Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that universities do not charge tuition fees to students undertaking industry placements in the UK or abroad as part of their studies.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Maximum tuition fees for students undertaking an Erasmus work placement year are 15% of the maximum applicable full-time fees and fee loans for Approved (Fee Cap) providers in 2019/20. Maximum tuition fees for students undertaking a work placement year of a sandwich course in the UK or a work placement year abroad that is not an Erasmus Year are 20% of the maximum applicable full-time fees and fee loans for Approved (Fee Cap) providers in 2019/20.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
What recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of teaching early literacy through phonics.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There is a significant body of evidence that demonstrates that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading. According to the Education Endowment Foundation, phonics approaches have been consistently found to be effective in supporting younger readers to master the basics of reading, with an average impact of an additional 4 months’ progress. Research suggests that phonics is particularly beneficial for younger pupils (4 to 7 year-olds) as they begin to read. Teaching phonics is more effective on average than other approaches to early reading (such as whole language or alphabetic approaches).
The Department is investing £26 million in a national network of English hubs to support local schools in developing their teaching practice, with a focus on systematic phonics. We are also funding 6 Phonics Partnerships and a series of Phonics Roadshows, to spread good practice and improve phonics teaching.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
What assessment he has made of the potential benefits to children of introducing compulsory first aid education in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We know how important it is that pupils are taught the knowledge to be happy, healthy and safe. That is why for the first time, all state-funded schools will be required to teach Health Education, and why the draft statutory guidance, currently out for consultation, includes content on first aid.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to launch the Department's consultation on the starting year for summerborn children.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are concerned that some summer born children may be missing the reception year at school. We remain committed to amending the School Admissions Code so that summer born children can be admitted to a reception class at the age of five when their parents believe it to be in their best interests. Any changes to the Admissions Code will require a full statutory process, including consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. We will consider the appropriate time for consulting on these changes in the context of competing pressures on the parliamentary timetable.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the trends in the level of uptake of (a) creative, (b) artistic and (c) technical subjects at GCSE since June 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not define GCSE subjects as ‘technical’ or ‘creative’.
Provisional information on the proportion of pupils entered for at least one arts GCSE between 2009/10 and 2015/16 is published as part of the ‘Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England’ statistical first release (SFR)[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (Table 1c)
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34465, if her Department will take steps to allow web-users to include honours when completing government online forms.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education works closely with the Government Digital Service (GDS) to ensure the digital products and services delivered are fit for purpose and put the user first. Each of the online forms is developed in accordance with the GDS Service Standard, applying design principles and house style to ensure consistency and a satisfying user experience.
When designing online forms, the only questions asked are those that are relevant and required and eliminate unnecessary steps and fields that are not pertinent to the purpose of the data we are collecting. At present there are no plans to include an honours question as a standard element across all of the online forms but if the data being collected requires this information to be collected then the online form will contain this particular field.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to announce the successful bids for the Condition Improvement Fund for 2016-17.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The deadline for applications to the Condition Improvement Fund 2016-2017 was 16 December. All applications are now being assessed and moderated against the published criteria to ensure that those with the greatest need receive funding
We expect to announce successful projects by the end of March 2016.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on amending the school admissions code to enable summer-born children to be admitted to reception class at the age of five.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Ministers have announced plans to change the admissions system to support the admission of siblings and of summer born children. Ministers are currently considering whether to make any additional changes to the admissions system alongside this.
Any changes will be subject to a full public consultation and parliamentary scrutiny. The details of proposed changes and of the consultation will be announced in due course.