Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were permanently excluded from (a) primary, (b) middle, (c) upper and (d) secondary schools in Staffordshire in each of the last three years.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Information on the number of permanent exclusions in each of the last three years is published in the “Permanent and fixed period exclusions from schools in England: 2011 to 2012 academic year” Statistical First Release[1]. Information for 2012/13 will be published on 31 July 2014.
Table 1 in the publication shows the number of permanent exclusions in state-funded primary and secondary schools. This information is not available by middle and upper schools, as such schools are deemed either primary or secondary and are included in those counts.
Asked by: Aidan Burley (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to swimming lessons for schoolchildren.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Swimming is part of the national curriculum, and all pupils must be taught to swim at least 25 metres unaided and be able to use recognised swimming strokes by the end of key stage 2 (age 11). It remains compulsory in the national curriculum following the curriculum review.
The Government has committed over £450 million of ring-fenced funding up to and including 2015/16 for primary schools to improve their provision of Physical Education and sport. Schools have the freedom to use the funding for additional provision for swimming but this must be for activity over and above the national curriculum requirements.
The Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) is the national governing body for swimming in England. Their ‘Learn to Swim' programme and award scheme has helped millions of children to swim and they provide a range of resources for schools to support high quality swimming instruction.