Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department issues guidance to schools on how to identify and manage incidences of parental alienation.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right of all children and young people, regardless of their family situation, and the government will continue to review how schools, police, social services and other agencies work together to protect all children.
The Department published updated statutory guidance in 2015 on Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children. Schools and colleges must have regard to this guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. All school and college staff should be aware of the various forms of abuse, including emotional harm, so that they are able to identify children in need of help and support and know what action to take. This would include recognising where children are suffering as the result of family relationship breakdown.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the effect of the decision to discontinue GCSE and A-level qualifications in information communication technology on future levels of IT literacy skills for the workplace; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The rigorous new Computer Science GCSE and A level qualifications, backed by industry experts, will enable pupils to progress to further study and employment. The inclusion of Computer Science in the EBacc reflects its rigorous academic standards. The decision has therefore been made not to redevelop further IT qualifications in a related area of study.
Through computer science, students will develop their computational thinking skills, learn to code and understand information technology topics such as cyber security, networking and data storage. There are also a number of vocational options for students at Key Stage 4 and opportunities for further specialism at Key Stage 5. For 14-16 year olds, technical awards have a focus on practical and technical subjects and offer an opportunity to gain experience and knowledge in areas such as digital literacy and web design. For 16-19 year olds, high quality vocational qualifications provide progression to higher education and employment and prepare students well for that purpose.
This builds on our changes to the national curriculum where we have replaced the outdated ICT programme of study with a new computing programme of study. The new computing curriculum has been designed to facilitate innovation and creativity from both teachers and pupils and emphasise the importance of learning about the fundamentals of computer science.