Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to estimate the number of children in England who were permanently excluded from a school and did not return to full time education in in the academic year 2017-2018.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested, regarding statistics showing excluded pupils who did not return to full-time education, is not held centrally. Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, which must begin no later than the sixth day of the exclusion.
Statistics on exclusions in academic year 2017/18 are not yet available. Exclusion statistics covering 2016/17 are available in the National Statistics release 'Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England 2016 to 2017'.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to increase modern foreign language provision in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The reformed National Curriculum makes it compulsory for pupils in maintained schools to be taught a foreign language in Key Stage 2, and the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure, which includes languages, has seen the proportion of GCSE entries from pupils in state-funded schools in a modern foreign language (MFL) increase from 40% in 2010 to 46% in 2018.
Recruiting MFL teachers is also a priority. Generous financial incentives are offered for languages teaching, including scholarships in modern foreign languages worth £28,000, and tax-free bursaries, typically worth up to £26,000. The Department is also working in partnership with Spain’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to deliver Spain’s Visiting Teachers Programme to provide schools with access to a pool of qualified teachers from Spain who are able to teach MFL. For the 2019/20 academic year, the programme will be open to secondary schools and also (as a pilot) to primary schools. The Department also has a Teacher Subject Specialism Training programme which aims to improve the subject knowledge of non-specialist teachers and returning teachers in MFL and to increase the number of hours taught.
The Department has recently launched the new Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, which will attract new teachers to all subjects, including MFLs.
A £4.8 million MFL Pedagogy Pilot commenced in December 2018. It is managed by the newly appointed MFL Centre for Excellence and is run through nine school-led hubs, to improve uptake and attainment in languages at Key Stages 3 and 4. A pilot project in MFL undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils has been launched to drive up participation in the subject, specifically targeting areas of high disadvantage to extend access to languages for all pupils.
The Department recently published and promoted a guidance leaflet[1] for parents, which explains why studying a language, as part of the EBacc, broadens opportunities in both education and employment. In February, attention was drawn to the benefits of studying a language among 13-14 year olds through a social media campaign.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the number of children daily reading unaided in England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not hold data on the number of children daily reading unaided in England. The Department does, however, hold figures on pupils’ performance in reading assessments. This is an indicator of pupils’ ability to read unaided. A new, more rigorous national curriculum has been taught in primary schools since September 2014 and new tests and assessments based on this curriculum were first taken by pupils in summer 2016. Since 2016, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in the reading test at the end of key stage 2 has risen from 66% to 75% in 2018.
Regarding pupils in the earlier stages of reading, in 2018 there were 163,000 more 6 year olds in England on track to become fluent readers compared to in 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the year 1 phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012. Regarding pupils who met the expected standard in phonics in year 1 in 2013, 88% went on to meet the expected standard in the key stage 2 reading test in 2018.
England achieved its highest ever score in reading in 2016, moving from joint 10th place to joint 8th place in the most recent Progress in International Reading Literacy Study rankings. This follows a greater focus on reading in the primary curriculum and a particular focus on phonics.
A national network of 32 primary schools across England has been appointed to become English Hubs, backed by £26.3 million funding. In addition to improving the teaching of phonics and early language development, these schools will champion reading for pleasure in the schools that they support.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools that have asked parents to donate towards activities that are part of the national curriculum in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information regarding how many schools ask parents for donations is not held centrally. Schools’ financial returns show that income from donations and voluntary funds has remained steady at about 0.7% of schools’ overall budgets since 2011/12.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools in England that have reduced their school day opening hours in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All schools in England have the autonomy to decide the structure and duration of their school day, which includes the flexibility to decide when their school day should start and finish. The Department has not made an estimate of these decisions taken by individual schools in England.
Maintained schools are required to be open to educate their pupils for at least 380 sessions (190 days) each school year. Maintained schools cannot lawfully reduce the length of the school week if this takes the total number of sessions below that.
In the event that a school decides to make changes to its school day, it is expected that the school should act reasonably when making such decisions; giving parents notices and considering the impacts on those affected.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of the effect of high levels of air pollution near schools on school children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not currently monitor air quality in schools or other educational institutions.
The Department has recently published guidance (BB101) on achieving good indoor air quality in new and refurbished schools. Outdoor air quality is the responsibility of local authorities who should prepare air quality action plans to ensure that the level of pollutants is reduced.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of schools in England that contain asbestos in their buildings and premises.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In February 2017, the Department published information based on a data collection that ran between 29 January and 31 March 2016. Of the 5,592 (25.2%) state-funded schools in England which participated, 4,646 (83.1%) reported that asbestos was present in their buildings.
The Department’s current asbestos data collection (Asbestos Management Assurance Process) will close on 15 February 2019 and updated information will be available in spring 2019.
Advice from the Health and Safety Executive is that if asbestos is unlikely to be damaged or disturbed, then it is best managed in situ.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department is taking to support universities in protecting the mental health of students.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Mental Health is a priority for this government. This is why the government is continuing to work closely with Universities UK on embedding the Step Change programme within the sector. Step Change calls on higher education leaders to adopt mental health as a strategic priority.
The University Mental Health Charter announced in June 2018 is backed by the government and led by the sector, and will drive up standards in promoting student and staff mental health and wellbeing. In spring, there will be 6 consultation events around the UK, bringing together university leaders, staff and students to help shape the Charter’s structure and content.
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous bodies, independent from government. HEIs are not only experts in their student population but also best placed to identify the needs of their particular student body.
UK Research and Innovation launched eight new mental health networks in September, including the SMARTEN Network. This Network will work with researchers with a range of expertise and key stakeholders across the Higher Education sector to improve the understanding of student mental health. As part of this work, the network will run a workshop on 13 March for stakeholders to share their perspectives on what is helpful and feasible in terms of measuring student mental health.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the number of international students choosing to study in the UK grows over the next 10 years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The government fully recognises the important economic and cultural contribution that EU and international students make to the UK’s higher education sector. The government welcomes international students and there continues to be no limit on the number who can come here to study, and there are no plans to limit any institution’s ability to recruit them.
The UK remains a highly attractive destination for non-EU students with their numbers remaining at record highs, with over 170,000 non-EU entrants to UK higher education institutions for the seventh year running. The UK is a world-leading destination for study, with four universities in the world’s top 10 and 16 in the top 100 – second only to the USA. The government actively promotes study in the UK through the GREAT Campaign and to over 100 countries through the British Council.
In the Immigration White Paper, published on 19 December 2018, the government proposed to increase the post-study leave period for international students following completion of studies to 12 months for those completing a PhD, and to six months for all full-time postgraduate students and undergraduate students at institutions with degree awarding powers. Going beyond the recommendations set out by the Migration Advisory Committee, these proposals will benefit tens of thousands of international students.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of self-employed people being unable to take paid adoption leave on the level of adoption.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department has undertaken no assessment because policy on paid leave for self-employed people is a policy responsibility of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Where adopters do not qualify for family related statutory pay because they are self-employed, local authorities may make a payment equivalent to Maternity Allowance. This is at the discretion of the local authority and is means-tested.
The latest figures on adoptions were published in a statistical release ‘Children looked after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ on 15 November 2018. The release is available on the department’s website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.