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  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the capacity of existing multi-academy trusts to absorb the remaining community schools in (a) England and (b) Yorkshire.

    Edward Timpson

    Existing schools are choosing to join or form a multi-academy trust (MAT); in 2014/15 over 90% joined or formed a multi-academy trust with one or more other schools. They are doing this because forming these MAT partnerships creates capacity in the system allowing schools to pool resources, share best practice, and benefit from strong leadership.

    We are committing over £500M to build capacity and convert schools over the next four years – including recruiting excellent sponsors and encouraging the development of strong multi-academy trusts.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 1.89 of Budget 2016, how much of the £20 million a year of new funding for a Northern Powerhouse school strategy she expects will be directly received by schools in Lancashire.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence. We intend to build on the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, as identified in our recent White Paper.

    Decisions on allocation of funding for the 16-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller.

    We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s report in due course.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 1.89 of the Budget 2016, when she expects Sir Nick Weller’s report into transforming education across the Northern Powerhouse to be published.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence. We intend to build on the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, as identified in our recent White Paper.

    Decisions on allocation of funding for the 16-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller.

    We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s report in due course.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will make it its policy to allocate revenue raised from the soft drinks industry levy to maintain the grant for summer schools.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Government has no plans to use the soft drink levy to maintain the grant for pupil premium summer schools. The 2016 budget statement identified that the soft drinks industry levy would be used to double the amount of funding to £320m per annum that we dedicate to sport in every primary school and to make it easier for up to a quarter of secondary schools to extend their school day to include a wider range of activities, including extra sport.

    The Government has protected the pupil premium at current per pupil rates for the rest of the Parliament, providing schools with around £2.5 billion per year of additional funding to support their disadvantaged pupils. Schools have the choice to continue running summer schools and can use their pupil premium allocation to fund places for their disadvantaged pupils.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many graduate teachers in each subject area were recruited in each year since 2010.

    Nick Gibb

    The information requested is available in Table 1c of the Main tables: SFR46/2015 spreadsheet available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/initial-teacher-training-trainee-number-census-2015-to-2016

    This table includes the number of postgraduates recruited to Initial Teacher Training in each subject from the academic years 2011/12 to 2015/16. The Department does not hold data for the academic year 2010/11.

    “

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 1.37 of her Department’s White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, published in March 2016, when she plans to convene leading headteachers and other experts to design the new voluntary National Professional Qualifications for leadership roles.

    Nick Gibb

    To develop a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications, which better prepare new leaders for the full range of leadership roles, the Department for Education anticipates convening a group of leading experts, including school leaders, in the coming months.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers there were in (a) state and religious schools, (b) academies and (c) free schools in Burnley in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

    Nick Gibb

    The following table provides the head count and full-time equivalent (FTE) number of teachers in (a) Local Authority maintained schools and (b) free schools in Burnley in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, and (v) 2014. There were no academy schools open in Burnley during 2010 to 2014. 2015 data will be available in June 2016.

    LA Maintained[1]

    Free Schools[1]

    Head Count

    FTE

    Head Count

    FTE

    2010

    919

    824.7

    0

    0.0

    2011

    881

    801.1

    0

    0.0

    2012

    875

    806.0

    0

    0.0

    2013

    885

    810.0

    10

    9.3

    2014

    873

    806.5

    21

    19.3

    Source: School Workforce Census

    [1] Includes faith and non-denominational schools.

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  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of places available in local authority maintained nurseries in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare and early education places, and make this report available and accessible to parents. The Department does not hold borough-level estimates centrally of the number of places in local authority maintained nursery schools. However, the number of pupils attending local authority maintained nurseries can be found in the statistical first release and underlying data published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015

    The Local authority and regional tables: SFR16/2015 (Table 7b)[1] indicates that 90 pupils were registered as attending local authority maintained nursery schools in Kent in 2015.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445755/SFR16_2015_LA_tables.xlsx

    “

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to increase the numbers of primary and secondary school places in Dartford.

    Edward Timpson

    Supporting local authorities to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which along with our investment in the free schools programme we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

    Kent County Council, which is responsible for school places in Dartford, received £115 million in basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, helping to create nearly 17,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. Of these, around 8,700 were primary places and around 8,200 were secondary. Kent has also been allocated £144 million to create the additional places required by September 2019.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) take action against unregistered schools.

    Edward Timpson

    We have been working closely with Ofsted and local authorities to identify unregistered schools, and the Chief Inspector has powers to make unannounced visits to any institution that he suspects is operating unlawfully as an independent school. We have also given Ofsted additional resources so that they can go out to locate and investigate unregistered schools and draw up a programme for inspecting them to collect evidence to support prosecutions.

    Institutions that are suspected of operating as unregistered schools receive a very clear warning from the Department that it is a criminal offence and that they must cease operating immediately.

    To raise awareness, we have published two statements setting how we regulate and intervene in independent schools and details of when we will take legal action against unregistered schools.

    The statements were announced by the Secretary of State on 19 January 2016, as part of a package to protect children from extremism. The announcement, the press release and the statements are available on GOV.UK at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-about-tackling-extremism;

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-drive-to-protect-children-from-spell-of-twisted-ideologies; and

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulating-independent-schools

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