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1138407

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the provision of free school meals to all infant school aged children does not adversely affect (a) the allocation of and (b) level of registration for pupil premium funding.
tabling member constituency	Ipswich
tabling member printed	Sandy Martin
uin	276288
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>We are determined to give every child, regardless of their background, the very best start in life. Free school meals are key to this and we want all parents whose children are entitled to them to apply for them. The continuing provision of free school meals to children from out of work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.</p><p>To support this, we provide an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. We have developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals. We also provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals.</p><p>We understand there are some concerns that schools could be missing out on valuable pupil premium funding due to under registration for free school meals. However, school census data shows that the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals has not adversely affected infant registration rates.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 16/07/2019 16:28:30 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
tabling member	4678 label Biography information for Sandy Martin

1138416

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Uniforms
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of school uniforms being gender neutral.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	276261
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The Government wants children to be able to attend a school of their parents’ choice wherever possible. No school uniform should leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice.</p><p>The Department publishes guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act. This includes a duty on schools not to discriminate unlawfully due to the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. As part of the government’s LGBT Action Plan, the Department has committed to updating this guidance and this will be published in due course. The LGBT Action Plan also contains a commitment that Government Equalities Office will work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish comprehensive guidance for schools on how to support transgender pupils. The Equality Act guidance is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools</a>.</p><p>The Department already publishes guidance for schools on setting school uniform policies. The guidance sets out that a school should ensure that its school uniform policy is fair and reasonable for all its students and that policies should be flexible enough to accommodate the different needs of pupils.</p><p>In making decisions about its school uniform policy, and all other school policies, a school must have regard to its obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. The school uniform guidance is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform</a>.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 16/07/2019 16:53:37 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss

1138446

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Relationships and Sex Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who has responsibility for developing resources to teach pupils about HIV within Relationships and Sex Education.
tabling member constituency	Ilford North
tabling member printed	Wes Streeting
uin	276243
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>From September 2020, the Department expects schools to teach the new content in the relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance. The statutory guidance is clear that at the secondary level, RSE includes teaching about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDs. Teaching should also include HIV prevention and the importance of testing, as well as how and where to access advice and treatment.</p><p> </p><p>Schools are free to decide which resources to use and the Department entrusts headteachers with responsibility for making those decisions. The guidance is clear that schools should draw on medically accurate information and set this in the broader context of the subjects.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is committed to supporting schools to teach the new subjects to a high standard. The Department will continue to work with subject experts to ensure that schools are supported in improving their practice, focusing on an implementation guide, support for training needs and materials.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has announced a budget of £6 million in the 2019-20 financial year to develop this programme of support for schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 276244 question first answered 16/07/2019 16:41:32 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4504 label Biography information for Wes Streeting

1138447

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Relationships and Sex Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which providers are creating resources to teach pupils about Sexually Transmitted Infections in Relationships and Sex Education.
tabling member constituency	Ilford North
tabling member printed	Wes Streeting
uin	276244
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>From September 2020, the Department expects schools to teach the new content in the relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance. The statutory guidance is clear that at the secondary level, RSE includes teaching about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDs. Teaching should also include HIV prevention and the importance of testing, as well as how and where to access advice and treatment.</p><p> </p><p>Schools are free to decide which resources to use and the Department entrusts headteachers with responsibility for making those decisions. The guidance is clear that schools should draw on medically accurate information and set this in the broader context of the subjects.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is committed to supporting schools to teach the new subjects to a high standard. The Department will continue to work with subject experts to ensure that schools are supported in improving their practice, focusing on an implementation guide, support for training needs and materials.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has announced a budget of £6 million in the 2019-20 financial year to develop this programme of support for schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 276243 question first answered 16/07/2019 16:41:32 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4504 label Biography information for Wes Streeting

1138467

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Literacy: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the National Literacy Trust's report Children, young people and digital reading, published by the on 30 April 2019, on the literacy benefits of children reading both digital and print formats.
tabling member constituency	Hove
tabling member printed	Peter Kyle
uin	276252
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department welcomes the National Literacy Trust’s research on reading in both print and digital forms.</p><p>The Department wants children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, whatever the format. Research suggests that reading for pleasure is more important for children’s educational development than their parents’ level of education.</p><p>There is sound evidence that systematic synthetic phonics is a highly effective method of teaching reading to children. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, there were 163,000 more 6-year-olds on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.</p><p>Building on the success of our phonics partnerships and phonics roadshows programmes, in 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. Hub schools are taking a leading role in improving the teaching of early reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The Department has appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 16/07/2019 16:46:41 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4505 label Biography information for Peter Kyle

1138520

registered interest
date	11/07/2019
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Holiday Activities and Food Programme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to launch a Holiday Activities and Food Programme for 2020.
tabling member constituency	South Shields
tabling member printed	Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck
uin	276205
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/07/2019 answer text <p>In January 2018, we announced a programme to ensure that disadvantaged young people could access healthy food and enriching activities during the school holidays. We awarded £2 million to 7 organisations, working in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the country, for the 2018 summer holidays.</p><p>We more than quadrupled this funding to £9 million for 2019. During the summer holidays, in 11 areas across the country, we will explore how the local coordination of the provision nutritious food and enriching and healthy activities can help more disadvantaged pupils to access free high quality holiday club provision during the school holidays.</p><p>The purpose of this programme is to allow us to gather more evidence about the scale of the issue, the most effective ways of tackling it and the costs and burdens associated with doing so. As a result, we will be able to make an evidence-based decision about whether and how we should intervene in the longer term.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 16/07/2019 16:37:35 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
tabling member	4277 label Biography information for Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck