State-funded Schools: Special Educational Needs
Debate between Baroness Bull and Baroness Smith of Malvern(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
Ollie is very lucky to have the noble Baroness as his great-aunt. But she raises an important point about the speed with which it is possible to carry out assessments. It is for that reason that we are supporting local authority educational psychology services by investing over £20 million to train 400 more educational psychologists, because they play a particularly important role in supporting those services and contributing to statutory assessments. As the noble Baroness said, we must ensure that more children are able to succeed in our mainstream schools, as I am sure Ollie will.
Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, one in 20 people in the UK are estimated to have dyscalculia, yet it frequently goes undiagnosed and therefore without the support that would enable these young people to overcome the challenges in processing and dealing with numbers. Currently, there is no requirement for maths teachers to learn about dyscalculia, and even special needs teachers are not always trained to recognise and deal with it. Will the Government consider introducing a statutory requirement for maths teachers to learn about dyscalculia in initial teacher training? Can the Minister confirm that these specific challenges will be addressed through the curriculum and assessment review?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes an important point about the responsibility of all teachers to be able to identify special educational needs. All teachers are special educational needs teachers and that is why, although I cannot be completely clear on her point about dyscalculia, I can assure her that we are supporting improved teacher training throughout teachers’ careers, starting with changes to initial teacher training coming in from September 2025, and continuing through their careers from early career teachers into leadership roles. I will follow up the particular point the noble Baroness made in her question.
Vocational Training
Debate between Baroness Bull and Baroness Smith of Malvern(2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes an important point. Whether young people—and older people—have success in their careers and can access the skills they need starts before the age of 16. It starts with the school curriculum. It is with that intention that we have set up the curriculum and assessment review, to look precisely at how we can maintain and improve our standards of numeracy and literacy, while also ensuring that we enable the curriculum and schools to have the space to develop precisely the sort of skills and aptitudes that the noble Baroness outlined.
Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, I turn the Minister’s attention to vocational training for exceptionally talented dancers and musicians, which starts at a much earlier age than we are discussing. She will know that the kind of training required is not available in the state system but is provided by schools on the Music and Dance Scheme, which are able to recruit on talent alone, regardless of financial circumstances. What are the Government doing to ensure that the legislative agenda will not impede the ability of those schools to be blind to finance and look only at talent; so that anybody with the drive and the capability can enjoy their full potential, and our creative industries will remain fully inclusive of the broad diversity of our society?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness has contributed considerably to my education, while I have been in this place, on the crucial role played by those really excellent music and dance schools. That is why the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme enables enormously talented young people, regardless of their background, to access that education—to ensure that we can continue that pipeline of completely brilliant and elite musicians and dancers, who are so important to this country’s creative sector.
Schools: Absenteeism
Debate between Baroness Bull and Baroness Smith of Malvern(2 months ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
My assessment is that it is concerning that parents, for whatever reason are becoming relaxed about their children’s attendance at school. As the noble Lord suggested, this has partly been linked to the pandemic. We know that each day of lost learning can do serious harm. Days missed can add up quickly. There is a link between absence and attainment, and pupils who are persistently absent are less than half as likely to achieve good GCSEs as those who attend every day. We need to give that message loud and clear to parents who, in being relaxed about their children’s attendance at school, are fundamentally damaging their future prospects.
Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of arts and creative programmes on attendance and engagement, which is especially true for pupils from at-risk populations, where absenteeism of course creates an even longer shadow. Will the curriculum and assessment review take account of this evidence in considering the value of arts subjects, and will the Government encourage more schools to take up Artsmark, given that 96% of Artsmark schools report positive improvements on attendance, punctuality and engagement?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right that we need a curriculum in schools that will encourage all children to flourish and to be engaged. That is why, in setting up the curriculum and assessment review led by Professor Becky Francis, we have specifically asked it to consider how we can ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs, and that it does that through creating space for exactly the sort of creativity for which the noble Baroness is a strong advocate.
Schools: Mental Health and Poor Attendance
Debate between Baroness Bull and Baroness Smith of Malvern(4 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Lord is right, of course, that, for many children, schools are the stable part of their lives, but teachers, although they provide enormous levels of support along with other school staff, need to be able to focus on teaching children. Family hubs indeed play an important role in helping families to access vital services to improve the health, education and well-being of children and young people. We are already considering the overall approach to early childhood and family support, and how it can support this Government’s opportunity mission. That includes reviewing the future vision and intentions for family support, including the core role played by family hubs.
Baroness Bull (CB)
My Lords, may I press the Minister on what the Government will do to ensure access to mental health support for those children with disabilities and special educational needs? We know that they are disproportionately represented in absence and persistent absence figures, and that mental health is often a contributing issue. She spoke in her Answer about the evidence link between absenteeism and life chances. Does she agree that failing to address this risks widening even further the existing gap between attainment and life chances for those children who live with disabilities and educational challenges and those who are fortunate not to live with those challenges?
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right that, where special educational needs come alongside mental health problems and other issues in children’s lives, they are more likely to be absent from school. Of course, while they are absent from school, they are not learning and it is also likely that mental health issues will increase, not reduce. That is why, for the vast majority of children with special educational needs who are being educated in mainstream schools, early intervention through the use of access to mental health support workers will be an important first way to support them and prevent conditions from becoming worse.