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1195654

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Nurseries: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons maintained nursery schools are not eligible to claim (a) free school meal vouchers and (b) funding for exceptional costs associated with the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
	tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
	uin	46819
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2020 answer text <p>The government recognises that maintained nursery schools are an important part of the early years sector and provide valuable services, especially in disadvantaged areas.</p><p>We are committed to funding for maintained nursery schools in the longer term. Last October, we announced that maintained nursery schools would continue to receive supplementary funding for the whole of the financial year 2020-21 and this is unchanged by the COVID-19 outbreak, along with their funding for the usual early education entitlements through the dedicated schools grant. At the moment, our resources are focused on tackling the unprecedented challenges created by COVID-19. But resolving the long-term funding of maintained nursery schools is high on our list of priorities and we will return to it as soon as we are able. Any reform to the way maintained nursery schools are funded in the future will be accompanied by appropriate funding protections.</p><p>Unlike most state-funded schools, maintained nursery schools typically rely on private income for a significant proportion of their total income. Therefore, we have ensured that access to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is also available to maintained nursery schools, in line with the published guidance.</p><p>Maintained nursery schools can access the free school meal vouchers via Edenred.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford grouped question UIN 46760 question first answered 18/05/2020 16:50:21 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

1198844

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the higher mortality risk from covid-19 among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, what guidance he is giving to schools on protecting staff and children from a BAME background and their families from covid-19; and what support he is giving to schools to enable them to implement that guidance.
	tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
	tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
	uin	52591
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/06/2020 answer text <p>We are aware that there is emerging evidence that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals can be more severely affected than the general population by COVID-19. On 2 June, Public Health England published their review into <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-review-of-disparities-in-risks-and-outcomes" target="_blank">disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19</a>, which included ethnicity. There is still much work to do to understand the key drivers of disparities, the relationships between the different risk factors and what we can do to reduce the impact. The Government is considering how the review and ongoing work on this issue should inform our approach. Schools should be especially sensitive to the needs and worries of BAME members of staff, BAME parents and BAME pupils, and consider if any additional measures or reasonable adjustments may need to be put in place to mitigate concerns.</p><p>We have provided detailed guidance on implementing protective measure in schools on GOV.UK: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings</a>.</p><p>This includes advice on approaches and actions schools should implement to create an inherently safer system, where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 15/06/2020 13:46:31 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

1198846

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Assessments: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what adjustments will be made to exams taken in 2021 to account for lost contact time between staff and pupils as a result of the covid-19 lockdown.
	tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
	tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
	uin	52593
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/06/2020 answer text <p>We recognise that students who are studying GCSE, A level or equivalent courses, and are due to take exams and assessments in 2021, will have experienced disruption to their education. We are working with Ofqual and the awarding organisations to develop our approach to next year’s exams and assessments in light of this.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 51796 51918 question first answered 09/06/2020 16:55:22 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

1198847

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Coronavirus
	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 (a) ensure that vulnerable children have access and contact with social workers during the covid-19 restrictions and (b) support teachers working in school who are the only point of contact outside the home for vulnerable children to maintain that contact.
	tabling member constituency	Erith and Thamesmead
	tabling member printed	Abena Oppong-Asare
	uin	52594
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/06/2020 answer text <p>Our latest guidance on supporting vulnerable children is available here:<br><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-vulnerable-children-and-young-people</a><em>.</em></p><p>We are committed to ensuring the safety and protection of vulnerable children and young people, particularly during the current period. This is why education settings remained open for these children and local authorities are maintaining contact with them.</p><p>Children’s social care guidance states that we expect local authorities and social workers to make judgements about visiting vulnerable children. Within the statutory framework, they should prioritise children’s welfare as paramount, balancing the risks to children, the risks to families and risks to the workforce. There are many ways to keep in touch with a child, young person or family without physical face-to-face contact and it is expected that these will be utilised appropriately and proportionately in response to the risk assessment undertaken for the child on a case by case basis. The guidance is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-childrens-social-care-services/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-local-authorities-on-childrens-social-care</a>.</p><p>To ensure children and young people can maintain contact with a social worker, we are providing laptops and tablets to children with a social worker who do not have access to a device otherwise, either privately or through school. We are also providing 4G wireless routers to children with a social worker at secondary school in order to support them to maintain contact with their social worker and/or access remote education at home.</p><p>The department’s safeguarding guidance sets out that a school’s child protection policy should be updated to reflect the arrangements in place to keep children not physically attending safe, especially online, and how concerns about these children should be progressed. In addition, the advice sets out that the Designated Safeguarding Lead (or deputy) should provide support to teachers and pastoral staff to ensure that contact is maintained with children (and their families) who are not yet returning to school. The guidance is available here:<br><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers/coronavirus-covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers/coronavirus-covid-19-safeguarding-in-schools-colleges-and-other-providers</a>.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 09/06/2020 14:34:47 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4820 label Biography information for Abena Oppong-Asare

