state-funded schools are subject to inspection by Ofsted. This includes all community, foundation and voluntary schools, community and foundation special schools, pupil referral units, maintained nursery schools, academies (which includes free schools), city technology colleges, city technology colleges for the technology of the arts and certain non-maintained special schools approved by the Secretary of State under section 342 of the Education Act 1996.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether sufficient attention is being paid to enhancing the skills of students over the age of 16 in English and maths for those who have (1) have, and (2) have not, achieved a C grade in either subject at GCSE.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government has made a historic commitment to address long-standing concerns about the literacy and maths skills of young people in England. The Department for Education is reforming the English and mathematics curriculum and qualifications to be academically rigorous, and to keep pace with universities’ and employers’ demands. We want to make sure that young people have access to English and mathematics education that set expectations matching those in the highest performing countries.
The Department is also reforming A and AS levels in English and mathematics to make sure they properly equip students for higher education. Students will start to study the new A levels in English from September 2015. Reformed A and AS levels in mathematics will be introduced from September 2016.
New level 3 Core Maths qualifications are currently being piloted and will become available from 2015. These new qualifications encourage students to continue the study of mathematics post-16. The Government is providing £20 million in 2014-16 to support piloting and to build capacity to teach the new Core Maths qualifications in schools, sixth form colleges and further education colleges.
From 2015, students will be able to study new GCSEs in English and mathematics. These reformed qualifications will provide greater assurance of strong English, literacy and mathematics.
In July 2012, the Government announced that students that did not hold at least a C grade GCSE would have to continue to study English and mathematics from age 16 to 18 or the institution they attend would lose funding. More recently, Minister Hancock announced that, from September 2015, students holding a D grade in English and/or mathematics would have to take a GCSE course only rather than an alternative stepping stone qualification.
Since 2012, the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have been working with the sector and stakeholders to prepare for the expansion of post-16 GCSE teaching. A two-year, £30 million further education workforce package has been introduced, focusing on training existing teachers and recruiting more graduates to teach English and mathematics at GCSE level.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the Ofsted survey <i>Transforming 16 to 19 Education and Training </i>(September 2014), in particular its statement on the absence of "evidence of the transformational ‘step change’ intended with the introduction of the 16 to 19 programmes" and its observation that "many of the school and academy leaders....were unaware of the full extent of the requirements of the study programmes".
Answered by Lord Nash
The Ofsted Report “Transforming 16-19 education and training” evaluates progress in the implementation of 16-19 study programmes immediately following their introduction in September 2013. Inevitably, it will take time for such far-reaching changes to take effect.
The Department for Education introduced changes to the 16-19 curriculum to ensure that all students had clear education and employment goals and that the subjects they studied, and other activity, contributed towards these. Students who had not already achieved a GCSE in maths and English were also required to continue to study these subjects.
Ofsted’s report reveals that most schools and colleges had made changes, particularly in relation to English and maths.
Schools and colleges were notified of the 16-19 Study Programme requirements in the termly Departmental emails sent to all head teachers and chairs of governors. Further communications will emphasise how these changes will affect Ofsted inspection grades.