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 the notice and information given to schools, academies, and sixth-form and further education colleges on the need to introduce new programmes of study to enable students to benefit from the extra time available from raising the school leaving age in September 2013.
Answered by Lord Nash
We believe schools and colleges were given enough notice and information. The Department for Education introduced 16-19 Study Programme requirements in August 2013 following public consultation in 2011 and a series of publications and dissemination activities in 2012.
“Study Programmes for 16-19 year olds – Government response to consultation and plans for implementation” was published in June 2012. This set out the curriculum changes required. The publication in December 2012 of “16-19 Funding Formula 2013/14 – Funding full participation and study programmes for young people” included further details of the funding conditions associated with these changes.
In autumn 2012, the Department sponsored nine Regional Conferences about 16-19 study programmes. Schools and colleges were further notified of curriculum and funding changes in the termly emails sent by the Department to all head teachers and chairs of governors. The EFA also include details in their fortnightly post-16 bulletins.
Information provided to schools and colleges including articles, case studies, technical guidance and lists of approved vocational qualifications are available on GOV.UK and provider websites. The most recent update is published online at:
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that teachers of English in the new Key Stage 4 curriculum issued in July 2014 are as aware as their colleagues teaching maths and the sciences of the importance placed by the curriculum on vocabulary command in achieving precision and clarity of expression and of helping their pupils develop such a command.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education wants all pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary and become competent in the conventions for reading, writing and spoken language. The Department’s new English curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils can write clearly and accurately and are competent in the arts of speaking and listening. The Government believes that it is important that schools take responsibility for their own improvement, including identifying what support their teachers need to ensure that they are teaching the new curriculum most effectively.
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 July (WA 105), what steps they have taken to ensure that teachers of English will have access to "high quality text books" comparable to those mentioned by Lord Nash with respect to mathematics.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education has made it clear that a return to textbooks would support the new national curriculum. High-quality textbooks can prevent teachers from spending unnecessary time creating plans from scratch, and provide well-planned stretching activities for pupils. The new national curriculum presents new opportunities for publishers to provide quality materials for teachers. The expert subject groups that the department has facilitated have been working closely with educational publishers to make sure that the challenging areas of the new national curriculum, including English, will be fully covered by high-quality teaching materials.
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 8 July (WA 38) on improving the teaching of English and maths, what measures have been established for English to match the "over 32 new maths hubs...to improve the quality of maths education."
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education believes that improving the quality of teaching in both English and mathematics is crucial to ensure that all students have the foundation for future study and work. The Government believes that it is important that schools take responsibility for their own development, and Government support is therefore carefully focused on priorities for improvement.
In English, we are placing a particular emphasis on getting the basics right at primary school and, alongside the reform of the national curriculum, have already provided schools with £23.7 million in match-funding to enable teachers to purchase high quality phonics products and training materials. From September 2011 to October 2013 over 14,300 schools (around 80% of eligible schools) with key stage 1 and, from January 2013, key stage 2 claimed up to £3,000 in match-funding.
By ensuring high quality phonics teaching, the Government’s aim is to improve literacy levels to give all children a solid base to build upon as they progress through school.
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 recent discussions on the case for schools in the United Kingdom to switch back from work sheets to text books.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education has made it clear that a return to textbooks would support the new national curriculum. High-quality textbooks can prevent teachers from spending unnecessary time creating plans from scratch, and they provide well-planned stretching activities for pupils. England has very low textbook use compared with many other countries, including high-performing countries like Singapore, where mathematics textbooks play an important part in the success of their pupils. The efficacy studies of the Marshall Cavendish mathematics textbooks are compelling, and the Department is delighted that these textbooks are being adapted for the English market.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the conclusion of the recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report that 40 per cent of classrooms in England are "not favourable to learning" because of bad behaviour.
Answered by Lord Nash
Good behaviour and discipline are key to effective teaching and learning. The recent OECD report identified that serious disciplinary problems in England are unusual and in most schools the learning environment is good. Just 21% of teachers in England agree or strongly agree that they have to wait quite a long time at the start of their class for students to quieten down. This is less than the median for all countries of 27% and below all but one of the high-performing countries. England is typically very close to the international average on other measures of classroom disciplinary environment, including disruptive noise and interruptions in the classroom.
This Government has never been complacent in trying to equip schools with the tools they need to manage discipline in the classroom. That is why we gave schools the powers to impose same-day detentions, extended their powers to search for items that could cause harm or offence, made clear that schools should not have a ‘no touch' policy and clarified the use of reasonable force. The Government also introduced a system of independent review panels which, unlike the previous system, cannot undermine schools' decisions on permanent exclusion. In September 2012 we introduced the New National Professional Qualification for Headship with more robust content on behaviour management. In addition, Ofsted have begun implementing no-notice follow-up school monitoring inspections where concerns were previously identified about standards of behaviour.
More recently, in February 2014, and following results from the Teacher Voice Survey (2013) which showed that one in three secondary teachers lacked confidence in their powers to discipline pupils, we:
· issued updated behaviour advice to make clear that tough but proportionate sanctions, including litter picking in the playground, removing graffiti, writing lines or an essay, are all valid punishments;
· produced a series of case studies showing how good schools manage behaviour, ranging from the use of inclusion art projects, having a specially modified curriculum, using Saturday detentions and increased visibility of senior staff around school throughout the day.
We remain determined to support schools in providing safe, calm and orderly classrooms where pupils can learn effectively.
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 the impact of having school children face each other in small groups, rather than facing the teacher, on (1) attentiveness, (2) learning, and (3) behaviour.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education has made no assessment of the impact of children facing, or not facing, the teacher.
The Department believes that teachers should have a plan for pupil seating arrangements in classrooms, rather than leaving it to pupil preference or chance. Where and how pupils are seated will depend entirely on the lesson and its objectives. Teachers are best placed to take these decisions.
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 the need for parents to take responsibility for children's behaviour in schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
It is vital that teachers have the support and respect of parents to manage pupil behaviour so they can teach in an orderly environment.Good schools recognise the importance of engaging parents and have developed their own approaches according to the particular circumstances of the school.
In response to a question about what teachers viewed as the most common factors causing poor behaviour in schools, excluding special educational needs and other medical factors, 72% considered ‘lack of parental support or poor parenting skills' as the most common factor causing poor behaviour, and ‘parental lack of respect for teachers and authority' was the second most frequently selected factor.
We are aware of research, including that based on data from the National Child Development Study, that shows that parental involvement has a positive effect on children's achievement even when the influence of background factors such as social class and family size have been taken into account.
The 2013 National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER) Teacher Voice Survey, commissioned by the Department for Education, found that 55% of teachers surveyed agreed that parents generally respected a teacher's authority to discipline pupils.
In March 2014, we published a series of case studies on behaviour and bullying, which include examples of what good schools are doing to engage parents in a spirit of openness and shared responsibility. These case studies contain examples of the work good schools do with parents to encourage participation of hard-to-reach groups and are published online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/managing-behaviour-and-bullying-in-schools-case-studies
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many secondary school pupils who were (1) permanently excluded, or (2) excluded for one or more fixed periods since 2000, subsequently passed a GCSE in (a) one, (b) two, or (c) three or more subjects.
Answered by Lord Nash
The information requested is only available at disproportionate cost.
All children, regardless of circumstance or setting deserve a good education. We have taken a range of actions to drive up the quality of education for those children who are educated in alternative provision (AP) following an exclusion, including through the introduction of AP academies and AP free schools.
Information on the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions since 2000 is published in the “Permanent and fixed period exclusions from schools in England: 2011 to 2012 academic year” Statistical First Release[1]. Information on fixed period exclusions was collected for the first time in 2003/04. Information for 2012/13 will be published on 31 July 2014.
Asked by: Lord Quirk (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Elizabeth Truss MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare, that "our 15 year-olds are up to three years behind their peers in the top-performing countries in reading and mathematics", what action they propose to address this.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Department for Education believes that improving the quality of teaching in literacy and numeracy is crucial to building the foundation for future study and work. The Government has revised the national curriculum and set more rigorous and challenging content in English and mathematics to match the highest performing countries around the world. The new programmes of study for English and maths will challenge pupils to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market.
The new maths GCSE will have more content, be more challenging and – alongside English - will be double weighted in school performance tables. The Department has recently allocated £11 million to fund 32 new maths hubs to support a more challenging maths GCSE to improve the quality of maths education. This initiative, which includes a teacher exchange programme with Shanghai, will enable every school and college in England, from early years to the post-16 sector, to access locally-tailored support in all areas of maths teaching and learning.
The new national curriculum for English places a greater emphasis on reading and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays.
The national curriculum for English will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. It has been significantly slimmed down and will free up teachers to use their professional judgement to design curricula that meet the needs of their pupils.
The new English language GCSE will place greater demands on pupils and has more emphasis on those skills demanded by employers. The new English literature GCSE will build on this foundation, and encourage students to read, write and think critically.