Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of reduced funding for (a) Now Teach and (b) other charities on the recruitment of teachers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Now Teach currently deliver a national Career Changers Programme. The previous government confirmed to Now Teach in April 2024 that the programme is not being reprocured and will come to a natural end in August 2026 when the current cohort completes the programme.
The department continues to support all potential teachers, including career changers, through their journey to apply for teacher training and during the critical early years of teaching. This includes the ‘Get Into Teaching’ service, which offers one-to-one support and advice to all candidates, including career changers.
The department has contracts with many organisations, including charities, in support of teacher recruitment and training, and continues to fund and support those organisations in line with the terms of the agreed contracts.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the policy paper entitled The Power of Music to Change Lives: A National Plan for Music Education, published by her Department on 25 June 2022.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
As part of our Opportunity Mission, this government is committed to ensuring that every child has a rich and broad education, including access to arts and music, which sets them up to achieve and thrive throughout life.
The national plan for music education published in 2022 set out expectations on schools to put in place music development plans as well as a restructure of the Music Hub programme. The programme is being evaluated by the National Centre for Social Research to assess the impact of these changes. Any future steps will be informed by this evaluation.
The government’s independent Curriculum and Assessment Review aims to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, with a firm foundation in reading, writing and mathematics alongside ensuring that every pupil has access to creative opportunities including music. The government has also committed to launch a new National Music Education Network, to help families, children and schools access broader opportunities and support.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the level of teaching on climate (a) change, (b) mitigation and (c) adaptation in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government is aware of the critical importance of meeting the challenge of sustainability and climate change and empowering children and young people by providing them with the knowledge and skills to take positive climate action and drive solutions.
Topics relating to climate change and the environment are already included within geography, science and citizenship in the current national curriculum, with an environmental science A level also available. With regard to the future of the curriculum, the government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review recently launched a call for evidence, closing on 22 November, setting out a number of key questions and themes where it would particularly welcome evidence and input. The government would encourage anyone with evidence regarding climate and sustainability education to engage with the review and their call for evidence.
The Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, published by the department in April 2022, has led to a host of additional support and resources for teaching about climate change. The department is including climate change and sustainability in science teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) to help ensure young people receive high quality teaching on the scientific facts about climate change and environmental degradation. Oak National Academy has published a primary science curriculum plan, which includes an emphasis on nature, with resources including lesson plans, slide packs, worksheets, quizzes and videos now available.
To drive greater connection and protection of nature, the department is also increasing opportunities for all children and young people to spend time in nature, learn more about it and become actively involved in the improvement of their local environment.
The National Education Nature Park brings together all the land from across education settings into a vast virtual nature park. It empowers children and young people to get involved in taking practical action to improve the biodiversity of their school grounds, learn about nature’s role in climate change and develop skills that will be necessary for the growing number of green jobs.
Seeing sustainability brought to life in the buildings around them will allow children and young people to enhance and contextualise their learning regarding mitigation and adaptation efforts. The Sustainability Support for Education hub provides support to all educational settings and helps them to plan and deliver action to enable them to respond to and mitigate against the challenge of climate change and adapt to become more sustainable. This is also supported by the Climate Ambassadors programme which offers education settings in England free access to expertise from in person volunteers across industry to further advise on the development of their climate action plan.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support children with special educational needs and disabilities to receive an education, health and care plan.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The department knows that parents have struggled to get the right support for their children, particularly through long and difficult education, health and care plan processes. The department will work across the sector to provide support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or needing alternative provision and their families. The department is committed to taking a community-wide approach, improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools and alternative provision settings, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with SEND, the department works with them using a range of support and challenge, improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address identified weaknesses.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary, (b) secondary and (c) sixth-form schools are affected by RAAC in Frome and East Somerset constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
No primary, secondary or sixth form schools in the Frome and East Somerset constituency have been identified as being affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) suspensions and (b) exclusions from schools in Somerset by age in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes figures from the school census on suspensions and permanent exclusions from state-funded schools in England. The most recent release can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/suspensions-and-permanent-exclusions-in-england.
The number of suspensions and permanent exclusions in Somerset by age, for the 2013/14 to 2022/23 academic years, which is the latest data available, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/31f23f0d-20c2-4c95-b8d0-08dcab23db45.