Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans formally to respond to the consultation on Implementing the English Baccalaureate which closed on 29 January 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We will publish the Government response to the consultation on the implementation of the English Baccalaureate in due course.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to require Ofsted to make regular visits within three months to all schools that have been placed in special measures regardless of whether they have not changed their governance structure.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Secretary of State has a duty to make an academy order for all local authority maintained schools that are judged by Ofsted to be inadequate. If an academy is judged to be inadequate, the Secretary of State has the power to transfer it to a stronger academy trust. In both cases, these academies will generally be inspected as new schools in their third year of operation.
We believe it is right in these cases to allow the new academy trust the opportunity to turnaround what was a previously failing school before it is inspected by Ofsted.
However, Ofsted will inspect schools at any time where information that they hold or receive causes sufficient concern.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students who have not achieved at least a C grade in English and mathematics GCSE will be required to resit those exams as many times as it takes them to achieve that grade.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Departmental funding rules require full time students with prior attainment of a D to work towards achieving a C grade or higher in GCSE English and maths. Students who achieve lower than a D grade at 16 may study other qualifications such as Functional Skills as a ‘stepping stone’ towards GCSE.
For those opting to retake their GCSE(s) or being required to do so due to having previously attained a grade D, there is no requirement for them to repeatedly re-sit the GCSE exam. Schools and colleges have the freedom to determine when a student is ready to re-sit their GCSE. This is because our 16-19 English and maths requirements relates to enrolments rather than exam entries. This provides a school or college the flexibility to determine when best for a student to be entered for and sit an exam. For some students that might be the following November, while other students may require
a year, or two years study and tuition before they are ready to re-sit the exam.
If students resit their GCSE part way through their programme and fail to gain a grade C then they are expected to continue studying for the GCSE.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional resources are being provided for post-16 students who are required to resit English and mathematics GCSEs.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Funding for the study of English and maths, including GCSE resits, is provided through the 16-19 national funding formula. The formula incorporates disadvantage funding for providers including a funding uplift of up to £960 per full time student per year to provide for the additional costs incurred for teaching students who have low prior attainment, as indicated by not achieving English and/or maths GCSEs at grade C or above by the end of year 11 (typically age 16). This additional funding is not intended to solely fund maths and English qualifications, but to fund support for students to achieve their learning goals, including maths and English.
For the past three years the Government has also invested in programmes to support improvements in the teaching of maths and English in Further Education (FE) settings. This year, funding will provide up to 13,000 training opportunities for FE practitioners to improve their subject knowledge and confidence in their teaching of maths or English, fund bursaries for 300 graduates to train to become maths or English teachers in FE settings and further build evidence on evidence of what constitutes effective delivery and teaching of English and maths for students aged 16 to 18 that have not yet achieved level 2 English and maths.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that funding is in place to implement its policy of 30 hours free childcare.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are committed to providing the high-quality, affordable childcare that working families need.
To enable the successful implementation of 30 hours of free childcare, we are investing £1billion of additional funding per year, including £300million per year to increase our national average funding rates.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of schools and sixth form colleges not accepting students who have failed to achieve a C grade in English and mathematics GCSE on availability of places for students who are required to resit those examinations.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Post-16 providers are responsible for setting entry requirements to their post-16 courses, and can specify a C grade or higher in English and mathematics GCSE in entry requirements to level 3 courses such as A levels or Tech Levels. When setting entry requirements for specific courses, schools and sixth form colleges consider the level of English and mathematics a young person will need to possess in order to successfully study the course.
Government funding ensures that there is a place available for every young person at a local provider. If a student would benefit from support to identify a suitable place in post-16 education and training,there will be various sources of advice, including from the local authority.
At the end of 2015 the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in education and work based learning (apprenticeships) was 90.9%, the highest participation figure since consistent records began in 1994.