Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of families who are in work but unable to access the 30-hour early education entitlement for three and four year-olds.
Answered by Will Quince
All three and four-year-olds are eligible for 15 hours of free early education, regardless of parental income or working status.
Families are entitled to 30 hours free childcare if the sole parent in a single parent family, or both parents in a two-parent household, are working at least 16 hours a week at national minimum wage or living wage, but earns under £100,000 per year. Approximately 72% of eligible families were registered to take up a 30 hours free childcare place in January 2021.
The number of children eligible for 30 hours changes each year due to changing cohort size and parental employment changes. An estimated 460,000 children may have been eligible in January 2021, although this estimate does not account for the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on parental employment.
In 2019, the childcare and early years survey of parents found that of those not taking up the 30 hour entitlement offer, 52% gave reasons relating to eligibility, such as being unable to meet the income thresholds by either working too little or earning above £100,000 per year. The remaining 48% gave reasons unrelated to eligibility, mostly relating to not requiring the free childcare. However, 7% of parents surveyed said their provider did not offer the 30 hours of free childcare. Further statistics from the survey can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2019.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Workforce Development Fund will be extended to (a) maintained nurseries and (b) early year settings.
Answered by Will Quince
The Workforce Development Fund is funding from the Department of Health and Social Care to support the continuing professional development (CPD) of staff across the adult social care sector. There are no plans to extend it to maintained nursery schools or early years settings.
Separately, the Department for Education is investing up to £180 million to build a stronger, more expert workforce in the early years sector, where we know that the COVID-19 outbreak has exacerbated the outcomes gap and set back children’s learning and development, particularly in language and maths, hitting those from disadvantaged backgrounds the hardest. This funding comprises the Early Years Education Recovery Programme, the Nuffield Early Language Programme and a further investment in the Professional Development Programme.
These initiatives complement our reforms to the Early Years Foundation Stage to accelerate and embed real change for young children, which is more important than ever in light of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. This recovery package aims to target disadvantaged areas and will largely be available to maintained nursery schools and childminders.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to consult teachers and schools before further changes are made to the school year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises the COVID-19 outbreak and associated education restrictions have had an impact on children and young people’s education.
The Government has appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to oversee the long-term plan. Sir Kevan will engage with parents, pupils and teachers to develop this proposal and review how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on education. We are considering all options to address lost education to ensure the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is addressed as comprehensively as possible.
Term dates for the current and next academic year have already been set and published by local authorities, governing bodies, and academy trusts, but schools are free to offer summer activities to pupils should they so wish. We are making £200 million available to secondary schools to fund a short summer school, offering a blend of academic teaching and enrichment activities. We are recommending a focus on incoming Year 7 pupils, but schools are free to target those most in need of support.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to shorten the school summer 2021 holidays to help students to catch up on learning missed as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government recognises the COVID-19 outbreak and associated education restrictions have had an impact on children and young people’s education.
The Government has appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to oversee the long-term plan. Sir Kevan will engage with parents, pupils and teachers to develop this proposal and review how evidence-based interventions can be used to address the impact the COVID-19 outbreak has had on education. We are considering all options to address lost education to ensure the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is addressed as comprehensively as possible.
Term dates for the current and next academic year have already been set and published by local authorities, governing bodies, and academy trusts, but schools are free to offer summer activities to pupils should they so wish. We are making £200 million available to secondary schools to fund a short summer school, offering a blend of academic teaching and enrichment activities. We are recommending a focus on incoming Year 7 pupils, but schools are free to target those most in need of support.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the guidance on teacher assessments has been made available to teachers of A-Levels and GCSEs.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In light of the increase in COVID-19 rates, the Government has made the decision to limit attendance at schools and colleges to reduce the number of contacts between households. As a result, examinations will not go ahead in the summer as planned.
