Schools: Recruitment and Retention

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Tuesday 18th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

My Lords, is not the great increase in the number of pupils with English as a second language making life very difficult for teachers?

[Lord Nash]

As we have discussed before, there is no doubt that initially pupils who either do not speak English or have poor English do make life difficult for teachers, but the evidence is clear that those pupils, once they can speak the language—which many of them do relatively quickly—can be, to put it bluntly, much more aspirational. As we now all know, although we spend a lot of time compiling statistics on what we call English as additional language pupils, it is in fact white working-class pupils who are falling behind dramatically in our schools. That is why we are making such a substantial investment in coastal towns, former mining villages and other such communities to improve education.

School Census: Pupils’ Nationality

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, the census covers a range of things, and we should be aware that children of foreign nationals can face additional challenges upon starting school in the UK. They are not likely to speak English fluently and may not have been here for the full school choice or application round, so they are more frequently placed in schools that, ideally, they would not choose. The education system they have arrived from may be different from the English system, so they may be behind our expected standards simply because they have yet to cover elements of our curriculum. Understanding nationalities helps us to put the right policies in place to help those children, and there are safeguards in place.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Can my noble friend confirm that the number of children with English as their second language has risen from 6% to 16% in one year?

Education: English Baccalaureate

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The position in relation to teachers is no different from what it has been several times over the past 15 years: a less than 1% shortfall. The substantial increase in the number of pupils taking maths A-levels—18% in maths and 27% in further maths—gives us good hope that we will see more maths teachers in future.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Does my noble friend agree that a rise of 6% to 18% in the proportion of youngsters now entering school with English as their second language has had an effect on the studying of science?

[Lord Nash]

I agree that it gives schools certain challenges, but evidence suggests that once those pupils have mastered English, they are actually more aspirational than are, sadly, some white working class boys in particular.

Schools: Free Schools

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I would not class them as coasting. It is a very small sample. They are a long way short of coasting. Twenty-six per cent of free schools have been judged outstanding, which makes them by far our highest performing group of non-selective state schools. Free schools are monitored by Ofsted, like all other schools, and the EFA. They have much tighter financial oversight than local authority-maintained schools because they have annually to publish audited independent accounts, and regional schools commissioners also monitor them.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Can my noble friend say what percentage of children entering school have English as their second language?

[Lord Nash]

Across the entire estate, I think the figure is in the teens, but I will write to my noble friend about that.

Schools: Admissions

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, it is true that a high proportion of children missing education are awaiting a place but we have massive in-year movement in this country, partly as a result of immigration. We take the issue of school attendance very seriously. All local authorities are required to put in place a fair access protocol for their schools, which requires all schools to comply. Indications from local authorities are that fair access protocols are working well, indeed, better than in previous years, and we will continue to monitor their impact. I hope that the noble Baroness will be pleased to hear that overall absence rates are at their lowest since termly absence data were first collected in 2006.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Does my noble friend accept that every school faces a problem because a year ago 6% of children had English as their second language when they went to school? That has now increased to 16%.

[Lord Nash]

It is true that some schools struggle with this. It is also true that a great many students who are technically classed as “English as additional language” are very high-achieving. However, it is a fact that we have a high number of pupils in this country who would be described as EAL, and it is our duty as a Government to ensure that all pupils are properly educated.

Schools: Local Oversight

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Monday 28th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The Secretary of State, to put it simply, has always been responsible for schools in this country. I cannot put it better than this:

“If a school is not delivering sound education for its pupils, and a different way of running the school would yield a different and better result, it is our duty to institute the change”.

I could not have put it as well—and not surprisingly, as that was a former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, speaking last week. We believe that the regional schools commissioners are the right structure. As for cost, this Government inherited a department from the previous Government that had no concept of value for money. We have halved the cost of running it in real terms. I will write to the noble Lord if he would like the figures. However, the actual cost of running the regional schools commissioners will be something like £5 million, compared with the huge expense of the bureaucratic system that the party opposite proposed to put in place.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Can my noble friend say how many of these schools have children arriving at them for whom English is their second language?

[Lord Nash]

The proportion of pupils in schools with English as a second language has risen substantially. I will write to the noble Baroness with details on the different types of schools.

School Pupils: English Speakers

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2014 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Sharples]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of children starting school for whom English is a second language.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)]

My Lords, the latest school census in England in January of last year showed that 19% of pupils in year one, 113,000, and 14% of pupils in year seven, 75,000, have English as an additional language. More than 1 million pupils in schools, 13% of the total, have English as an additional language.

[Baroness Sharples (Con)]

Is my noble friend aware that certain schools are involved in considerable expense because they have to employ interpreters? What is being done to help parents learn English, so that it can be spoken at home?

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, it is for schools to determine how to respond to the needs of pupils with EAL, including how they support pupils’ families. We do not hold centrally a figure for the number of interpreters employed in schools. Local authorities have the freedom to allocate EAL funding to schools as they see fit. Schools may well choose to spend this on interpreters or on employing bilingual staff. For example, we know that in 75 local authorities, primary school pupils with EAL attract between £250 and £750 each. The Government are investing £210 million per annum in community learning language programmes to support families with EAL. We are also funding English courses for 24,000 adults with the lowest levels of English through the £6 million English language competition. There is no specific duty for schools to teach English to parents; however, schools have a key role to play in this. Parents of new pupils at, for instance, Millbank Academy—one of the primaries up the road, which is in my wife’s group—where 85% of pupils have EAL, are introduced both to other parents and a member of staff who speaks their home language, and are invited to the school every week to be updated on their pupil’s progress.

Children: Adult Material Online

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Wednesday 19th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

There is, on a number of fronts, including work on troubled families, but I think that the right reverend Prelate’s question merits a more detailed answer, so I shall write to him.

[Baroness Sharples]

Why do parents allow their children to have computers in their rooms, and even encourage them?

[Lord Nash]

Or televisions, for that matter. I agree. However, it is a fact of life these days, I am afraid, that the internet is the pavement for our children. That is why this is such an important issue, and parents do not understand enough about it.

Schools: Performance

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Tuesday 4th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I agree with the noble Lord’s point. It is an area where more work needs to be done. I accept that the provision is patchy. As regards the variation between different kinds of provision, the more we can publish data which illustrate what the facts are, so that people can then draw their own conclusions on the action needed, it is a good and healthy development.

[Baroness Sharples]

Can my noble friend tell me what proportion of children going to school now have English as their second language?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I am afraid that I do not have those figures in my head but I will write to my noble friend and make sure that she has them.

Schools: Sex and Relationships Education

Baroness Sharples Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sharples]

Can my noble friend explain why children here go to school at the age of five when in virtually every other country they go to school at the age of six or seven?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I am not sure that I can provide an easy answer to that, other than to say that practices vary from country to country in all sorts of different ways.