Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to improve learning outcomes for boys.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to improving outcomes for all pupils no matter their gender, and raising attainment is a priority. The Government has successfully driven up standards over the past decade. In 2010, only 68% of schools were rated good or outstanding compared to 87% today.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation, Star Assessments and Renaissance Learning shows attainment for all pupils, including boys, has fallen compared to pre-pandemic levels. In response to this, the Department is taking action to support schools, increasing core schools funding in the Autumn Statement 2022. The additional funding will mean that the core schools’ budget is a net £2 billion higher than published at the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The Department continues to deliver the proposals set out in the Schools White Paper, which aim to improve outcomes for all pupils, including boys. This includes providing an excellent teacher for every pupil, securing high standards in curriculum, behaviour and attendance, and providing targeted support for every pupil who needs it.
For teachers, the Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the very best teachers. In addition, the Department will deliver 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024 and has recently announced a £181 million incentive package for Initial Teacher Training. This package of support will secure more high quality teaching, which is the single most important in school factor on attainment.
The Department continues to promote the use of phonics and supports schools to offer a high quality, knowledge rich curriculum, both of which are critical to ensuring boys are able to achieve well in later life. In addition, the Government has established the Oak National Academy, setting aside up to £43 million over the next three years to support it to provide high quality resources to schools.
The Department continues to support schools through the Pupil Premium, National Tutoring Programme and Recovery Premium. More than £1 billion is available to support tutoring up to 2023/24, with a further £1 billion of Recovery Premium funding in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.
The Government remains committed to raising overall attainment, and reducing the number of pupils in underperforming schools, by creating a stronger and fairer school system. The Department will continue to support schools, trusts and authorities to deliver excellent outcomes for every pupil.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to improve learning outcomes for boys.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to improving outcomes for all pupils no matter their gender, and raising attainment is a priority. The Government has successfully driven up standards over the past decade. In 2010, only 68% of schools were rated good or outstanding compared to 87% today.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation, Star Assessments and Renaissance Learning shows attainment for all pupils, including boys, has fallen compared to pre-pandemic levels. In response to this, the Department is taking action to support schools, increasing core schools funding in the Autumn Statement 2022. The additional funding will mean that the core schools’ budget is a net £2 billion higher than published at the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The Department continues to deliver the proposals set out in the Schools White Paper, which aim to improve outcomes for all pupils, including boys. This includes providing an excellent teacher for every pupil, securing high standards in curriculum, behaviour and attendance, and providing targeted support for every pupil who needs it.
For teachers, the Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the very best teachers. In addition, the Department will deliver 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024 and has recently announced a £181 million incentive package for Initial Teacher Training. This package of support will secure more high quality teaching, which is the single most important in school factor on attainment.
The Department continues to promote the use of phonics and supports schools to offer a high quality, knowledge rich curriculum, both of which are critical to ensuring boys are able to achieve well in later life. In addition, the Government has established the Oak National Academy, setting aside up to £43 million over the next three years to support it to provide high quality resources to schools.
The Department continues to support schools through the Pupil Premium, National Tutoring Programme and Recovery Premium. More than £1 billion is available to support tutoring up to 2023/24, with a further £1 billion of Recovery Premium funding in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.
The Government remains committed to raising overall attainment, and reducing the number of pupils in underperforming schools, by creating a stronger and fairer school system. The Department will continue to support schools, trusts and authorities to deliver excellent outcomes for every pupil.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to ukactive’s press released entitled Up to £57 million investment received for schools to open their sports facilities to support communities to be more active, published on 8 March, what steps (a) her Department is taking to deliver and (b) schools have to take to apply for that funding.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 8 March 2023, the Department announced that up to £57 million has been allocated up to March 2025 for Phase 3 of the Opening School Facilities programme to allow selected schools around England to open their sports facilities in the evenings, at weekends and during the holidays.
The Department has awarded a contract to a consortium led by Active Partnerships, who are identifying schools across England where the funding will have a positive effect on getting the least active pupils and wider community users to participate in more sport.
Active Partnerships will support schools to create new partnerships with sport national governing bodies and local sport providers to broaden the extracurricular opportunities being delivered in the selected schools’ sports facilities.
The Department can confirm that in year one, Active Nottinghamshire have already identified 19 schools in Nottinghamshire to benefit from the programme.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department will take steps to increase the levels of recruitment of male primary school teachers.
Answered by Jonathan Gullis
The Department wants to attract and retain diverse, talented teachers from all backgrounds, and this includes recruiting male teachers.
The recruitment of primary school teachers remains strong. In 2021/22, 136% of the Postgraduate Initial Teacher Training target was achieved in primary. This target has been exceeded in four of the last five years.
In 2021, the Department’s new application service for initial teacher training (ITT) in England, ‘Apply for teacher training’, was rolled out nationally. It has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible and has been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants to ensure it helps remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses.
The Department’s recruitment campaigns are targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates, and potential career changers, regardless of their identity or background. We take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials used.
Since September 2020, all courses offered by ITT providers have been aligned to a mandatory core content framework, published in November 2019. The framework sets out a minimum entitlement for all trainee teachers.
In September 2021, the early career framework was implemented, entitling early career teachers to a further 2 years of development support and training.
Moreover, the reforms outlined in the Government’s response to the ITT market review will help us meet the commitment made in the teacher recruitment and retention strategy to create a world-class teacher development system by transforming the training and support teachers receive at every stage of their career.
To ensure that all children and young people get the very best education, it is essential that the Department has a workforce of well-trained and well-supported teachers, with the expertise needed to deliver great teaching every day.