Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on her plans to abolish SATs at Key Stage 1; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In March, we published a consultation document, ‘Primary Assessment in England’, which set out a number of proposals to improve the primary assessment system. One of those proposals was that a new assessment should be introduced in the reception year, to provide a new baseline for measuring the progress that pupils make at primary school. One of the potential benefits of introducing such an assessment would be that schools could receive greater credit for the education that they provide during reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
We made it clear that, once this new baseline assessment had become established, and its data available to calculate progress measures for pupils reaching the end of Key Stage 2, we would no longer require data from statutory assessments currently administered at the end of Key Stage 1.
We sought views on whether those Key Stage 1 assessments should be made non-statutory.
The consultation exercise closed on 22 June, and we will be publishing our response in due course. The consultation document is available to read at:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/primary-assessment-in-england.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to publish school leaders' remuneration on school websites; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are autonomous institutions, run by the head teacher, under the control of the governing body which has responsibility for staffing matters within the school. Therefore, publishing school leaders’ remuneration on school websites is a matter for individual schools.
The current School Workforce Statistical First Release (published by the Department on 22 June), however, gives the numbers of teachers, including leadership teachers and heads, who fall into salary bands and the average salary. The publication can be found here.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will (a) introduce legislation and (b) issue guidance requiring schools to publish details of their annual budgets on their websites.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes the schools block allocations for individual maintained schools and academies in November each year. Details of the allocations for 2016 to 2017 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2016-to-2017.
Information on income and expenditure in local authority maintained schools (for financial years of April to March) is published in December each year and can be found on the school performance website at: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data.
Information on income and expenditure in academy schools (for academic/financial years of September to August) is published in July each year and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-local-authority-school-finance-data.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to increase transparency in school budgets for parents; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes information annually on income and expenditure for maintained schools and academies.
Data on income and expenditure for academies is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-and-expenditure-in-academies-in-england-2014-to-2015
Data on income and expenditure for maintained schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2015-to-2016-financial-year.
We know that the way funding is distributed to schools in England is currently unfair and opaque. That is why we recently consulted on a national funding formula for schools, and why we will deliver on our commitment to make funding fairer and more transparent.
We received over 25,000 responses to the consultation, which we are analysing in detail. We are grateful to all those who expressed their views on school funding and the proposed formula as part of this process. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils have been suspended from school for having committed domestic assaults in each year since 2012; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not hold information on exclusions linked with domestic assault.
The latest available data on exclusions, including reasons for exclusions, was published in the Statistical First Release ‘Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions from Schools in England 2013/14’ on 30 July 2015 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2013-to-2014
Any violence in school is unacceptable. We encourage all schools to take reasonable and proportionate measures to ensure security. The government has also introduced a range of powers for teachers to ensure discipline, behaviour and safety are maintained. We have introduced new search powers, no-notice detentions, and have ensured that the final decision on whether to reinstate permanently excluded pupils rests with schools.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to (a) regulate freelance tutors and (b) ensure that such tutors have an enhanced DBS check in order to safeguard children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
It is the responsibility of any school or parent to assure themselves that they are entirely satisfied as to the suitability of any freelance tutor they might choose to employ before they engage them. Private tutors have several options open to them to enable them to obtain appropriate checks in order to provide employers with the assurances they might need. For example, employment agencies are required to process DBS checks for all tutors working with children.
It is of course a serious criminal offence to seek to work with children in regulated activity after having been barred from doing so.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to (a) regulate freelance sports coaches (b) ensure that such coaches have an enhanced DBS check in order to safeguard children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
It is the responsibility of a parent to assure themselves that they are entirely satisfied as to the suitability of any freelance coach they might choose to employ before they engage them. Private tutors and coaches have several options open to them to enable them to obtain appropriate checks in order to provide employers with the assurances they might need. For example, employment agencies are required to process DBS checks for all tutors working with children
It is of course a serious criminal offence to seek to work with children in regulated activity after having been barred from doing so.