Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of (a) trends in the take-up of academy places and (b) the performance of academies in Calderdale in the last five years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The number of pupils on roll in academies in Calderdale from January 2012 to January 2016 is available from the underlying data set accompanying each year’s statistical release “Schools, pupils and their characteristics”, which are published on the department’s website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers
The performance of schools including academies in Calderdale is also published and can be found here:
https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/?laname=Calderdale&la=&searchtype=search-by-la
Data for key stage 4 for years before 2014 are not comparable due to reforms to qualifications, notably the removal of many previous equivalent vocational qualifications and counting only the first attempt at a qualification in the performance tables in English Baccalaureate subjects.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for future provision of post-16 education provision in Calderdale; and whether she has received any representations on that subject from Calderdale Council.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Post-16 education in Calderdale was considered within the West Yorkshire Area Review, the final steering group meeting was held on 17 June 2016. The review will deliver a further education system that meets the economic and educational needs of areas whilst also ensuring the long term sustainability of colleges to support productivity.
Calderdale Council were represented on the West Yorkshire area review steering group and played a full part in discussions and the agreement of recommendations of the review.
We will publish the report of the West Yorkshire area review, including the agreed recommendations, shortly.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what mental health support is provided in schools to assist pupils with (a) self-harm and (b) body image related issues.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Good mental health and wellbeing is a priority for this Department. We have high aspirations for all children and want them to be able to fulfil their potential both academically and in terms of their mental wellbeing.
Schools should take prompt action to deal with cases of self- harm. The Department has taken a range of actions to help schools build a school-wide approach to good mental wellbeing. We have funded guidance and age-appropriate lesson plans on teaching mental health in personal, social, health and economic education, which covers teaching about self-harm and body image. In addition, training for teachers on self-harm is available through MindEd, a free online portal that has been developed to enable all adults working with children and young people to learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them. We have also revised and updated our blueprint for effective school-based counselling.
However, teachers are not mental health specialists. We have contributed to a £3 million joint pilot between schools and children and young people’s mental health services to help schools access specialist support for their pupils, where needed.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the outcome of the EU referendum on the ability of UK students studying language courses to work, study and live in other EU countries.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
There are no immediate changes following the EU Referendum, including in the circumstances of British citizens studying, or planning to study, in the EU. Future arrangements for studying abroad will need to be considered as part of wider discussions about the UK’s relationship with the EU. For further information, see the Government Statement at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-on-higher-education-and-research-following-the-eu-referendum
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to close attainment gaps between the best and worst performing local authority areas as judged by GCSE and A Level results.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Our recent White Paper, ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’, set out our intention to place a new focus on ‘Achieving Excellence Areas’ where too few children have access to a good school and there are insufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders and sponsors. By doing this we will enable the school-led system to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement.
We want to eradicate the pockets of underperformance in our school system and will do so by targeting the Department for Education’s programmes in the areas of greatest need. We intend to pilot this approach from September 2016.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of young people who are cared for in (a) local authority-run and (b) private or voluntary sector children's homes in each local authority area.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The information requested is attached.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding her Department has allocated to schools in (a) Calderdale and (b) West Yorkshire to tackle bullying in the last (i) 12 months and (ii) five years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government continues to make tackling all forms of bullying a top priority. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to tackle bullying among pupils. While they are free to develop their own anti-bullying strategies they are held clearly to account for their effectiveness through Ofsted.
School funding to prevent and tackle bullying is part of their overall funding allocation, and is not separately identified at school or local authority level. In addition, the Department has directly funded a number of national anti-bullying organisations, supporting their work within schools across England to combat bullying.
In 2015/16 we provided around £1.3 million to various anti-bullying charities including the Diana Award, Kidscape and the National Children’s Bureau (hosted by the Anti-bullying Alliance). These organisations train teachers and pupils in schools to prevent bullying and deal with its impact when it occurs so that bullied children do not suffer continuing distress. Additionally in the past 12 months we have supported the Government Equalities Office (GEO) to deliver a £2 million grant programme aimed at combatting homophobic bullying in schools.
Between 2011 and 2016 we provided over £6.6 million to these and other charities to help them to support schools to support pupils who are bullied and to develop strategies to prevent bullying from happening.
The Department and GEO will both be funding further projects this year.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on trends in the number of vacancies for teachers in primary schools in (a) Calderdale, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) nationally since 2005.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The following table provides the number of vacancies for full-time teaching posts in state-funded primary schools in (a) Calderdale local authority and (b) West Yorkshire and (c) England in November 2010 to 2014. Vacancy data is not available on a comparable basis prior to 2010. Data for November 2015 will be available at the end of June 2016.
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||
| Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate |
Calderdale | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
West Yorkshire | 15 | 0.2 | 11 | 0.1 | 19 | 0.2 | 15 | 0.2 | 17 | 0.2 |
Source: School Workforce Census
Published national figures for the full time series is available from Table 14 in the statistical first release ‘School Workforce in England, November 2014 available at the following web link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on trends in the number of vacancies for teachers in secondary schools in (a) Calderdale, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) England since 2005.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The following table provides the number of vacancies for full-time teaching posts in state-funded secondary schools in (a) Calderdale local authority and (b) West Yorkshire and (c) England in November 2010 to 2014. Vacancy data is not available on a comparable basis prior to 2010. November 2015 data will be available at the end of June 2016.
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |||||
| Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate | Number | Rate |
Calderdale | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.1 | 1 | 0.2 | 4 | 0.6 |
West Yorkshire | 15 | 0.2 | 14 | 0.2 | 11 | 0.1 | 12 | 0.2 | 25 | 0.3 |
Source: School Workforce Census
Published national figures for the full time series is available from Table 14 in the statistical first release ‘School Workforce in England’, November 2014 available at the following web link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014