The Department and Ofqual have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives. The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January 2021. We strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including students and their parents, to respond.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has confirmed he wishes teachers to assess the standard at which pupils are performing and thus the grade they should receive. The consultation proposes that teachers will be supported in doing so through training, guidance, and papers to inform assessments. Guidance materials will be made available after the consultation has closed and the detail of the approach is agreed. The consultation also proposes and seeks views on approaches to assessment which will allow teachers to assess pupils’ performance on content they have had an opportunity to study, despite the disruption, whilst continuing to ensure they have sufficient breadth of knowledge to enable them to successfully progress.
The Department recognises the challenges faced by schools, teachers, and pupils, and knows that disruption has been felt differently across the country and between schools and colleges in the same area, and between pupils within individual institutions. In order to support schools to make up for lost learning, the Government has provided a £1 billion catch-up programme. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for all schools in recognition of the fact that all pupils will have been impacted by disruption to their education. Additionally, the £350 million National Tutoring Programme is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted tuition support for disadvantaged pupils who need the most help to catch up.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the teacher assessments due to take place in summer 2021 will take into account the effect on students of education missed during 2020 as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In light of the increase in COVID-19 rates, the Government has made the decision to limit attendance at schools and colleges to reduce the number of contacts between households. As a result, examinations will not go ahead in the summer as planned.
The Department and Ofqual have launched a two week consultation on how to fairly award all pupils a grade that supports them to progress to the next stage of their lives. The consultation can be accessed from the Ofqual website and will be open until 29 January 2021. We strongly encourage all our stakeholders, including students and their parents, to respond.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has confirmed he wishes teachers to assess the standard at which pupils are performing and thus the grade they should receive. The consultation proposes that teachers will be supported in doing so through training, guidance, and papers to inform assessments. Guidance materials will be made available after the consultation has closed and the detail of the approach is agreed. The consultation also proposes and seeks views on approaches to assessment which will allow teachers to assess pupils’ performance on content they have had an opportunity to study, despite the disruption, whilst continuing to ensure they have sufficient breadth of knowledge to enable them to successfully progress.
The Department recognises the challenges faced by schools, teachers, and pupils, and knows that disruption has been felt differently across the country and between schools and colleges in the same area, and between pupils within individual institutions. In order to support schools to make up for lost learning, the Government has provided a £1 billion catch-up programme. This includes a £650 million catch-up premium for all schools in recognition of the fact that all pupils will have been impacted by disruption to their education. Additionally, the £350 million National Tutoring Programme is an ambitious scheme that will provide additional, targeted tuition support for disadvantaged pupils who need the most help to catch up.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to update Public Health England guidance in response to the new covid-19 variant; and when that guidance will be available to schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All evidence suggests that the new variant of concern is more transmissible than previous cases and is now the dominant strain across the country.
However, the data suggests that this effect is broadly uniform across age groups. The new variant does not appear disproportionately more transmissible among children than adults, nor is there any evidence that the new variant is more transmissible in schools than elsewhere in society.
Previous Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice has been clear that the measures that reduced transmission of the older variant all continue to apply for the new variant, including those in schools. Those measures are now all the more important.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the recommended maximum class-room size is for (a) primary and (b) secondary schools during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
During this period of national lockdown, schools should only allow vulnerable children and the children of critical workers to attend face-to-face education. Every school will have a different number of children who need to attend. It is important that on site provision is provided for these pupils, there is no limit to the numbers of these pupils who may attend, and schools should not limit attendance of these groups. This is because we are reducing overall social contact across areas and the country rather than individually by each institution.
On 7 January, the Department published further guidance which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021. This includes the system of controls which schools must continue adopt to the fullest extent possible to reduce risks in their school and create an inherently safer environment. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950510/School_national_restrictions_guidance.pdf.
Schools should continue to minimise contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible. This can be achieved through keeping groups separate and by maintaining the distance between individuals. Whilst schools are attended by vulnerable children and the children of critical workers only, where possible schools should keep group sizes small. Any additional space available where there are lower numbers of pupils attending should be used wherever possible to maximise the distance between pupils and between staff and other people.