Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the introduction of a GCSE in the Cornish language; and whether she has held discussions with qualification bodies on the viability and timeline for approving such a qualification.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE in England are taken by four independent awarding organisations: AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel and WJEC. These organisations have the freedom to create a Cornish GCSE based on subject content set by the department. This decision would be informed by several factors, including the level of demand from schools, and the proportion of the UK population who speak the language.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department will use to identify and select areas for participation in the Mission Coastal programme; and whether these criteria will be published as part of the programme’s rollout.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is currently considering our approach to identifying possible areas for Mission Coastal and will announce further details in due course. Our ambition is that both Mission North East and Mission Coastal will transform outcomes in areas where disadvantage is entrenched and drive change nationwide.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider including Cornwall within the Mission Coastal programme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is currently considering our approach to identifying possible areas for Mission Coastal and will announce further details in due course. Our ambition is that both Mission North East and Mission Coastal will transform outcomes in areas where disadvantage is entrenched and drive change nationwide.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on the application submitted by Pennoweth Primary School to join the free breakfast clubs programme from April 2026; and when the school will be informed of its status on the waitlist.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
On 17 March 2026, Pennoweth Primary School, along with all schools currently on the free breakfast clubs programme waitlist, received a notification from the department to invite them to join the free breakfast clubs programme and deliver from September 2026.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of capacity considerations in class sizes for Key Stage 1 and 2 in schools with high levels of SEND; and whether she will consider a needs‑weighted pupil cap to reflect the additional time and support required.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 limits the size of an infant class to 30 pupils per teacher. An infant class is one in which the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year, i.e. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Through the reforms outlined in the Schools White Paper, we will ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) get the right support at every stage of their education.
We are also committed to supporting local areas to create high-quality places that are suitable to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, by investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/26 and 2029/30. This is to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND, or who require alternative provision, across early years settings, schools, and colleges.
As well as this, we are providing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and Integrated Care Boards, to work together to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. This is designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings by providing access to professionals such as educational psychologists and speech and language or occupational therapists, providing earlier intervention and support for young people.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the proposed peer‑mentoring pathway for adoptive and special guardianship families will involve; whether trained adopters participating in this programme will be remunerated for their work; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that emotional labour undertaken by adopters is appropriately recognised.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The ‘Adoption support that works for all’ consultation proposes strengthening peer and community support for adoptive and special guardianship families, including developing models where experienced adopters and kinship carers share practical strategies, build resilience, and help families navigate services. The design of these proposals will be based on feedback received through the consultation and will be developed in collaboration with those with direct experience.
Proposals within the consultation explicitly aim to strengthen early support, expand peer and community networks, and ensure support services are better aligned with families’ needs and experiences, as part of creating a more sustainable and responsive system of adoption and kinship support.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the continued need for individual, trauma‑informed 1‑to‑1 therapeutic support for adoptive and special guardianship families; whether the national transition programme will continue to fund such support; and how the Department plans to ensure that families with complex relational needs retain access to bespoke therapeutic interventions alongside any new universal or group‑based offers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Through the ‘Adoption Support That Works for All’ consultation, launched on 10 February 2026, the department is seeking views on the future mix of support for adoptive and special guardianship families, including the ongoing role of specialist therapeutic interventions. Responses to the consultation will inform our assessment of future provision.
The consultation features a call for evidence, asking respondents to tell us what works for those children who need additional support. We want to build the evidence base on what works for adopted children and their families, to ensure we are making the biggest difference possible. Decisions on these issues will be determined following the analysis of consultation responses.
The department recognises that many adoptive families require more intensive therapeutic support. That is why we have extended the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund and increased funding by 10% to increase access.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has access to real time data on attendance and exclusions at academies.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Improving attendance and tackling school exclusion early is central to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. High-quality, timely data enables early identification of need and delivery of a support-first approach.
Thanks to our world-leading data collection, the department has access to near real-time attendance data for schools, including academies. For each morning and afternoon session, schools must record the relevant attendance and absence code for each pupil. This includes Code E, which is used when a pupil is absent due to suspension or permanent exclusion. Code E is recorded as absence but not classified as unauthorised absence.
Using this attendance data, key actors can take a curious approach to identify patterns in pupil movement that could suggest off-rolling or other concerning practices, including off-site direction and managed moves, and will follow up on a targeted basis with responsible bodies to understand and challenge where there are possible concerns.
Formal data on suspension and permanent exclusion is also collected through the termly school census, which is published two terms in arrears.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether additional support will be made available to schools to help meet staffing costs as a result of the launch of the new free breakfast club programme in April 2026.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is committed to its pledge to provide a free breakfast club in every state funded school with primary-aged children and the department has successfully delivered 7 million meals so far through our 750 early adopter schools.
Having listened to schools and taken onboard feedback from the early adopter phase, we have increased the mainstream funding rate from April to help schools in areas including staffing.
Schools have the discretion to identify the most appropriate workforce to deliver free breakfast clubs, depending on their school’s context, existing staff contracts and arrangements and the mix of skills and experience required.
Free breakfast clubs can be led by various individuals, including teaching assistants, school catering staff, private, voluntary or independent providers, or others specifically hired to deliver the role.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what hardship protections are available to student loan borrowers experiencing financial pressure, and what assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of the absence of interest freezes or repayment relief during such periods.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The student finance system is designed to function differently to a commercial loan. Borrowers are protected if they see a reduction in their income for any reason. Weekly or monthly student loan repayment amounts are based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant student loan repayment threshold. Any outstanding debt, including interest built up, is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.