Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the median level of student debt held by people in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The median debt of full-time undergraduate borrowers funded by student finance England, whose postcode is within the Aldershot constituency, and who entered repayment within the last five financial years is £46,577. The median debt includes tuition fees and maintenance loans and the effective date of the data is 30 April 2024.
The borrower’s postcode refers to the current contact or home address supplied by the borrower to the Student Loans Company.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help improve children's oracy skills in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment review will seek to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative to ensure that children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive. This includes embedding oracy, digital and life skills in their learning. The Review will consider the recently published report of the Oracy Commission as part of this work.
In the early years, too, developing language skills is vital to enable children to thrive. The department is funding evidence-based early language interventions, targeting children needing extra support with their speech and language development.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of school funding per pupil in (a) Aldershot constituency and (b) the rest of the country.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The overall core schools budget will total £61.8 billion in 2024/25. Average per pupil funding in England, as allocated through the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), is £5,957.
The DSG is allocated at local authority level, and as such the equivalent figures are not available for Aldershot constituency. For Aldershot constituency, the notional national funding formula (NFF) average per-pupil funding is £5,447. That is calculated based on the notional schools NFF allocations for all mainstream schools in the constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency actually receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area. The funding figures for Aldershot constituency are based on the constituency boundaries before the July 2024 general election.
All of the figures provided include premises funding, but exclude growth funding. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools in the Aldershot constituency and across the country have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25.
Schools in Aldershot constituency have a lower proportion of pupils who attract deprivation funding through the NFF than the national average.
The precise funding that individual schools in Aldershot constituency and across the country receive depends on each school’s unique circumstances and the decisions that it has made about how to deploy its funding.