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Written Question
Teachers: Labour Turnover
Wednesday 23rd September 2020

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of changes in the level of retention of newly qualified teachers since March 2018.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department publishes the retention rates of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) annually in the School workforce in England statistical release, available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

Of the teachers who qualified in 2018, 85.4% are still in service one year after qualification. This retention rate is slightly higher than the previous year when the one year retention rate was 85.1%.

Improving early career teacher retention is one of our priorities. This is why the Department launched the Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside our landmark Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy last year. The ECF will transform the support offered to NQTs by extending the induction period to two years, and will include funding 5% of time away from the classroom for teachers in the second year of teaching so that they can focus on their development. Funding for mentor training and time for them to support their inductees in the second year of induction, as well as training and development resources will also be provided. Early roll out in Bradford, Doncaster, Greater Manchester and the North East began this month and, in response to the disruption to teacher training due to COVID-19, has been expanded by making the high quality training materials available nationally a year early. Full national roll out will take place from September 2021.


Written Question
Free School Meals
Wednesday 2nd October 2019

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the implications for his Department's policies are of the finding by the Children's Commissioner for England in her report, Growing Up North, published in March 2018, that pupils from London who have had free school meals are twice as likely to go to university than equivalent children in the north.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Against a background of rising standards, disadvantaged pupils in schools are catching up with their peers as since 2011, the attainment gap in England has narrowed by 9.5% at age 16 and 13.2% at age 11. Our reforms and the extra funding provided through the pupil premium have contributed to this success.

This year, schools in the North of England are receiving £787 million in additional funding through the pupil premium to improve the outcomes of their disadvantaged pupils. The Department has made available a wide range of resources to help schools make the greatest possible impact with their pupil premium grant.

The Department is investing £72 million in the 12 Opportunity Areas to tackle barriers preventing children and young people from achieving their potential. This is at the heart of our work to learn what works best in areas with entrenched social mobility barriers so we can roll out successful approaches across the country. Five of the areas targeted are in the North of England (Blackpool, Oldham, Bradford, Doncaster, and the North Yorkshire Coast) and in addition we have Opportunity North East. The Department is investing over £70 million to boost educational outcomes in the North, including through the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy.

Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority. Everyone with the ability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background or where they grew up.

The Department has made real progress in ensuring universities are open to all. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to ensure that background isn’t a barrier to realising potential in HE.

In our latest guidance to the Office for Students on access and participation, we asked them to secure greater, faster progress, particularly at the most selective institutions, through Access and Participation Plans. Through these plans, universities set out what activities they intend to take to ensure students from disadvantaged backgrounds or under-represented groups can access, participate, succeed and progress from HE.


Written Question
Pupils: Disadvantaged
Wednesday 2nd October 2019

Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the implications for his Department's policies are of the finding by the Northern Powerhouse Project in its 2018 report, Educating the North, that disadvantaged pupils in the north achieve attainment levels 1.3 percentage points less than the national disadvantaged average and 6.5 percentage points less than their disadvantaged peers in London.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Against a background of rising standards, disadvantaged pupils in schools are catching up with their peers as since 2011, the attainment gap in England has narrowed by 9.5% at age 16 and 13.2% at age 11. Our reforms and the extra funding provided through the pupil premium have contributed to this success.

This year, schools in the North of England are receiving £787 million in additional funding through the pupil premium to improve the outcomes of their disadvantaged pupils. The Department has made available a wide range of resources to help schools make the greatest possible impact with their pupil premium grant.

The Department is investing £72 million in the 12 Opportunity Areas to tackle barriers preventing children and young people from achieving their potential. This is at the heart of our work to learn what works best in areas with entrenched social mobility barriers so we can roll out successful approaches across the country. Five of the areas targeted are in the North of England (Blackpool, Oldham, Bradford, Doncaster, and the North Yorkshire Coast) and in addition we have Opportunity North East. The Department is investing over £70 million to boost educational outcomes in the North, including through the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy.

Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority. Everyone with the ability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background or where they grew up.

The Department has made real progress in ensuring universities are open to all. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to ensure that background isn’t a barrier to realising potential in HE.

In our latest guidance to the Office for Students on access and participation, we asked them to secure greater, faster progress, particularly at the most selective institutions, through Access and Participation Plans. Through these plans, universities set out what activities they intend to take to ensure students from disadvantaged backgrounds or under-represented groups can access, participate, succeed and progress from HE.


Written Question
Higher Education: Doncaster North
Monday 11th June 2018

Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people from the Doncaster North constituency entered higher education institutions in the latest year for which figures are available; and how that figure compares with other constituencies.

Answered by Sam Gyimah

The Higher Education Statistics Agency collects and publishes statistics on students enrolled at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The latest statistics available refer to the 2016/17 academic year and are available at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics.

The table below provides counts of entrants to higher education courses at UK HEIs who were living in the Doncaster North parliamentary constituency prior to commencing their studies.

Entrants to higher education domiciled in Doncaster North constituency prior to their studies, by level of study UK Higher Education Institutions

Academic year 2016/17

Doncaster North parliamentary constituency

Postgraduate (research)

10

Postgraduate (taught)

150

First degree

430

Other undergraduate

60

Total

655

1) Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest multiple of five; figures may not sum to totals.

2) Constituency is derived from the student's postcode prior to study.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service publish data on the proportion of 18 year olds entering full-time undergraduate higher education from each parliamentary constituency. The latest data is contained in Figure 4.8 of their 2017 End of Cycle report: https://www.ucas.com/file/137236/download?token=LtrRkIaK.

For the 2017 application cycle, the entry rate for 18 year olds from Doncaster North constituency to full-time undergraduate study was 21.1%. This compares to an entry rate for England of 33.3%.