Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Schools of 22 October 2015, Official Report, column 457WH, what plans her Department has to consult on a revised Building Bulletin 100.
Answered by Edward Timpson
It has not yet been decided what further review or consultation is necessary on the revised Building Bulletin 100 (Fire Safety in Schools) before publication.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to promote coding as part of the curriculum or otherwise amongst young people.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The new computing curriculum, introduced in September 2014 and compulsory for ages 5-16, has been designed to ensure the study of topics such as computational logic, algorithms and coding.
The government has spent more than £4.5 million over the past three years to support schools in delivering high quality computing teaching. This includes £3 million for Computing At School to build a national network of over 350 ‘Master Teachers’ in computer science whom schools can commission to provide training for their teachers.
In primary school, pupils will be looking at designing, writing and debugging programs. With these skills, pupils can create games or useful tools like a number generator for maths.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the page on the National Crime Agency website entitled, Cyber crime: Preventing young people from getting involved, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on interest in coding and possession of independent learning material on computing being considered possible indicators of risk of involvement in cyber crime.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Secretary of State holds discussions on a range of topics with Cabinet Ministers.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has recently published guidance on preventing young people from becoming involved in cyber-crime: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/crime-threats/cyber-crime/cyber-crime-preventing-young-people-from-getting-involved
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many GCSE exam papers have been sent to other countries to be marked this year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey, to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her reply will be placed in the House of Commons Library.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the reasons for changes in the number of children eligible for free school meals in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The overall proportion of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals has reduced nationally over the last three years from 17.1% in 2013, to 16.3% in 2014, to 15.2% in 2015.
As the economy improves, there are two million more people finding work including parents, which is leading to year on year decreases in the numbers of pupils entitled to this benefit. For example, the rate of people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) has been falling steadily for the last three years, and this is one the key benefits that provides entitlement to FSM.