Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it remains her policy to invest an additional £10 million into maintained nursery school supplementary funding from 2023-24, as set out in the Early Years funding formulae consultation document issued on 4 July 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department recognises that Maintained Nursery Schools make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children, which is why we have announced we will be investing an additional £10 million into Maintained Nursery School supplementary funding from the 2023/24 financial year.
Over the course of summer 2022, the department consulted on proposals to update the early years funding formulae to ensure the funding system remains fair, effective and responsive to changing levels of need across different areas. The department will set out our response in due course.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish a response to the Early Years funding formulae consultation issued on 4 July 2022.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department recognises that Maintained Nursery Schools make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children, which is why we have announced we will be investing an additional £10 million into Maintained Nursery School supplementary funding from the 2023/24 financial year.
Over the course of summer 2022, the department consulted on proposals to update the early years funding formulae to ensure the funding system remains fair, effective and responsive to changing levels of need across different areas. The department will set out our response in due course.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ensure that funding for school sport is at least maintained at current levels.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has confirmed that the £320 million primary PE and sport premium and funding for School Games Organisers, will continue for the 2022/23 academic year. Funding for future years will be confirmed in due course.
The Department is currently carrying out two open competitive processes to identify contractors to operate programmes on opening school facilities beyond normal hours. This will support good quality primary PE, which will be funded with up to £30 million each year.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local authority obligations to provide school places for Ukrainian refugee children arriving under the family reunion route apply in the area where they live or in the area where their sponsoring family member lives.
Answered by Robin Walker
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to all directors of children’s services on 1 April 2022 asking them to assist refugees from Ukraine in finding school places as quickly as possible. The department followed this up with a similar message to every local authority admission officer on 4 April 2022.
Admission authorities in England must always apply their published admission arrangements. There are no exceptions for Ukrainians or children of any other nationality.
Local authorities in England do not have additional school admission obligations in relation to refugees from Ukraine, they have the same right to a school place as any other child resident in the UK. Local authorities in England have a duty to provide sufficient school places for children living in their area. Parents have a duty to ensure any of their children who are of compulsory school age receive a suitable education.
It is not necessary to have a fixed home address in order to be allocated a school and admission authorities would be in breach of their legal obligations if they refused admission on this basis. The school admissions code states that admission arrangements must be clear about how a child’s home address will be determined.
The department provides advice, in Ukrainian and Russian, to parents on finding a school place in the Ukraine welcome pack, similar to the advice we provide Hong Kong British National (Overseas) and Afghan migrants. The department have also recently updated our website giving advice to local authorities and schools on the admission rights of foreign nationals.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local councils have additional obligations regarding school places in respect of Ukrainian refugees, as compared to other children.
Answered by Robin Walker
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to all directors of children’s services on 1 April 2022 asking them to assist refugees from Ukraine in finding school places as quickly as possible. The department followed this up with a similar message to every local authority admission officer on 4 April 2022.
Admission authorities in England must always apply their published admission arrangements. There are no exceptions for Ukrainians or children of any other nationality.
Local authorities in England do not have additional school admission obligations in relation to refugees from Ukraine, they have the same right to a school place as any other child resident in the UK. Local authorities in England have a duty to provide sufficient school places for children living in their area. Parents have a duty to ensure any of their children who are of compulsory school age receive a suitable education.
It is not necessary to have a fixed home address in order to be allocated a school and admission authorities would be in breach of their legal obligations if they refused admission on this basis. The school admissions code states that admission arrangements must be clear about how a child’s home address will be determined.
The department provides advice, in Ukrainian and Russian, to parents on finding a school place in the Ukraine welcome pack, similar to the advice we provide Hong Kong British National (Overseas) and Afghan migrants. The department have also recently updated our website giving advice to local authorities and schools on the admission rights of foreign nationals.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether school applications from Ukrainian refugees will be assessed according to the same criteria as other children.
Answered by Robin Walker
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to all directors of children’s services on 1 April 2022 asking them to assist refugees from Ukraine in finding school places as quickly as possible. The department followed this up with a similar message to every local authority admission officer on 4 April 2022.
