Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Oral Statement of the Minister of State for Schools of 19 May 2016, on term-time holidays, what progress the Government has made on improving levels of school attendance.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The High Court oral judgment represents a significant threat to one of the Government’s most important achievements in education over the last six years, improving school attendance.
There is abundant academic research which shows that time spent in school is one of the single strongest determinants of a pupil’s academic success. The most recent was published by the Department on 24 March, and shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a child’s attainment at the end of key stage 2 and key stage 4. This is unfair on children and potentially damaging to their life chances.
That is why we have unashamedly pursued a zero tolerance policy on unauthorised absence. We have increased the penalty notices issued to parents for pupils with unauthorised absence, shortened the time it takes to pay a notice from 42 day to 21 days, placed a greater emphasis on school attendance levels in inspection outcomes. We have also tightened the regulations in relation to term time holidays, so that headteachers should only grant such leave in exceptional circumstances. These measures have been very successful.
The number of persistent absentees in England’s schools has dropped by over 40% from 433,000 in 2009/10 to 246,000 in 2014/15. Some 6 million fewer days were lost due to authorised absences in the first five half terms in 2014/15 compared to the equivalent period in 2012/13 - a drop from a total of 47.9 million days missed to 41.8 million days missed. Overall absence rates have followed a significant downward trend: from 6.5% in the academic year ending in 2007 to 4.6% in the academic year ending in 2015. In 2012/13, 7.0% of all absences were accounted for by authorised term time holiday. This figure dropped to 2.6% of all absences in 2013/14 and 1.6% of all absences in 2014/15.
This means that pupils are spending many more hours in school being taught the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. If we are going to address entrenched academic underachievement, continuing to improve school attendance will play a central role in achieving such an ambition.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much notice her Department gave schools of the changes to primary school SATs tests in 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The new primary national curriculum was published in final form in July 2013. It came into force in September 2014. The new national curriculum tests at Key Stages 1 and 2 were first announced in March 2014. Since then schools have been provided with further information to help them adapt to the assessment arrangements. In addition to sample questions published in summer 2014, complete sample tests were published in summer 2015.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on taking account of the effect on demand for school places of immigration (a) in general and (b) from nationals from other EEA countries.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided for PQs 33106 and 33107 on 18 April 2016.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research her Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned on the effect of immigration on demand for school places; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided for PQs 33106 and 33107 on 18 April 2016.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received from (a) local authorities and (b) other bodies on pressures on school places due to immigration from (i) EU and (ii) non-EU countries.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided for PQs 33106 and 33107 on 18 April 2016.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the average cost to the public purse of an additional (a) school place and (b) classroom in each of the next three years.
Answered by Edward Timpson
New school places and classrooms are delivered through a variety of programmes across England. The Department does not centrally collect data on the cost of building primary or secondary schools across all local authorities. The cost of building new places and classrooms varies significantly depending on local factors including: the size of the project; forecasts of construction inflation; and regional variations in the cost of construction. All of these are subject to change over time.
Local authorities report the cost per place of providing new school places through the annual School Capacity data collection. For primary schools this data has been used to produce basic need scorecards. The scorecards detail the cost per place, including for new schools, for each local authority. The latest published scorecards are for the academic year 2013/14 and can be accessed on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-school-places-local-authority-basic-need-scorecards-2014.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received from local authorities on the effect on school places of immigration from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided for PQs 33106 and 33107 on 18 April 2016.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will place in the Library copies of all letters, leaflets and other material from her Department circulated to (a) stakeholders and (b) members of the public on the EU Referendum; what the costs of the production and distribution of that material has been since 1 January 2016; and what she estimates the cost of any further production and distribution of such material will be between 6 May 2016 and 23 June 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 8 June 2016 to Question 38811.
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National pupil projections statistics release, published on 22 July 2015, if she will publish updated pupil projection data prior to 23 June 2016.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national pupil projections are only produced for the whole of England and do not break down projected pupil numbers by local education authority or region. They are derived from the 2012-based national population projections for England produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[1] who used assumptions which were considered to best reflect demographic patterns at that time.
The ONS uses assumptions on the levels of future fertility, net migration and life expectancy in the production of their population projections. They use central assumptions for the principal projections and alternative high and low assumptions to produce variant projections.
New national pupil projections, based on the ONS’s mid-2014 national population projections[2], are scheduled to be published on 14 July 2016. The timing and content of National Statistics releases are a matter for the Head of Profession for statistics. The month of publication was pre-announced in 2015 and the specific date of publication was pre-announced on 26 February 2016.
[1] Mid-2012 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2013-11-06
[2] Mid-2014 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2015-10-29
Asked by: William Wragg (Independent - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National pupil projections statistics release, published on 22 July 2015, if she will publish the (a) assumptions and (b) estimated total migration figures that were used in the calculation of the (i) migrant component of the principal population projection and (ii) high migrant variant in Table 3a of that data release.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national pupil projections are only produced for the whole of England and do not break down projected pupil numbers by local education authority or region. They are derived from the 2012-based national population projections for England produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[1] who used assumptions which were considered to best reflect demographic patterns at that time.
The ONS uses assumptions on the levels of future fertility, net migration and life expectancy in the production of their population projections. They use central assumptions for the principal projections and alternative high and low assumptions to produce variant projections.
New national pupil projections, based on the ONS’s mid-2014 national population projections[2], are scheduled to be published on 14 July 2016. The timing and content of National Statistics releases are a matter for the Head of Profession for statistics. The month of publication was pre-announced in 2015 and the specific date of publication was pre-announced on 26 February 2016.
[1] Mid-2012 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2013-11-06
[2] Mid-2014 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2015-10-29