Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make enquiries with officials in his Department on how his Department might support the Ukrainian Books for Ukrainian Children scheme to transfer children's books from Ukraine to the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The department stands with Ukraine and continues to work across government to ensure we are supporting all Ukrainians in the UK to give them the same access to education and childcare as a UK citizen.
The scheme referred to is known as the Books Without Borders project. Backed by the First Lady of Ukraine, it is led by the Ukrainian Embassy, Publishers Association and Publishers’ Licensing Services. The purpose is to publish Ukrainian books in the UK which can be freely given to Ukrainian children and young people. Department officials are working closely with all involved to ensure the initiative is as successful as possible.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to support the Ukrainian Books for Ukrainian Children initiative that seeks to transfer children's books from Ukraine to the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The department stands with Ukraine and continues to work across government to ensure we are supporting all Ukrainians in the UK to give them the same access to education and childcare as a UK citizen.
The scheme referred to is known as the Books Without Borders project. Backed by the First Lady of Ukraine, it is led by the Ukrainian Embassy, Publishers Association and Publishers’ Licensing Services. The purpose is to publish Ukrainian books in the UK which can be freely given to Ukrainian children and young people. Department officials are working closely with all involved to ensure the initiative is as successful as possible.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of current routes into the teaching profession for teaching assistants without a university degree.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is committed to supporting teaching assistants to become qualified teachers, including through providing accessible routes into the teaching profession.
Teaching assistants that have a degree can choose from various routes, including the School Direct (tuition fees) placement or School Direct (salaried places). Both routes carry the award of qualified teacher status (QTS) and some may lead to the award of a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).
An alternative route into teaching is through an apprenticeship.
Currently, schools have access to a range of apprenticeship standards, including the level three teaching assistant apprenticeship and level six postgraduate teacher apprenticeship (PGTA). The level six PGTA is only available to those with a degree. The department is working with all interested parties to improve the PGTA for providers, employers, and candidates as part of its scheduled review.
There are a range of other routes into teaching, including PGCE or postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) for those with an undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification. Additionally, qualified teacher learning and skills status (QTLS) allows those without degrees to teach in schools, providing they meet the eligibility criteria. Those without a degree can also train to teach through an undergraduate degree. Unlike the apprenticeships and School Direct routes, these routes do not allow teaching assistants to train within a school they may already be employed in.
While teaching is a graduate profession, the department is working with interested parties to consider how teaching assistants and others working in schools can attain the relevant qualifications to become teachers.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to provide support to teaching assistants in transitioning to become fully qualified teachers.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is committed to supporting teaching assistants to become qualified teachers, including through providing accessible routes into the teaching profession.
Teaching assistants that have a degree can choose from various routes, including the School Direct (tuition fees) placement or School Direct (salaried places). Both routes carry the award of qualified teacher status (QTS) and some may lead to the award of a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE).
An alternative route into teaching is through an apprenticeship.
Currently, schools have access to a range of apprenticeship standards, including the level three teaching assistant apprenticeship and level six postgraduate teacher apprenticeship (PGTA). The level six PGTA is only available to those with a degree. The department is working with all interested parties to improve the PGTA for providers, employers, and candidates as part of its scheduled review.
There are a range of other routes into teaching, including PGCE or postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) for those with an undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification. Additionally, qualified teacher learning and skills status (QTLS) allows those without degrees to teach in schools, providing they meet the eligibility criteria. Those without a degree can also train to teach through an undergraduate degree. Unlike the apprenticeships and School Direct routes, these routes do not allow teaching assistants to train within a school they may already be employed in.
While teaching is a graduate profession, the department is working with interested parties to consider how teaching assistants and others working in schools can attain the relevant qualifications to become teachers.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of current routes into the teaching profession.
Answered by Robin Walker
Following the department’s commitment to review the initial teacher training (ITT) market in the 2019 Teacher Recruitment and Retention strategy, we welcomed the expert advisory group’s recommendations to define all ITT that leads to qualified teacher status within three core routes of undergraduate, postgraduate fee-funded, and postgraduate employment-based.
By 2024, a reformed ITT provider market will be delivering quality-assured training that places a greater emphasis than ever before on embedding structured practice into courses, ensuring trainees are ready to thrive in the classroom in their early careers. The department is also working with stakeholders as part of the scheduled review of the employment-based postgraduate teacher apprenticeship route.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to include details of the global fashion industry and supply chains in the National Curriculum.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department will not be making any changes to the national curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament to provide stability for schools, and enable them to remain focused on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and teaching the broad and rich curriculum.
Over the past decade, the department has reformed the national curriculum to set world-class standards across all subjects. Programmes of study are flexible enough for teachers to be able to add their own content – including taking account of new developments, societal changes, or topical issues, such as global fashion and supply chains – without there being a need for the department to review the national curriculum.
An example of this could be the teaching of textiles in design and technology (D&T). D&T is compulsory in state-maintained schools from key stage 1 to 3 and pupils in maintained schools also have an entitlement to study D&T in key stage 4. The national curriculum is a framework, designed to give teachers the freedom and flexibility to go into greater depth and cover additional topics, such as details of the global fashion industry and supply chains, as they wish, according to the needs of their pupils. The use of textiles is encouraged in the D&T programme of study, though this is non-statutory guidance.
The department believes it vital that young people are taught about global issues such as sustainability and climate change. Topics related to these are covered in the national curriculum, which are mandatory in all state-maintained school, such as the science and geography curricula and GCSEs. For example, secondary geography includes the study of the climate, how human and physical processes interact to influence and change landscapes, environments and the climate. Citizenship education, which has been a compulsory subject in maintained schools since 2002, also covers contents on global issues, such as the environment. Furthermore, the department introduced a new environmental science A level in 2017. This will enable pupils to study topics that will support their understanding of the global issues, such as climate change.