Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on freedom of secondary school choice for primary schools pupils not in a feeder school in Bromley of the Harris Federation and Langley Park Learning Trust setting up feeder arrangements.
Answered by Nick Gibb
School admission arrangements must comply with the School Admissions Code. The Code permits admission arrangements which give priority to children who attend named feeder schools. It also requires that the selection of feeder schools is transparent and made on reasonable grounds. In addition, the Code requires that admission arrangements are fair.
The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities to consult locally before making changes to their admission arrangements. They must consult for a minimum of 6 weeks between 1 October and 31 January in the school year before the arrangements come into effect. The Code specifies the people and organisations that the admission authority must consult. This includes local parents, other local schools and the local authority.
The admission authority must then determine its admission arrangements by 28 February and publish them on its website. Anyone who considers the determined admission arrangements are unlawful or unfair may complain to the Schools Adjudicator. Where the Adjudicator upholds a complaint, the admission authority is required to amend their admission arrangements.
In the Office of the Schools Adjudicator’s annual report for the 2016-17 school year, the Adjudicator stated, ‘If the giving of priority by a secondary school to children from certain feeder primaries means that other children will face a significantly longer or more difficult journey to different schools as a result, then the arrangements are likely to be found to be unfair.’ The report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report.
The Department collects pupil forecasts from each local authority through the annual school capacity survey. The latest published data relates to the position in the 2017-18 school year. Secondary pupil numbers in Bromley local authority are forecast to increase by 3,214 (12%) from 23,618 in 2019-20 to 26,832 in 2024-25, as seen in the table below.
Table 1: Secondary pupil forecasts for Bromley local authority
School year | Bromley local authority secondary pupil total |
2019-20 | 23,618 |
2020-21 | 24,415 |
2021-22 | 25,281 |
2022-23 | 25,991 |
2023-24 | 26,561 |
2024-25 | 26,832 |
Further information can be found in the place planning tables at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-academic-year-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to provide statutory guidance to schools on the use of isolation rooms for students.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which should set out the behaviour expected of pupils, the sanctions that will be imposed for poor behaviour, and rewards for good behaviour. Schools have to make these policies publicly available on their websites. To help schools develop effective strategies, the Department has produced advice for schools which covers what should be included in the behaviour policy. This advice can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-and-discipline-in-schools.
Schools can adopt a policy which allows disruptive pupils to be placed in isolation away from other pupils for a limited period. If a school uses isolation rooms as a disciplinary penalty, this should be made clear in their behaviour policy. As with other disciplinary penalties, schools must act lawfully, reasonably and proportionately in all cases. The school must also ensure the health and safety of pupils.
The Department regularly reviews the guidance issued to schools and updates it as appropriate. The Department has no current plans to make the guidance statutory.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of schools off-rolling pupils on the standard of those pupils' education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The law is clear that a pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, as amended. Where a school issues an exclusion, there is a formal process that must be followed. ‘Unofficial’ or ‘informal’ exclusions, such as sending pupils home to ‘cool off’, are unlawful regardless of whether they are done with the agreement of parents or carers and regardless of the age of the pupil. Any exclusion of a pupil, even for short periods of time, must be formally recorded.
Following media coverage of inappropriate off-rolling last summer, the Department wrote to all secondary schools, reminding them of the rules surrounding exclusion.
Ofsted recently issued guidance to inspectors, reminding them to be alert to this matter. The guidance makes clear that instances of off-rolling should be discussed with the school during the inspection, and should inform the evaluation of the school.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of isolation rooms in primary and secondary schools on decreasing incidences of disruptive behaviour.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information regarding schools’ use of isolation rooms is not held centrally. We trust schools to develop their own policies and strategies for managing disruptive behaviour according to their particular circumstances. To help schools develop effective strategies, the Department has produced advice for schools which covers what should be included in their behaviour policy, which can be viewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf.
Schools can adopt a policy which allows disruptive pupils to be placed in isolation away from other pupils. If a school uses isolation rooms as a disciplinary penalty, this should be made clear in their behaviour policy. As with other disciplinary penalties, schools must act lawfully, reasonably and proportionately in all cases, and must take account of any special education needs or disabilities pupils placed in isolation may have. The school must also ensure the health and safety of pupils.
It is for individual schools to decide how long a pupil should be kept in isolation and for the staff member in charge to determine what pupils may and may not do during the time they are there. Schools should ensure that pupils are kept in isolation no longer than is necessary and that their time spent there is used as constructively as possible.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of isolation rooms on pupils with learning difficulties.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information regarding schools’ use of isolation rooms is not held centrally. We trust schools to develop their own policies and strategies for managing disruptive behaviour according to their particular circumstances. To help schools develop effective strategies, the Department has produced advice for schools which covers what should be included in their behaviour policy, which can be viewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf.
Schools can adopt a policy which allows disruptive pupils to be placed in isolation away from other pupils. If a school uses isolation rooms as a disciplinary penalty, this should be made clear in their behaviour policy. As with other disciplinary penalties, schools must act lawfully, reasonably and proportionately in all cases, and must take account of any special education needs or disabilities pupils placed in isolation may have. The school must also ensure the health and safety of pupils.
It is for individual schools to decide how long a pupil should be kept in isolation and for the staff member in charge to determine what pupils may and may not do during the time they are there. Schools should ensure that pupils are kept in isolation no longer than is necessary and that their time spent there is used as constructively as possible.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the maximum amount of time that a school could decide to place a disruptive pupil in an isolation room is.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information regarding schools’ use of isolation rooms is not held centrally. We trust schools to develop their own policies and strategies for managing disruptive behaviour according to their particular circumstances. To help schools develop effective strategies, the Department has produced advice for schools which covers what should be included in their behaviour policy, which can be viewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf.
Schools can adopt a policy which allows disruptive pupils to be placed in isolation away from other pupils. If a school uses isolation rooms as a disciplinary penalty, this should be made clear in their behaviour policy. As with other disciplinary penalties, schools must act lawfully, reasonably and proportionately in all cases, and must take account of any special education needs or disabilities pupils placed in isolation may have. The school must also ensure the health and safety of pupils.
It is for individual schools to decide how long a pupil should be kept in isolation and for the staff member in charge to determine what pupils may and may not do during the time they are there. Schools should ensure that pupils are kept in isolation no longer than is necessary and that their time spent there is used as constructively as possible.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for secondary schools in South East London.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has made a significant extra investment of £1.3 billion in the core schools budget across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This means that funding will be maintained in real terms per pupil.
The national funding formula, supported by this extra investment, has allocated up to 3% more funding per pupil for underfunded schools and it will allocate further gains of up to 3% per pupil in 2019-20. Under the formula, every school attracted at least 0.5% for every pupil in 2018-19 and will attract at least 1% more funding for every pupil by 2019-20, compared to the 2017-18 baselines.
In addition, schools in more expensive areas like London receive higher per pupil funding than schools in other parts of the country to reflect the higher costs they face.
We have published information about the impact of the national funding formulae at school and local authority level, which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for primary schools in South East London.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has made a significant extra investment of £1.3 billion in the core schools budget across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above the budget announced at the 2015 spending review. This means that funding will be maintained in real terms per pupil.
The national funding formula, supported by this extra investment, has allocated up to 3% more funding per pupil for underfunded schools and it will allocate further gains of up to 3% per pupil in 2019-20. Under the formula, every school attracted at least 0.5% for every pupil in 2018-19 and will attract at least 1% more funding for every pupil by 2019-20, compared to the 2017-18 baselines.
In addition, schools in more expensive areas like London receive higher per pupil funding than schools in other parts of the country to reflect the higher costs they face.
We have published information about the impact of the national funding formulae at school and local authority level, which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his policy is on grammar schools; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government wants to ensure all pupils can benefit from a high quality education. The Department is committed to supporting all good and outstanding schools, including selective schools that wish to expand, particularly where there is demand for more good school places and it can be demonstrated that the change represents the best local solution and value for money. However, the legislative ban on opening new grammar schools remains in place.
The Department is continuing to work with the grammar schools sector to ensure that more academically able children from low-income backgrounds can secure a place at selective schools, and to encourage selective schools to work with other local schools to help improve standards locally.