100150

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Teachers: Training
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to encourage (a) computer science graduates and (b) professional programmers to become teachers.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	211327
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2014 answer text <p>The Department for Education is committed to recruiting high-quality graduates into teaching. The latest data published by UCAS on 25 September 2014 in its ‘UCAS Teacher Training statistical releases’[1], indicates that there will be an increase in computing trainees commencing initial teacher training (ITT) this year, although this will not be certain until the 2014/15 ITT census is published.</p><p>For computing trainees starting their training in 2015/16, we have increased bursaries to up to £25,000 tax-free. We are also funding a prestigious scholarship scheme for computing trainees worth £25,000 tax-free and offering a range of professional benefits. Additional funding has also been made available to schools offering School Direct (salaried) places in computing to boost starting salaries; computing trainees will be able to earn over £21,000 nationally and £25,000 in inner London.</p><p>There are a range of other incentives in place to attract high quality computing trainees into the teaching profession, including:</p><ol><li>The delivery of a targeted marketing campaign to encourage high-quality computing graduates and potential career changers to consider a career in teaching.</li><li>The offering of tailored support for graduates and career changers interested in teaching computing, including access to a School Experience Programme.</li><li>Funding of computing subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) programmes, which prepare applicants for teacher training by building up or refreshing their existing knowledge. 31% of computing applicants who accepted an ITT place for 2013/14 accessed a SKE course.</li></ol><p>[1] <a href="http://www.ucas.com/data-analysis/ucas-teacher-training-statistical-releases" target="_blank">www.ucas.com/data-analysis/ucas-teacher-training-statistical-releases</a></p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 24/10/2014 10:10:23 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

101106

	registered interest
	date	27/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Teachers: Secondary Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics there were in UK secondary schools in (a) 2011-12, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2013-14.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	212006
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2014 answer text <p>The following table provides the number of science (by separate science subject), technology, engineering and mathematics teachers in service in publicly funded secondary schools in England in November of each year from 2011 to 2013: [1], [2]</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Subject [3]</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Physics</p></td><td><p>5,900</p></td><td><p>6,000</p></td><td><p>6,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Chemistry</p></td><td><p>6,900</p></td><td><p>7,200</p></td><td><p>7,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Biology</p></td><td><p>8,500</p></td><td><p>8,700</p></td><td><p>8,800</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Combined/General Science</p></td><td><p>34,700</p></td><td><p>32,700</p></td><td><p>32,900</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Other Sciences</p></td><td><p>2,800</p></td><td><p>2,400</p></td><td><p>2,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Technology</p></td><td><p>14,800</p></td><td><p>13,800</p></td><td><p>13,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Engineering</p></td><td><p>1,600</p></td><td><p>1,500</p></td><td><p>1,500</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mathematics</p></td><td><p>35,200</p></td><td><p>32,800</p></td><td><p>33,300</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="4"><p><em>Source: School Workforce Census</em></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>[1] Figures are based on a large sample of over 70% of secondary schools.</p><p>[2] Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.</p><p>[3] Each teacher is counted once under each subject they teach.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Information for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a matter for the respective devolved administrations.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 03/11/2014 13:58:09 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

