Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will set out a timeframe for requiring newly-built schools to be fitted with sprinkler systems.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Sprinklers must be fitted in schools where they are deemed necessary to keep pupils and staff safe. All new school building projects must also comply with building regulations, including on fire safety, and this must be independently checked by Building Control or an Approved Inspector before buildings are occupied.
We are currently updating Building Bulletin 100 (BB100), the Department’s guidance on fire safety design in schools. A revised version of BB100 will be the subject of a full public consultation in due course.
All schools have to follow strict fire safety regulations, including having a fire risk assessment designed to ensure they are as safe as possible and well prepared in the event of a fire.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average cost to the public purse has been of the relocation of and travel for pupils following school fires in each financial year since 2015-16.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect information on the average cost of the relocation of and travel for pupils following school fires, although additional transport and travel costs would typically be covered through the business interruption element of a school’s insurance cover.
The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of a fire on the attainment of pupils at the school and does not make assessments of the effect of fires on levels of educational attainment.
The Department attaches the highest priority to the safety of pupils and staff, and to ensuring that the owners of school buildings take the necessary action to protect those buildings. Schools must comply with Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which means they must have an up to date fire risk assessment, a fire alarm and regular fire drills.
Schools are fundamentally safe environments and the relevant data is published by the Home Office. This data shows, among other things, that in the five years up to 2018-19, there are approximately six fires per year that spread to a whole building, in a school estate of around 60,000 buildings (0.01% of buildings). The data can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables#incident-level-datasets.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of a school building fire on the attainment of pupils at the school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect information on the average cost of the relocation of and travel for pupils following school fires, although additional transport and travel costs would typically be covered through the business interruption element of a school’s insurance cover.
The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of a fire on the attainment of pupils at the school and does not make assessments of the effect of fires on levels of educational attainment.
The Department attaches the highest priority to the safety of pupils and staff, and to ensuring that the owners of school buildings take the necessary action to protect those buildings. Schools must comply with Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which means they must have an up to date fire risk assessment, a fire alarm and regular fire drills.
Schools are fundamentally safe environments and the relevant data is published by the Home Office. This data shows, among other things, that in the five years up to 2018-19, there are approximately six fires per year that spread to a whole building, in a school estate of around 60,000 buildings (0.01% of buildings). The data can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables#incident-level-datasets.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department makes assessments of the effect of school fires on levels of educational attainment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect information on the average cost of the relocation of and travel for pupils following school fires, although additional transport and travel costs would typically be covered through the business interruption element of a school’s insurance cover.
The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of a fire on the attainment of pupils at the school and does not make assessments of the effect of fires on levels of educational attainment.
The Department attaches the highest priority to the safety of pupils and staff, and to ensuring that the owners of school buildings take the necessary action to protect those buildings. Schools must comply with Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which means they must have an up to date fire risk assessment, a fire alarm and regular fire drills.
Schools are fundamentally safe environments and the relevant data is published by the Home Office. This data shows, among other things, that in the five years up to 2018-19, there are approximately six fires per year that spread to a whole building, in a school estate of around 60,000 buildings (0.01% of buildings). The data can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables#incident-level-datasets.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to extend the National School Breakfast Programme to the May half term holidays.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Alongside our national approach to supporting free school meal pupils who are not attending school, we are committed to supporting schools and children who benefit from our breakfast club programme. This programme operates during term time periods.
Our suppliers, Family Action along with Magic Breakfast, are in contact with schools on the programme, where possible, and are working closely with them to target the children most in need to continue to provide them with a healthy breakfast.
Family Action have reported that over 1000 schools in disadvantaged areas are registered to receive breakfast deliveries from this programme during the coronavirus outbreak. These schools are located nationwide across England.
Schools on the programme can choose to support target children in the way which works best for them; this may include parents collecting food parcels from open schools or breakfast food ‘drop offs’ to target families. This should be arranged alongside the school’s wider support for children on free school meals, and follow social distancing guidelines.
These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that disadvantaged students have access to (a) computers and (b) other essential equipment so that they can access e-learning and not fall behind on school work during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 19 April 2020, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that laptops and tablets will be provided for the most disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receive support from a social worker, or are a care leaver. Local authorities, trusts and other organisations overseeing schools have been given guidance on how to order devices for children and young people.
This forms part of a much wider package of support, which aims to help schools get set up on cloud-based education platforms and provide remote education. 4G wireless routers will be provided to help disadvantaged children with a social worker in secondary school, and care leavers and Year 10s to access the internet. New online education resources will also be made available for teachers and children from the Oak Academy and the BBC.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to review the method by which (a) GCSE and (b) A-level grades are calculated as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Following the decision to cancel this summer’s examinations, the independent qualifications regulator, Ofqual, is working with the examination boards to develop a robust process for awarding GCSE and A level grades in summer 2020. Schools and colleges will produce fair and objective examination centre grades, which will be externally standardised to ensure consistency. These arrangements aim to deliver the fairest possible outcomes for students.
Ofqual will evaluate the outcome of this process in due course.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all (a) schools, (b) colleges and (c) universities are providing e-learning to students during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 19 April 2020, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that laptops and tablets will be provided for the most disadvantaged children who would otherwise not have access and are preparing for examinations in Year 10, receive support from a social worker, or are a care leaver. Local authorities, trusts and other organisations overseeing schools have been given guidance on how to order devices for children and young people.
This forms part of a much wider package of support, which aims to help schools get set up on cloud-based education platforms and provide remote education. 4G wireless routers will be provided to help disadvantaged children with a social worker in secondary school, and care leavers and Year 10s to access the internet. New online education resources will also be made available for teachers and children from the Oak Academy and the BBC.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the supermarket vouchers that his Department has announced will be offered to children eligible for free school meals during school closures will cover the costs of breakfast.
Answered by Vicky Ford
While schools are closed to the majority of pupils, they are able to provide meals or vouchers to children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals. More information can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance.
In addition to this, we are working to consider options to support children who currently receive a free breakfast through the department’s contract with Family Action and Magic Breakfast. Family Action with Magic Breakfast will liaise directly with the schools involved in the programme.
Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the National School Breakfast Programme on the educational attainment of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department is investing up to £35 million in the National Schools Breakfast Programme to kick-start or improve sustainable breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools in disadvantaged areas. This includes the recently announced extension to the programme which will support up to an additional 650 schools with up to £11.8 million being invested in 2020-21.
An Education Endowment Foundation evaluation between 2014 and 2017 found that supporting schools to run a free of charge, universal breakfast club before school delivered an average of 2 months of additional progress for pupils in Key Stage 1. Breakfast club schools also saw an improvement in pupil behaviour and attendance.
We monitor management information from the programme on an ongoing basis and will review the effectiveness of the programme fully once it concludes.