School Funding: Special Educational Needs Debate

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Department: Department for Education

School Funding: Special Educational Needs

Baroness Berridge Excerpts
Thursday 23rd May 2024

(1 month ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Barran Portrait Baroness Barran (Con)
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The noble Earl may be right that we are timed out on an arts premium.

Baroness Berridge Portrait Baroness Berridge (Con)
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My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister join me in congratulating Thames Christian School in Battersea, which has recently won a prestigious RIBA award for the architecture of its building? In the head teacher’s response to that award, he outlined that, of the 400 students in that fee-paying school, 200 have special educational needs. What advice is being given to schools such as that about how they might approach supporting parents who are unsure about whether their children can continue if the school fees are increased?

Baroness Barran Portrait Baroness Barran (Con)
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I am delighted to join my noble friend in celebrating that success. That matter will be for individual parents in independent schools to work through. Independent schools have focused very much on supporting children and their parents where bursaries are required, but that is up to the parents and those schools.