Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to take specific steps to increase the recruitment of Black and Asian teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Apply for Teacher Training is a new application service for initial teacher training (ITT). To support recruitment, Apply has been designed to be as simple and user friendly as possible and it has been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants. Currently, Apply is in public beta, running alongside the existing application service for teacher training. As we roll the service out further, we will continue to develop and test interventions to support people from diverse backgrounds to become teachers.
The Department’s ‘Teaching – Every Lesson Shapes A Life’ recruitment campaign is targeted at audiences of students/recent graduates and potential career changers of all races and backgrounds, and we take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials we use.
Alongside a focus on recruitment, it is important we retain people from diverse backgrounds. From September 2021, all new trainee teachers will be entitled to at least three years of evidence-based professional development and support. This starts with ITT, based on the new ITT Core Content Framework, which sets out a core minimum entitlement for all trainees, describing the fundamental knowledge and skills that ITT providers must draw upon when designing and delivering their programmes.
Following on from their training, all new teachers will be entitled to two years of funded high quality professional development, including the support of a dedicated mentor, through the Early Career Framework reforms. Schools will receive additional funding so new teachers can spend time away from the classroom for this extra training and mentoring. Together, these reforms will ensure that all new teachers will develop the expertise and confidence they need to thrive in the classroom.
Our new suite of National Professional Qualifications, available from September 2021, will make sure that we continue to develop our best teaching and leadership talent, whatever their background.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department is planning to take specific steps to support the educational experiences and outcomes of Caribbean heritage students, other than the measures that his Department is taking to support disadvantaged pupils generally; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is focused on raising education standards for all pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Department does not design education policy to exclusively target certain groups of pupils based on ethnicity.
The Department recognises that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has been felt most heavily by disadvantaged children and young people.
In June 2020, the Department announced a £1 billion catch up package, which includes £350 million for the National Tutoring Programme to increase the availability of high quality tuition for the most disadvantaged children and young people, helping to accelerate their education and tackle the attainment gap.
In February 2021, the Department committed to funding of £700 million for summer schools, expansion of our tutoring programmes and a Recovery Premium for the next academic year. The £302 million Recovery Premium for state funded primary and secondary schools, builds on the Pupil Premium, to further support pupils who need it most.
The Department is also considering the education recommendations from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the Education Recovery Package fund that will be allocated to supporting the needs of Black and Asian children and students.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is focused on raising education standards for all pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Department does not design education policy to exclusively target certain groups of pupils based on ethnicity.
The Department recognises that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak has been felt most heavily by disadvantaged children and young people.
In June 2020, the Department announced a £1 billion catch up package, which includes £350 million for the National Tutoring Programme to increase the availability of high quality tuition for the most disadvantaged children and young people, helping to accelerate their education and tackle the attainment gap.
In February 2021, the Department committed to funding of £700 million for summer schools, expansion of our tutoring programmes and a Recovery Premium for the next academic year. The £302 million Recovery Premium for state funded primary and secondary schools, builds on the Pupil Premium, to further support pupils who need it most.
The Department is also considering the education recommendations from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which (a) institutions and (b) stakeholders he has met with recently to discuss diversifying the curricula.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, pupils should be taught about different societies, and how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain.
The Department regularly engages with teachers and other stakeholders on the curriculum, including on diversity and inclusion. There is already a wide range of high-quality teaching resources on culturally diverse curriculum content throughout the curriculum, including those produced by education publishers, voluntary organisations and subject associations, and remote education resources from the Oak National Academy.
The Government is currently considering the recommendations in the report by the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities, including on curriculum resources, and assessing the next steps for future policy. In recognition of the extensive scope of recommendations, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has established a new Inter Ministerial Group to review recommendations. The group will be chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what policies his Department is consideing in relation to diversifying the curricula.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to an inclusive education system which recognises and embraces diversity and supports all pupils to tackle racism and have the knowledge and tools to do so. As part of the statutory curriculum, pupils should be taught about different societies and how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain.
The Government is currently considering the recommendations in the report by the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED), including on curriculum resources, and assessing the next steps for future policy. In recognition of the extensive scope of recommendations, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has established a new Inter Ministerial Group to review recommendations. The group will be chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The report recommendation is for curriculum resources and is not a change in the statutory curriculum. In particular, the report calls for resources that complement and enhance the content and quality of lessons taught in all schools, so that all children can are taught about the UK and the evolution of our society.
As the report highlights, there is a wide range of high quality teaching resources on black history or other culturally diverse curriculum content throughout the curriculum, including those produced by education publishers, voluntary organisations and subject associations, and remote education resources from the Oak National Academy.
The Government will publish its response to CRED later this year.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consultation his Department has undertaken with (a) schools, (b) teachers and (c) relevant stakeholders on diversifying curricula.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, pupils should be taught about different societies, and how different groups have contributed to the development of Britain.
The Department regularly engages with teachers and other stakeholders on the curriculum, including on diversity and inclusion. There is already a wide range of high-quality resources on teaching a culturally diverse curriculum content, including those produced by education publishers, voluntary organisations, subject associations, and remote education resources from the Oak National Academy.
The Government is considering the recommendations in the report by the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities, including on curriculum resources, and assessing the next steps for future policy. In recognition of the extensive scope of recommendations, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has established a new Inter Ministerial Group. The group will be chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to improve educational outcomes for (a) pupils and (b) students of Caribbean heritage; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Since 2010, this Government has been committed to raising educational standards for all pupils to ensure that all young people leave school with the knowledge, skills and qualifications they need to succeed in life. The proportion of schools now rated by Ofsted as Good or Outstanding has risen from 68% in 2010 to 86% in 2020. The Department does not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils based on ethnicity, but we are focused on tackling the attainment gap that exists between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers.
We know that the COVID-19 outbreak poses great challenges to the education system. In June 2020, the Department announced a £1 billion catch-up package, which includes £350 million for a National Tutoring Programme to increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged children and young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and directly tackling the attainment gap.
More recently, in February 2021, we committed a further £700 million of funding for the 2021/22 academic year. This package includes a new one off £302 million Recovery Premium for state-funded primary and secondary schools, building on the Pupil Premium, to further support pupils who need it most.
As part of the Government’s commitment to develop a longer-term education recovery plan, Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as Education Recovery Commissioner and is working with teachers, school and college leaders, educational charities, and families to review how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact of education lost due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) promote and (b) support parental involvement in children’s education and academic attainment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Parental involvement in their child’s education has always been important, and this has been further underlined during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department realises this is a challenging time for parents, carers and children, and remote education has brought new demands for them and changed how they engage with schools. Parents played a crucial role in their child’s education whilst schools were closed for most pupils.
School attendance is now mandatory for all pupils and the usual rules on school attendance have applied again since 8 March 2021. This includes parents’ duty to secure their child’s regular attendance at school. It is vital that pupils attend school to minimise the longer-term impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on their education, wellbeing and wider development, and that is why education has been prioritised as we begin to relax restrictions.
Evidence tells us that the early years are crucial for a child’s development, and what happens at home plays a vital role. This is why the Department launched Hungry Little Minds, a campaign to encourage parents to engage in activities that support their child’s early education. The campaign aims to communicate that there are simple, everyday things parents can do to help their children’s language and literacy. The campaign is part of our wider work to support parents and families. We provided £5.3 million of grant funding in the 2020-21 financial year to voluntary and community sector organisations to support disadvantaged and vulnerable children in the early years, including support with the home education environment.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase racial diversity in teaching and training workforces, particularly in schools and universities that have large proportions of students from Black and Asian backgrounds.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The teaching workforce is more racially diverse than ever before, with recruitment into Initial Teacher Training (ITT) becoming more representative of the wider population. The Department recognises, however, that we must go further to attract and retain the diverse range of talented teachers we need in our classrooms.
To support recruitment, the Department is building and rolling out a new application service for teacher training. The Apply for teacher training service has been designed and extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants to ensure it helps remove barriers to teachers applying for ITT courses. Apply for teacher training is currently in public beta, running alongside the existing application service for teacher training. As the Department rolls out the service, we will continue to develop and test interventions to support people from diverse backgrounds in becoming teachers.
Furthermore, the Department’s ‘Teaching – Every Lesson Shapes A Life’ recruitment campaign is targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates, and potential career changers inclusive of all ethnicities, and we take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials we use.
Alongside a focus on recruitment, it is important the Department continues its work to retain more teachers from diverse backgrounds. This will be supported by our work to ensure that all new entrants to teacher training have the best possible start to the early stage of their career. From September 2020 onwards, new trainee teachers will undergo training based on the ITT Core Content Framework which sets out a core minimum entitlement for all trainees, describing the fundamental knowledge and skills that all new entrants to the profession need to effectively teach and support all children.
Following on from their training, from this September, all new teachers will be entitled to two years of funded high quality professional development including the support of a dedicated mentor, through the Early Career Framework reforms. Schools will receive additional funding so new teachers can spend time away from the classroom for this extra training and mentoring. Together, these reforms will ensure that all new teachers will develop the skills, expertise, and confidence they need to thrive in the classroom.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve access IT equipment for Black and Asian children living in low-income households.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is providing over £400 million to support remote education and online social care services, including making 1.3 million laptops and tablets available for disadvantaged children and young people.
To date, over 1.29 million laptops and tablets have been delivered to schools, trusts, local authorities and further education providers. The Department has also partnered with the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free data to help over 30,000 disadvantaged children get online, as well as delivering over 75,000 4G wireless routers for pupils without connection at home.
Laptops and tablets are owned by schools, trusts, local authorities or further education providers, who can lend these to children and young people who need them. Allocations of devices to schools and colleges are based on the number of pupils or students they have who are eligible for free school meals or free meals. This approach ensures that support provided by the Government reaches those families that need it most.