Admission authorities in England must always apply their published admission arrangements. There are no exceptions for Ukrainians or children of any other nationality.
Local authorities in England do not have additional school admission obligations in relation to refugees from Ukraine, they have the same right to a school place as any other child resident in the UK. Local authorities in England have a duty to provide sufficient school places for children living in their area. Parents have a duty to ensure any of their children who are of compulsory school age receive a suitable education.
It is not necessary to have a fixed home address in order to be allocated a school and admission authorities would be in breach of their legal obligations if they refused admission on this basis. The school admissions code states that admission arrangements must be clear about how a child’s home address will be determined.
The department provides advice, in Ukrainian and Russian, to parents on finding a school place in the Ukraine welcome pack, similar to the advice we provide Hong Kong British National (Overseas) and Afghan migrants. The department have also recently updated our website giving advice to local authorities and schools on the admission rights of foreign nationals.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether educational settings supporting children with SEND will continue to receive Government assistance with funding covid-19 testing after 1 April 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
Regular testing in all education and childcare providers, including special schools and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision, ended on 31 March. In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, a local Health Protection Team might advise a residential SEND setting to re-introduce some time-limited asymptomatic testing for targeted groups of staff and pupils or students (secondary age or above).
From 1 April 2022, the UK Health and Security Agency has issued updated guidance on health protection in education and childcare settings. The guidance contains practical advice on managing a range of infections and outlines the steps regarding self-isolation for those with a positive COVID-19 test result.
This replaces all guidance previously issued for the children’s social care sector. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-in-schools-and-other-childcare-facilities.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the provision of free covid-19 testing will continue in special education settings after 1 April 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
Regular testing in all education and childcare providers, including special schools and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision, ended on 31 March. In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, a local Health Protection Team might advise a residential SEND setting to re-introduce some time-limited asymptomatic testing for targeted groups of staff and pupils or students (secondary age or above).
From 1 April 2022, the UK Health and Security Agency has issued updated guidance on health protection in education and childcare settings. The guidance contains practical advice on managing a range of infections and outlines the steps regarding self-isolation for those with a positive COVID-19 test result.
This replaces all guidance previously issued for the children’s social care sector. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-in-schools-and-other-childcare-facilities.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the teaching and learning about Israel in UK schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
Schools can teach pupils about Israel as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, including in history and geography. For example, at key stage 3, history encompasses the study of Britain, Europe and the wider world from 1901 to the present day, and must include the Holocaust. At key stage 4, there are GCSE specifications that include Israel, in the context of the study of the Middle East. However, we do not specify how schools should teach the curriculum and we trust teachers to use their professional judgement and understanding of their pupils to develop the right teaching approach for them.
We are aware of unfortunate issues around bias and imbalance in teaching about Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On 28 May 2021, my colleague and the former Secretary of State for Education, wrote to all schools to reiterate that they are subject to legal duties on political impartiality which are relevant to teaching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This intervention was a clear message that this government is committed to upholding the principle of political impartiality in our schools and will act where necessary to do so. The department is also developing further guidance on political impartiality in schools, and we continue to work with the sector and others across government to ensure schools are adequately supported in this area. We hope this guidance will offer clarity to the sector and support teachers to cover sensitive political issues and topics in an appropriate manner.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to require Comer Homes to progress the delivery of the new building for St Andrew the Apostle School in Barnet.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is currently paying rent to the Comer Group of £901,250 per annum, excluding VAT, for the use of buildings and outside space as the temporary accommodation for St Andrew the Apostle School.
There is no contract between the Department and the Comer Group for the construction of the school’s permanent building. The Comer Group is required by the local planning authority to provide a site for a school as part of planning approval for a residential development on their wider site.
The Comer Group has submitted a revised planning application for its proposed development which incorporates the Department’s revised school designs. Subject to the approval of planning, the Department will exchange on the site and progress the construction of the school’s new building.