106426

	registered interest
	date	04/11/2014
	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 assessment she has made of the potential costs and benefits of the introduction of universal infant free school meals in the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	213397
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>The Department for Education is responsible for the introduction of the requirement that state-funded schools in England should offer universal infant free school meals, which came into effect on 1 September 2014.</p><p> </p><p>Between 2009 and 2011 the Department for Education and the Department of Health piloted the provision of universal free school meals in Durham and Newham. The independent evaluation of those pilots showed that there were a number of benefits arising from the provision of universal free school meals, including improved attainment, healthier eating habits and increases in the uptake of meals among children who would have been eligible for free school meals under the existing criteria. We also know, from research carried out by the School Food Trust (now Children’s Food Trust), that universal infant free school meals will save families who previously paid for school lunches up to £400 a year per infant child.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has used School Food Trust research into the costs of school meal provision, as well as feedback from local authorities and stakeholders, to inform the allocation of funding for this policy and the targeting of implementation support. In particular, this research informed the decision to allocate £2.30 of revenue funding per meal taken by newly eligible pupils.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 10/11/2014 17:27:32 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

1181675

	registered interest
	date	02/03/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Technology
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What steps he is taking to increase the use of technology by schools.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	901020
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2020 answer text <p>The Department for Education's EdTech Strategy, 'Realising the potential of technology in education', aims to support educational providers to embed and use technology effectively to support teacher workload reductions, cost savings and improved student outcomes. This includes supporting schools and colleges to spread best practice in effective technology use through our Demonstrator Programme, which is due to launch in the Spring.</p><p>The Demonstrator Programme will help tech enabled schools and colleges to provide peer-to-peer support to other schools to help them use technology in the most effective way.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 02/03/2020 17:35:53 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

164342

	registered interest
	date	24/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	ICT: Curriculum
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to encourage schools to provide students with hands-on programming experience.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	215688
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2014 answer text <p>The new computing programmes of study, which were introduced in September 2014, have a greater focus on how computers work and the basics of programming. They also cover digital literacy and the application of information technology. Primary school pupils should be taught how to design and write programs to accomplish specific goals, using sequencing, selection and repetition; and secondary school pupils should be taught to use at least two programming languages to solve a variety of computational problems.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Mr Sam Gyimah question first answered 27/11/2014 12:56:01 answering member 3980 label Biography information for Mr Sam Gyimah
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

227251

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2015
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to help parents in work with the costs of childcare.
	tabling member constituency	Windsor
	tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
	uin	227506
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2015 answer text <p>The Department for Education understands that the cost of childcare can be a concern for many parents. In order to help support parents, the Department has increased funding in the early years from £2 billion to £3 billion a year over the course of this Parliament.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department has provided funding for 15 hours a week of free childcare for all three- and four-year-olds, and for disadvantaged two-year-olds. The funding for all three- and four-year-olds is worth £2,500 per child, per year to parents. This gives an additional £425 per child, per year, when compared to funding prior to the last election. The funding for approximately 40% of two-year-olds is also worth £2,500 per child, per year.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Department is introducing Tax-Free Childcare, under which up to 1.8 million working families could benefit from up to £2,000 per child, per year.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For working parents on lower incomes, working tax credit pays up to 70% of their childcare costs. This could be worth up to £6,370 for their first child. Under Universal Credit, the subsidy rate will increase to 85% of childcare costs and support will be available, for the first time, to those working fewer than 16 hours per week.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, the Department has taken action to give more choice to parents by creating child minder agencies and supporting schools to open nurseries and offer provision from 8am to 6pm. The Department is also introducing shared parental leave.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Mr Sam Gyimah question first answered 20/03/2015 13:39:04 answering member 3980 label Biography information for Mr Sam Gyimah
	tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie