Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to Childhood obesity: a plan for action, published in January 2017, what progress his Department has made on the physical activity recommendations in that plan on (a) children receiving 60 minutes a day of vigorous exercise and (b) the new healthy rating scheme for primary schools.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Every primary school child should get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day. The Childhood Obesity Plan set out that at least 30 minutes should be delivered in school every day through active break times, PE, extra-curricular clubs, active lessons, or other sport and physical activity events, with the remaining 30 minutes supported by parents and carers outside of school time. The department does not collect data from schools on physical activity levels of children, but is supporting them in the following ways.
In September 2017 we doubled the primary PE and sport premium to £320 million using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer. The premium should be used to develop or add to the PE and sport activities that a school already offers and make improvements now that will benefit pupils joining the school in future years. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools
In 2018 £100 million of revenue generated from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy is being used for the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund (HPCF). In March we published HPCF allocations and guidance for local authorities and larger multi-academy trusts, which total £62 million. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations
£38 million of the HPCF has been awarded to projects in primary and secondary academies and sixth form colleges across the country. The funding will be used to improve facilities which include sports halls and multi-use games areas, changing rooms, swimming pools and outdoor active play spaces. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/condition-improvement-fund-2018-to-2019-outcome
We are currently working on testing delivery models as we continue to explore the most effective way to deliver the healthy schools rating scheme, building on successful resources that are already available to schools. We will come forward with proposals shortly.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools Ofsted has assessed for the effective use of the primary school PE and sport premium.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the right hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many additional school places have been created in (a) North Swindon constituency and (b) Swindon Borough Council in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects information from each local authority on the number of school places through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP). The Department does not collect school capacity information at parliamentary constituency level.
Data relating to the position at May 2017 (for the 2016/17 academic year) is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-academic-year-2016-to-2017.
Since 2010 an additional 5,929 school places have been created in the Swindon local authority area. The year on year increase is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of students who have graduated with a degree in video game art and animation in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK Higher Education Institutions. The Latest statistics refer to the academic year 2016/17.
The table attached shows the numbers of first degree qualifiers in computer game design and graphics subjects.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of students studying for a degree in video games.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The UK’s video games sector plays a vital role in the country’s thriving creative industries. The last budget included a commitment to extend our support for the UK Games Fund until 2020, a proven approach to mentoring and developing the games developers of the future.
In addition, the Department for Education is undertaking a range of initiatives to promote digital and computing skills, relevant to the computer games industry, more generally throughout the education system.
We are investing £84 million of new funding over the next five years to deliver a comprehensive programme to improve the teaching of the computing curriculum and increase participation in Computer Science GCSE.
We are also seeking to strengthen the role that Higher Education providers can play in providing digital and computing skills, including:
All of the above will help ensure that students who wish to pursue a degree in video game subjects have the necessary skills to do so and will help to continue the upward trend in numbers of students studying degrees in this area.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of students who have graduated with a degree in video games in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Higher Education Statistics Agency collects and publishes statistics on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Latest statistics refer to the academic year 2016/17.
The table below shows the numbers of first degree qualifiers in computer games subjects for each year since 2012/13. Information on the number of qualifiers in these subjects has been available since the introduction of the third version of Joint Academic Coding System (JACS3) in 2012/13, hence figures cannot be provided for any year prior to that.
Full-person-equivalent[1] First Degree qualifiers in computer games subjects
UK HEIs
Academic years 2012/13 to 2016/17
Academic Year | Number of qualifiers in computer games subjects[2] |
2012/13 | 595 |
2013/14 | 625 |
2014/15 | 690 |
2015/16 | 900 |
2016/17 | 1,290 |
[1] Counts are on the basis of full-person-equivalents. Where a student is studying more than one subject, they are apportioned between the subjects that make up their course.
[2] Qualifiers in Games (principal category I6 of the JACS), which includes Games, Computer games programming, Computer game design and Computer games graphics. This code is only available since the introduction of JACS3 in 2012/13. More information on JACS codes can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of teachers specialising in physical education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The latest available information shows that, as at November 2016, there were 23,500 teachers of physical education in state funded secondary schools. Of these 88.5% had a relevant post A level qualification. Equivalent information is not available for primary schools.
The source of this information is the School Workforce Census which is an annual survey collected in November each year. The information above is published in Table 12 of the statistical release, School Workforce in England, which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2016.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to provide guidance on how the sport premium can be used in schools.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department published revised guidance for schools on the use of the physical education and sport premium in October 2017. This revised guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools.