Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many school nurses were employed in each local authority in England in each of the three most recent years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In November 2022, the latest available information, 465 people were employed in state-funded schools in England with a role of ‘nurse’. This is similar to previous years, with 469 in 2021 and 445 in 2020. This information has been provided in Table 1 by local authority and year.
The figures provided are based on staff roles as reported by the school. ‘Nurse’ may not necessarily indicate a qualified specialist community public health nurse. School nurses play a pivotal role in supporting schools to meet this duty, but they will not be the only healthcare professionals available to help schools in supporting their pupils.
Information on the state funded school workforce in England, including the number of support staff employed by schools each November, is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistics release at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprentices there have been in arts, media and publishing by (a) gender and (b) ethnic group in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The department routinely publishes data on apprenticeship starts in the further education data library: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
The attached tables contain the figures for apprenticeship starts for the sector subject area ‘Arts, media and publishing’ for each academic year from the published tables.
The profile of apprenticeship starts changed significantly prior to, and following, the introduction of our reforms; care should therefore be taken in comparing and interpreting this data.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprentices there have been in arts, media and publishing in each of the regions of England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The department routinely publishes data on apprenticeship starts in the further education data library: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.
The attached tables contain the figures for apprenticeship starts for the sector subject area ‘Arts, media and publishing’ for each academic year from the published tables.
The profile of apprenticeship starts changed significantly prior to, and following, the introduction of our reforms; care should therefore be taken in comparing and interpreting this data.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's policy is on political advertising in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Learning about politics is an important part of a broad and balanced education that prepares young people for adult life. All head teachers, however, are required to ensure impartiality and balanced treatment of political issues in schools.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse has been on advertising in schools in relation to the UK leaving the EU in the last six months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education has not spent any money on advertising in schools in relation to the UK leaving the EU in the last 6 months.
The Department is providing its own guidance to the education sectors that it serves, via published information on GOV.UK, support through existing networks and otherwise through the normal conduct of the day-to-day business of the Government.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils in year six met each of the three swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the physical education (PE) national curriculum at key stages 1 and 2.
All schools in receipt of the primary PE and sport premium are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who met each of the 3 swimming and water safety national curriculum expectations. The department does not collect data centrally on the proportion of primary school children who meet the national curriculum expectations. However, we are working with Swim England and members of the Swim Group to explore ways to provide further support to schools to assess pupils’ capability and to collect and report this data.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of primary school aged children had swimming lessons provided through school in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally.
Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE national curriculum at key stages 1 and 2. Schools receive general funding for all curriculum provision, including Physical Education (and by extension swimming and water safety lessons). This funding is not ring-fenced or split by subject and schools have the flexibility to allocate their funding to deliver a diverse curriculum which best suits the needs of all their pupils.
Schools can also choose to use their share of the £320 million Primary PE and Sport Premium to support swimming and water safety. The premium can be used to fund the professional development and training available to schools to train staff to support high quality swimming and water safety lessons for their pupils.
The premium can also be used to provide additional top-up swimming lessons to pupils who have not been able to meet the national curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety following the delivery of core swimming and water safety lessons.
The department does not collect data on the proportion of primary school children who have received swimming and water safety lessons. However all schools are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who have met each of the 3 swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much has been spent from the public purse on swimming lessons for primary school students in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information requested is not held centrally.
Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the PE national curriculum at key stages 1 and 2. Schools receive general funding for all curriculum provision, including Physical Education (and by extension swimming and water safety lessons). This funding is not ring-fenced or split by subject and schools have the flexibility to allocate their funding to deliver a diverse curriculum which best suits the needs of all their pupils.
Schools can also choose to use their share of the £320 million Primary PE and Sport Premium to support swimming and water safety. The premium can be used to fund the professional development and training available to schools to train staff to support high quality swimming and water safety lessons for their pupils.
The premium can also be used to provide additional top-up swimming lessons to pupils who have not been able to meet the national curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety following the delivery of core swimming and water safety lessons.
The department does not collect data on the proportion of primary school children who have received swimming and water safety lessons. However all schools are required to publish information on the percentage of their pupils in year 6 who have met each of the 3 swimming and water safety national curriculum requirements.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students in London studied physical education to (a) GCSE and (b) A level in each year since 2012.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The table below shows the number of pupils at the end of key stage 4[1] entered into GCSE physical education (PE) in London, and the number of A level entries in PE by 16 to 18-year-olds in London, 2011/12 to 2017/18.
London | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Pupils entered into GCSE PE | 10,251 | 11,197 | 11,963 | 13,081 | 12,274 | 12,509 | 10,516 |
PE A level 16 to 18-year-olds entries | 1,239 | 1,065 | 1,039 | 1,009 | 919 | 775 | 880 |
The number of pupils that studied PE at key stage 4 is not available, but the number of pupils that entered a GCSE exam in PE has been provided as a proxy. For A levels, the figures provided relate to the number of PE exam entries.
[1] Pupils are identified as being at the end of key stage 4 if they were on roll at the school and in year 11 at the time of the January school census for that year. Age is calculated as at 31 August for that year, and the majority of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were age 15 at the start of the academic year. Some pupils may complete this key stage in an earlier or later year group.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students (a) in total and (b) eligible for free school meals took physical education at A level in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The total number and percentage of students entering A level physical education in each year is provided in the tables attached, as well as the percentage of entrants into each subject who were eligible for Free School Meals (FSM). The Department has published[1] the number of students entering A level physical education or sport/physical education studies (up to 2015/16), split by FSM, from 2010/11 – 2017/18. Figures for 2009/10 are not available
Figures for 2010/11 – 2015/16 are based on exam results achieved in the report year. In addition, for 2015/16 figures only include students who were included in the ‘best 3 A levels’ measure. From 2016/17, figures cover exam results achieved in all years of 16-18 studies (up to three years) and inclusion in the best 3 A level measure was no longer used in the methodology, resulting in more students being included and correspondingly higher rates of entry. Due to the changes in methodology 2015/16 is not comparable with any other year, and 2016/17 and 2017/18 are only comparable with each other. There are also changes in how the cohort of students and FSM eligibility is defined which mean that comparisons between these years are not possible.
[1] For 2010/11 – 2015/16 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-level-attainment-by-pupil-characteristics. For 2016/17 and 2017/18 - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-attainment-at-19-years.