Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evaluation, if any, they are undertaking of pilot projects by schools of extending the length of the school day.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
All schools have the autonomy to make decisions about the content, structure and duration of their school day to best support their pupils’ education. The government has however set a non-statutory expectation that all state-funded mainstream schools will deliver at least a 32.5 hour school week by September 2024. Most schools already meet this expectation.
Extending the compulsory school day, or offering enrichment activities around the school day, may help children, particularly the most disadvantaged, to improve attainment, social skills and raise aspirations. It may also help parents with childcare. Should a school be considering making changes to the duration of its day, it should act reasonably and consider the impact on those affected, including pupils, parents and teachers.
The government is not providing funding for, nor conducting evaluation of, pilot projects for schools looking to extend the length of the school day. The department is aware of schools taking innovative approaches to structuring their school day and is always interested to hear from schools who are trialling new approaches.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding they are providing for pilot projects for schools to assess the feasibility of extending the school day.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
All schools have the autonomy to make decisions about the content, structure and duration of their school day to best support their pupils’ education. The government has however set a non-statutory expectation that all state-funded mainstream schools will deliver at least a 32.5 hour school week by September 2024. Most schools already meet this expectation.
Extending the compulsory school day, or offering enrichment activities around the school day, may help children, particularly the most disadvantaged, to improve attainment, social skills and raise aspirations. It may also help parents with childcare. Should a school be considering making changes to the duration of its day, it should act reasonably and consider the impact on those affected, including pupils, parents and teachers.
The government is not providing funding for, nor conducting evaluation of, pilot projects for schools looking to extend the length of the school day. The department is aware of schools taking innovative approaches to structuring their school day and is always interested to hear from schools who are trialling new approaches.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of areas where there is a shortage of childcare facilities and providers to provide their commitment of free childcare hours.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There were 15,100 more childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to the department’s latest Childcare and early years provider survey (2023).
To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million in new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year. To further support the sector delivering the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare, including supporting them through our childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
The government has allocated £100 million in capital funding to local authorities to support the expansion of childcare places and the supply of wraparound care. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.
On top of the department’s funding reforms, it is also providing significant support for local authorities to deliver the early years expansion from April, such as:
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional support they are providing to enable local authorities and childcare providers to meet demand arising from their commitment to provide free childcare hours.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There were 15,100 more childcare places in 2023 than the previous year, with 12,900 paid staff added to the same period according to the department’s latest Childcare and early years provider survey (2023).
To support providers to expand their provision further, the department is investing over £400 million of additional funding to uplift the hourly rate for the entitlements next year. This investment consists of £67 million in new funding to reflect the latest National Living Wage increase, an additional £57 million to support providers in respect of teachers’ pay and pensions, and the £288 million for the existing entitlements in 2024/25 announced in the Spring Budget in March 2023. It also builds on the £204 million of additional investment to increase funding rates this year. To further support the sector delivering the expansion of childcare support, the government is confirming that the hourly rate providers are paid to deliver the free hours offers will increase in line with the metric used at Spring Budget 2023 for the next two years. This reflects that workforce costs are the most significant costs for childcare providers and represents an estimated additional £500 million of investment over two years. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of children aged 3 and 4 are registered for a 30-hour place, saving eligible working parents up to £6,900 per child per year, helping even more working parents and making a real difference to the lives of those families.
Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare, including supporting them through our childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.
The government has allocated £100 million in capital funding to local authorities to support the expansion of childcare places and the supply of wraparound care. The funding is anticipated to deliver thousands of new places across the country.
On top of the department’s funding reforms, it is also providing significant support for local authorities to deliver the early years expansion from April, such as:
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of (1) primary, and (2) secondary, schools currently provide breakfast clubs.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to continuing support for breakfast clubs in England in schools in disadvantaged areas. Up to £40 million is being invested to continue the department’s national programme until July 2025. This funding will support up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas in England, meaning thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn. Schools are eligible for the programme if they have 40% or more pupils from deprived households, as measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.
The department does not currently hold recent data on the percentage of schools that provide breakfast clubs. As of November 2022, over 2,100 schools signed up to the programme, of which 65% were primary and 23% secondary.
The recruitment process is still underway for schools that wish to sign up. In March 2023, 2,500 schools had signed up to the programme and the department will work with its supplier, Family Action, to monitor and publish updated data in due course.
The government is very supportive of school breakfasts and the contribution these can make to children’s wellbeing and learning. Alongside our national programme, there are a number of organisations such as Magic Breakfast, Kellogg’s and Greggs providing valuable support to schools with a breakfast provision.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of eligible families who will be able to take advantage of free childcare care hours committed by April.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In the 2023 Spring Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that free childcare would be extended to children of eligible working parents in England from nine months old to support increased parental engagement in the labour market.
The proportion of eligible parents who will take up the new entitlement is provisionally estimated to be around 75% for those with children aged two, around 60% for those with children aged one and around 35% for those with children under the age of one. These estimates are detailed in a policy costing information note, which was published in July 2023. The information note can be found in the attachment.
Data on actual take up of the entitlement for children aged two from April 2024 will be collected via the early years census in January 2025, and published in June or July 2025.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the average costs to parents of providing school uniform for pupils attending (1) primary, and (2) secondary, state schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s last report on the cost of school uniform, 'Cost of School Uniform 2015', was published in June 2015. This report found the average cost of school uniform was £212.88. At primary level the average cost was £192.14 for boys and £201.04 for girls, and at secondary level the average cost was £231.01 for boys and was £239.93 for girls. The report is attached.
In 2021, the department published statutory guidance on the cost of school uniform to ensure uniform is affordable for all families. This states that “school governing boards should give high priority to considerations of cost for parents, and they should be able to demonstrate how best value for money has been achieved when developing or making any change to their uniform policy”. It also sets out that branded items should be kept to a minimum. The guidance came into force in 2022 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms.
In December 2023, the department ran a repeat of the 2015 survey, asking parents about the cost of school uniform in 2023. The department is currently analysing the resulting data and expects to publish our findings later this spring.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what examination support they are providing to school pupils whose studies have been disrupted as a result of their school being impacted by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Every school or college with confirmed RAAC has been assigned dedicated support from caseworkers and project delivery teams are also on hand to support with implementing mitigation plans.
Every case is unique and the impact on schools and colleges can be varied. The department will work with schools and colleges to put in place a bespoke plan based on their circumstances. In some cases, there is no impact on teaching space or it is limited to small areas. For others, mitigation plans can include using other spaces on the school site or locally until building works are carried out or temporary buildings are installed.
Alongside Ofqual, the department has also asked awarding organisations to be as flexible as possible within the confines of their processes and regulations, for example by agreeing longer extensions to coursework and non-exam assessment deadlines so that affected schools and colleges have as much time as possible to complete this important part of students' learning and qualifications. In the case of vocational and technical qualifications, it may be considering if students can take the assessment in a future assessment opportunity.
Furthermore, students taking GCSE exams in 2024 will be provided with enhanced formulae and equation sheets so they will not need to memorise the usual formulae and equations for GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science, as they would in a normal year.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of schools in England that already have in place a policy on the use of mobile phones in school time.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In response to the Winter 2019 School Snapshot survey, 49% of secondary schools reported that they had a strict policy prohibiting the use of mobile phones and 48% of secondary schools reported they had a policy permitting regulated use of mobile phones. The survey also showed that as many a 76% of primary schools had a strict policy where mobile phones could not be used during the school day with 21% of schools opting out of this question saying that mobile phones were not an issue at their school. Despite this, the department’s omnibus survey found that nearly one third (29%) of secondary school pupils reported that there had been pupils using mobile phones in all or most of their lessons in the past week when they were not supposed to in 2022/23, which is up from 21% in 2021/22.
Schools do not legally have to follow the non-statutory guidance but must show that they have given due weight to the guidance in developing their own mobile phone policy. This guidance will set expectations for schools, pupils and parents, while giving headteachers the clarity and autonomy to decide how they can best prohibit the use of mobile phones in a way that will work in their own schools. The department knows that the majority of headteachers already apply some restrictions on the use of mobile phones in their schools. Therefore, this guidance will provide clear advice and support for those headteachers, while demonstrating best practice to others and increasing consistency across all schools. The guidance makes clear that the department backs head teachers to enforce their policy prohibiting the use of mobile phones throughout the school day.
Should schools continue to raise issues with prohibiting the use of mobile phones in schools, the department will seek to introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity when Parliamentary time allows.
The guidance provided in ‘Mobile phones in schools’ clearly sets out that schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones. This should include prohibiting the ability to send and/or receive notifications or messages via mobile phone networks or the ability to record audio and/or video throughout the school day, including during lessons.
Where schools have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme to facilitate the use of laptops or tablets for learning, such devices should be used in accordance with the school’s BYOD policy, as well as Information and Communications Technology acceptable use policy. BYOD policies used to facilitate learning, including researching subject content, should not include mobile phones.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether advice given to schools on the use by pupils of mobile phones in schools is legally enforceable.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In response to the Winter 2019 School Snapshot survey, 49% of secondary schools reported that they had a strict policy prohibiting the use of mobile phones and 48% of secondary schools reported they had a policy permitting regulated use of mobile phones. The survey also showed that as many a 76% of primary schools had a strict policy where mobile phones could not be used during the school day with 21% of schools opting out of this question saying that mobile phones were not an issue at their school. Despite this, the department’s omnibus survey found that nearly one third (29%) of secondary school pupils reported that there had been pupils using mobile phones in all or most of their lessons in the past week when they were not supposed to in 2022/23, which is up from 21% in 2021/22.
Schools do not legally have to follow the non-statutory guidance but must show that they have given due weight to the guidance in developing their own mobile phone policy. This guidance will set expectations for schools, pupils and parents, while giving headteachers the clarity and autonomy to decide how they can best prohibit the use of mobile phones in a way that will work in their own schools. The department knows that the majority of headteachers already apply some restrictions on the use of mobile phones in their schools. Therefore, this guidance will provide clear advice and support for those headteachers, while demonstrating best practice to others and increasing consistency across all schools. The guidance makes clear that the department backs head teachers to enforce their policy prohibiting the use of mobile phones throughout the school day.
Should schools continue to raise issues with prohibiting the use of mobile phones in schools, the department will seek to introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity when Parliamentary time allows.
The guidance provided in ‘Mobile phones in schools’ clearly sets out that schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones. This should include prohibiting the ability to send and/or receive notifications or messages via mobile phone networks or the ability to record audio and/or video throughout the school day, including during lessons.
Where schools have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme to facilitate the use of laptops or tablets for learning, such devices should be used in accordance with the school’s BYOD policy, as well as Information and Communications Technology acceptable use policy. BYOD policies used to facilitate learning, including researching subject content, should not include mobile phones.