Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timeframe is for schools to receive the additional one-off funding announced in Budget 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is allocating an additional £400 million capital funding to schools and other eligible educational institutions in 2018–19 to spend on capital projects which meet their own priorities. This funding is in addition to the £1.4 billion of condition allocations already provided this year to those responsible for maintaining school buildings. This supports the Government’s priority of ensuring the school estate is well maintained and helps provide a high-quality education.
The Department plans to publish a calculator in December, so that schools can estimate their allocation and make plans to spend the money. Individual allocations will be published in January, with the funding distributed shortly afterwards. An average primary school is expected to receive £10,000 and an average secondary school, £50,000.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timeframe is for schools to receive the additional funding announced in the Budget 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is allocating an additional £400 million capital funding to schools and other eligible educational institutions in 2018–19 to spend on capital projects which meet their own priorities. This funding is in addition to the £1.4 billion of condition allocations already provided this year to those responsible for maintaining school buildings. This supports the Government’s priority of ensuring the school estate is well maintained and helps provide a high-quality education.
The Department plans to publish a calculator in December, so that schools can estimate their allocation and make plans to spend the money. Individual allocations will be published in January, with the funding distributed shortly afterwards. An average primary school is expected to receive £10,000 and an average secondary school, £50,000.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to schools for the teacher`s pay settlement in 2019-20; and if will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department confirmed the teachers’ pay award on 24 July 2018. This included a 3.5% uplift to the main pay range for classroom teachers that will raise starting salaries significantly and increase the competitiveness of the early career pay framework. The upper pay range for higher paid teachers and the leadership pay range were uplifted by 2% and 1.5% respectively. This pay award will run across the 2018-19 academic year, covering 7 months of the financial year 2018-19 and financial year 2019-20. This pay award is covered by a Teachers’ Pay Grant worth £187 million in 2018-19 and £321 million in 2019-20. This grant provides additional funding to schools to cover the difference between the announced uplifts and the 1% award schools would have been expecting and planning for under the previous public sector pay cap.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education has recently set the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB)’s remit asking for their recommendations on the pay award for 2019-20 academic year. The Department highly values the robust evidence based process undertaken by the STRB in reaching its recommendations on teacher pay, and will be submitting evidence on recruitment and retention and affordability as part of this process. This evidence is due to be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the pay settlement is for teachers in 2019-20; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department confirmed the teachers’ pay award on 24 July 2018. This included a 3.5% uplift to the main pay range for classroom teachers that will raise starting salaries significantly and increase the competitiveness of the early career pay framework. The upper pay range for higher paid teachers and the leadership pay range were uplifted by 2% and 1.5% respectively. This pay award will run across the 2018-19 academic year, covering 7 months of the financial year 2018-19 and financial year 2019-20. This pay award is covered by a Teachers’ Pay Grant worth £187 million in 2018-19 and £321 million in 2019-20. This grant provides additional funding to schools to cover the difference between the announced uplifts and the 1% award schools would have been expecting and planning for under the previous public sector pay cap.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education has recently set the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB)’s remit asking for their recommendations on the pay award for 2019-20 academic year. The Department highly values the robust evidence based process undertaken by the STRB in reaching its recommendations on teacher pay, and will be submitting evidence on recruitment and retention and affordability as part of this process. This evidence is due to be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of children excluded from school; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department supports head teachers in using exclusion where this is warranted. There has been a increase in exclusions recently, though there are still fewer exclusions than a decade ago.
In March, the Government launched an externally-led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review is exploring how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It is also considering the differences in exclusion rates across primary and secondary schools in England.
The review will report at the beginning of next year. The full terms of reference for the review can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusions-review-terms-of-reference.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations he has received on giving exclusion review panels the right to reinstate pupils in schools; and and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The role of the independent review panel is to review a governing body’s decision not to reinstate a permanently excluded pupil. Where a panel considers that the decision of the governing body to uphold the exclusion is flawed it can quash the decision and require the governing body to reconsider the case. The final decision on whether to reinstate the child is with the governing body. The Government believes that schools are best placed to make that decision taking into account the wider impact of reinstatement on other pupils at the school. Where a governing body is directed to reconsider their decision but does not reinstate the pupil, the school will be expected to pay an additional financial contribution towards the costs of providing an alternative education for that pupil.
The Department believes that independent review panels provide for a quick, fair and accessible process for reviewing exclusion decisions, in a way that takes account of the rights of the wider school community.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school places were available in Gedling in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects information from each local authority on the number of schools and the number of places in those schools through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP). The Department does not collect school capacity information at parliamentary constituency level. Data relating to the position in the 2017/2018 academic year is currently being collected and quality assured.
As of 1 May 2017, in the Nottinghamshire county council area, the total number of unfilled primary places was 5,223 and the total number of unfilled secondary places was 10,836. The total number of primary school places available in Nottinghamshire was 69,297 and the total number of secondary places available was 57,080.
The capacity data are published on an annual basis, giving equivalent local authority and regional totals, through the SCAP tables. Further information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-academic-year-2016-to-2017. Funding is provided for every place local authorites inform us they need to create. Nottinghamshire received £66.2 million to provide new school places from 2011-2018, and has been allocated a further £19.8 million from 2018-2021.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of adults who have below average functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government provides full funding for adults in England to develop the literacy and numeracy skills they need for life and work, and to secure qualifications from entry level up to GCSE.
The Skills for Life Survey, 2011, estimated the literacy, numeracy and ICT knowledge of adults aged 16-64 in England. The estimates of the numbers and percentage of the adult population with different levels for these components for England are in the attached table.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have left school without functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes the number of pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 who achieved the English and mathematics pillars of the English Baccalaureate. Using this we have derived the number and proportion of pupil who did not achieve the Ebacc English pillar and the EBacc mathematics pillar at various threshold levels including at grades 9-5, 9-4 (A*-C) and 9-1(A*-G). This is the closest information published that provides English and mathematics separately for 16 year olds.
The attached tables show the number and percentage of pupils who did not achieve Ebacc pillars for English and mathematics for each of the last 5 years.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons speed skating was not included as one of the options available in A-level PE courses for the current academic year.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The subject content for GCSE and A-level PE was revised in 2015 to address concerns that the previous GCSE and A level courses were not of comparable rigor to other subjects, did not provide suitable progression and had led to inequalities in assessment.
As part of these revisions, the activity list was reviewed to ensure that all activities could be assessed reliably, were of comparable demand amongst pupils, and were manageable for schools to assess. The inclusion or non-inclusion of sports does not represent a view on the legitimacy or value of the activity.
The government will review the activity list in autumn 2018, following the first examinations next summer. We will agree this process with the exam boards and announce details closer to the time.