Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to encourage (a) computer science graduates and (b) professional programmers to become teachers.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education is committed to recruiting high-quality graduates into teaching. The latest data published by UCAS on 25 September 2014 in its ‘UCAS Teacher Training statistical releases’[1], indicates that there will be an increase in computing trainees commencing initial teacher training (ITT) this year, although this will not be certain until the 2014/15 ITT census is published.
For computing trainees starting their training in 2015/16, we have increased bursaries to up to £25,000 tax-free. We are also funding a prestigious scholarship scheme for computing trainees worth £25,000 tax-free and offering a range of professional benefits. Additional funding has also been made available to schools offering School Direct (salaried) places in computing to boost starting salaries; computing trainees will be able to earn over £21,000 nationally and £25,000 in inner London.
There are a range of other incentives in place to attract high quality computing trainees into the teaching profession, including:
[1] www.ucas.com/data-analysis/ucas-teacher-training-statistical-releases
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children secured a place at their top-choice school in (a) the UK, (b) Berkshire and (c) Windsor constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by David Laws
Data on the proportion of children that were made an offer of their first choice school for England was published on 24 June 2014 as part of the Statistical First Release ‘Secondary and primary school applications and offers: 2014’. This is published online at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-applications
The latest data is for entry into school in September 2014. Data for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are produced by the devolved administrations.
The figures for England and the local authorities of West Berkshire and Windsor & Maidenhead are given below. Data is provided by, and broken down as far as, local authority level. Therefore results by parliamentary constituency are not available.
Proportion of applicants who received their first choice | |||
Primary | Secondary | ||
| England | 87.7 | 85.2 | |
West Berkshire | 86.3 | 89.3 | |
| Windsor & Maidenhead | 85.1 | 80.5 | |
Based on offers made on respective national offer days | |||
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to encourage businesses to engage with schools so that students develop a more practical understanding of business.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education wants to give employers a much greater role in inspiring and motivating young people about the world of work. We published statutory guidance in April to improve links between schools and employers so that pupils can receive careers advice from people with experience of business. More employers are getting involved by interacting with young people in the classroom and giving them an insight into the workplace. This can also include coaching, mentoring, work tasters and work experience. From October we are reshaping the role of the National Careers Service (NCS) to expand its offer to schools and colleges. It will be easier for employers and educators to participate in the NCS.
We are taking steps to connect the education system to the world of work to ensure that young people have the skills, experience and qualifications that employers want. Last month we announced the introduction of Technical Awards for students aged between 14 and 16. These qualifications, which are equivalent to GCSEs, are developed in partnership with employers and will give students the opportunity to develop practical skills.
The Department has introduced Tech Levels for students aged between 16 and 19 who want to learn technical skills as an alternative to, or alongside, A levels. The 227 Tech Levels taught from September 2014 are all endorsed by employers, trades or professional bodies and cover most practical careers. From September 2016, all Tech Level courses will also involve employers in the delivery or assessment of the qualification.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schoolchildren graduated from (a) a comprehensive, (b) a grammar, (c) a secondary and (d) an independent school in the last academic year.
Answered by David Laws
The Department for Education publishes pupil results at the end of key stage 4, which signals the end of compulsory education. Information on the key stage 4 results of pupils by admission basis and school type is published in the “GCSE and equivalent results in England, 2012 to 2013 (revised)”[1] Statistical First Release. The relevant tables have been placed in the House Library.
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2012-to-2013-revised (National tables: SFR01/2014 document, Table 3a and b)
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on encouraging computer science and programming in UK schools.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
As part of the reforms to the national curriculum, the Department for Education is strengthening the teaching of computing in schools by replacing information and communications technology with computing. The new programmes of study for computing, which will be taught in maintained schools from September 2014, have a much greater emphasis on computer science. For example, pupils at key stage 1 will be taught to create and debug simple programs and key stage 3 pupils will be taught to use two or more programming languages.
We also working with exam boards and sector experts to review the computer science GCSE and A level so that they reflect and build upon the changes made to the curriculum. The inclusion of computer science in the English Baccalaureate will provide further encouragement for pupils to take up the subject at GCSE level. We are also providing funding for several projects to help teachers acquire the necessary subject knowledge and skills to teach the new computing curriculum.
We are funding the British Computer Society to build a network of 400 ‘Master Teachers', create online teach-yourself resources and deliver 800 in-school workshops to help primary school teachers improve their subject knowledge. A further £500,000 competitive match-funded scheme was announced on 4 February to support excellent computing teaching and lever additional investment and engagement from business.