Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Nick Gibb

Monday 25th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

T3. As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day this Wednesday, will the Secretary of State and my hon. Friend the Minister for Schools reaffirm her Department’s commitment to continue funding the Holocaust Educational Trust’s “Lessons from Auschwitz” project, which has enabled 28,000 students and teachers to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau?

[The Minister for Schools (Mr Nick Gibb)]

My hon. Friend is right: every young person should learn about the holocaust and the lessons it teaches us today. In recognition of its significance, teaching of the holocaust is compulsory in the national curriculum. For the past 10 years the Department for Education has funded the Holocaust Educational Trust’s “Lessons from Auschwitz” project, which, as my hon. Friend said, has taken more than 28,000 students to visit the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. We will continue to promote, support and fund teaching of the holocaust.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Nick Gibb

Monday 26th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

We take very seriously the performance of multi-academy trusts and the trustees’ oversight of academies, and the regional school commissioners will be looking at my hon. Friend’s case, as they do all issues of poor performance by academies within multi-academy trusts.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

16. What steps the Government are taking to support young people with their mental health in schools.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Nick Gibb

Monday 1st December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

12. What recent assessment she has made of the performance of free schools.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

The performance of free schools is continually reviewed as more and more are inspected by Ofsted. Based on the inspections undertaken so far, the majority of free schools are performing well. With 24% rated outstanding, they are more likely to be rated outstanding than other state-funded schools.

[Graham Evans]

In Weaver Vale, I am proud to have worked with the founders of the Sandymoor free school, which has grown from strength to strength since it opened in 2012. Will my hon. Friend join me in applauding the school’s achievements, including its first Ofsted report as a good school with outstanding leadership?

[Mr Gibb]

I am delighted to join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the governors—I understand that he is one—and the staff at Sandymoor school. The school’s motto is “Ordinary people. Extraordinary achievements.” That is right in one respect, in that it is extraordinary to secure a good grading from Ofsted within the first two years of opening a new school, but there is nothing ordinary about the head teacher, Andrew Green-Howard, or his staff at a school where, to quote Ofsted, the

“majority of students are meeting or exceeding…ambitious targets…in mathematics, English and science”,

and behaviour “is very impressive.”