Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Barnsley East constituency, (ii) South Yorkshire and (iii) England had classes of (A) 31 to 35, (B) 36-39, (C) 40 to 49, (D) 50 to 59, (E) 60 to 69 and (F) more than 70 pupils in each of the last five years.
Answered by David Laws
The available information on class sizes is shown in the table attached. To provide a more detailed breakdown of class sizes would incur disproportionate costs.
The latest published data on class sizes can be accessed at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2014
Legislation imposes a limit of 30 pupils per school teacher on infant classes. Regulations permit this limit to be exceeded in certain limited circumstances, for example, to admit the child of UK service personnel, or a looked after or previously looked after child, outside the normal admissions round. There is no statutory limit on class sizes for the junior and secondary phases of education. It is probable that some of the large class sizes reported above relate to times of day such as assembly when children were legitimately in groups of more than 30 and the Department for Education is working with schools and local authorities to better understand this.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres there were in South Yorkshire in (a) May 2010 and (b) September 2014.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Local authorities in the South Yorkshire area listed their children’s centres on the Sure Start children’s centre database as follows.
At 30 April 2010 Main CCs / Additional Sites | At 30 Sept 2014 Main CCs / Additional Sites | |
Barnsley | 19 / 0 | 19 / 0 |
Doncaster | 21 / 0 | 20 / 1 |
Rotherham | 22 / 0 | 22 / 0 |
Sheffield | 36 / 0 | 16 / 20 |
Additional sites are places open to families and children providing Children's Centre services as part of a network. They were formerly children's centres in their own right and, while they no longer meet the statutory definition of a Children’s Centre, they remain open offering access to some of the early childhood services on behalf of another children's centre.
The April 2010 data was published in the statistical release in June 2010.[1]
The number of children’s centres at 30 September 2014 is taken from the ‘Sure Start On’ database that is maintained by local authorities and is Ofsted’s main source of information for arranging inspection of children’s centres.
Statistics on children’s centre numbers were last published by the Department on 30 April and relate to data at 28 February and include the numbers for each local authority.[2]
The data from the ‘Sure Start On’ database informs the Directgov children’s centre finder which enables the public to find their nearest children’s centre using a post code search. [3]
[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/numbers-of-sure-start-childrens-centres-april-2010
[2] www.childrenscentresfinder.direct.gov.uk/snapshot-childrens-centre/
[3] www.childrenscentresfinder.direct.gov.uk/childrenscentresfinder/
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary school and (b) infant school pupils in (i) Barnsley East constituency, (ii) South Yorkshire, (iii) Yorkshire and the Humber and (iv) the UK received free school meals in each of the last five years.
Answered by David Laws
Information on the number of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals in 2014 is published in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2014’ Statistical First Release.[1]
Table 8a shows local authority and regional level information for primary school and nursery school pupils; parliamentary constituency level information and primary and infant school splits are not published. Barnsley East is one of five constituencies within Barnsley local authority. South Yorkshire is made up of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield local authorities. The Department for Education produces statistics on England only. The responsibility for education statistics in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales lies with each devolved administration. Information for 2010 to 2013 can be found in previous versions of this release.[2]
[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2014
[2] www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what meetings (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department, (c) special advisers in his Department and (d) officials in his Department have had with Dominic Cummings in an official capacity in 2014 to date; and if he will publish minutes of each such meeting.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Dominic Cummings worked as a special adviser at the Department until 21 February 2014. In that time he attended a range of official meetings. As was the case under previous Administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on which official visits Dominic Cummings accompanied him in 2014.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Dominic Cummings has not accompanied the Secretary of State on any official visits in 2014.
Asked by: Michael Dugher (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions Dominic Cummings was granted a visitor pass to his Department in 2014.
Answered by Matt Hancock
In line with the practice of successive Administrations, the Government does not comment on security matters.