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.
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.