Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that teachers are given priority to enrol their children at schools they teach at.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

All mainstream state funded schools must have clear admission arrangements, set by the school’s admission authority, which include the oversubscription criteria they will use to give priority for places where there are more applicants than places available. The School Admissions Code allows admission authorities to give priority in their oversubscription criteria for children of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years at the time when their application for a school place is made. The priority may also be applied for children of staff who have been recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.

It is for individual admission authorities to decide whether to include such a priority in their admissions criteria, provided the arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to increase +-teacher retention rates in rural areas.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

High quality teaching is the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a child’s education which is why sufficient high-quality teachers is key to delivering the government’s agenda to break down the barriers to opportunity. Measures will include getting more teachers into shortage subjects, supporting areas that face recruitment challenges and tackling retention issues. This will help ensure that children across the country, including rural areas, have the expert qualified teachers they need in order to achieve and thrive.

There are now 468,693 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, but numbers have not kept pace with demand. This is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department is offering a Targeted Retention Incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools, many of which are in rural areas. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

The department is also working closely with teachers and school leaders to improve workload and wellbeing, which are key drivers of retention. We are also promoting flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation and assessment time to be taken from home, and have made key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.

This includes ensuring there is a compelling financial offer to attract and keep high-quality teachers in these areas. The minimum starting salary for teachers, including those in rural areas, increased to £30,000 from the start of the 2023/24 academic year, and following the 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September, this has further increased to £31,650.

The department has announced an initial teacher training (ITT) financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.

The department has established a network of 87 Teaching School Hubs serving schools across the country. The Hubs provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers and play a significant role in delivering ITT, the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Odyssey Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, and Gloucester.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of Covid 19 on the reception class cohort of September 2025; and whether additional (a) preparation and (b) provision has been made for that cohort.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Giving children the best start in life is the foundation of government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The earliest years are the most crucial stage of child development. That is why we have set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn in the classroom. As announced in Plan for Change, we will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

Research showed that the COVID-19 pandemic set back children’s learning and development and may have exacerbated the outcome gap.

To help achieve the milestone set out in Plan for Change, the department will work in partnership with the sector, reforming training and support for the workforce to drive up standards. We will offer sustained professional development and work with providers to help spread evidence-based programmes as part of comprehensive plans to drive high-quality early education and care.  We will ensure that the reception year sets children up for success, by rolling out schools’ access to evidence-based programmes that boost early literacy and numeracy skills.

The department is providing a range of high-quality support and training for early years educators and leaders, building a stronger, more expert workforce, to enable settings and childminders to deliver quality early education, including currently available continuing professional development and support such as Maths Champions, Early Years Child Development Training, and the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs.

The government will also deliver the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium in the 2025/26 financial year, increasing the rate by over 45%, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most, to give them the support they need to be ‘school ready’ at age 5 and go on to have the best life chances.

Congratulating Prime Minister Mark Carney

Public Hearts defibrillator campaign

Prevent strategy

Sanctioning of UK Parliamentarians by Russia

Introduction of the Hillsborough Law and the 36th anniversary

Rural bus services

International Day of the Midwife

Ensuring stability for Ukrainian refugees in the UK

Radiotherapy (No. 2)

Fibrenest and Persimmon homes

Refusal of Citizenship to refugees who have made irregular crossings

Israeli Defence Force attacks on humanitarian workers

Scams and fraud

Wellbeing of home educated children

Snares

Submit Evidence (by 26 May 2025)

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a large, complex group of about 14,000 synthetic chemicals used in a wide variety of everyday products. For example, PFAS are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant to stains, and create firefighting foam that is more effective.