Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extreme heat on students' exam performance.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has published the guidance ‘Hot weather and heatwaves guidance for schools and other education settings’, which is based on UK Health Security Agency advice to support education settings. In most cases, schools remain the safest place for children during hot weather, as staff can monitor pupils, encourage hydration and take steps to keep them comfortable. Schools and colleges are expected to take reasonable steps to provide suitable conditions for students taking exams.
The exam timetable is designed to support the fair and efficient delivery of exams for students across England, and the timing of exams ensures that results are provided to pupils on time in August to support them to progress to further and higher education, employment and training.
Responsibility for the administration of GCSE, AS and A level qualifications, including arrangements for exam timetables and special consideration, rests with the independent awarding organisations. The department does, however, continue to work with Ofqual, awarding organisations, schools and colleges to support the safe and effective delivery of exams and to consider lessons learned from recent periods of extreme weather.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the potential merits of altering the school exam period to avoid exam dates coinciding with extreme heat waves.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department has published the guidance ‘Hot weather and heatwaves guidance for schools and other education settings’, which is based on UK Health Security Agency advice to support education settings. In most cases, schools remain the safest place for children during hot weather, as staff can monitor pupils, encourage hydration and take steps to keep them comfortable. Schools and colleges are expected to take reasonable steps to provide suitable conditions for students taking exams.
The exam timetable is designed to support the fair and efficient delivery of exams for students across England, and the timing of exams ensures that results are provided to pupils on time in August to support them to progress to further and higher education, employment and training.
Responsibility for the administration of GCSE, AS and A level qualifications, including arrangements for exam timetables and special consideration, rests with the independent awarding organisations. The department does, however, continue to work with Ofqual, awarding organisations, schools and colleges to support the safe and effective delivery of exams and to consider lessons learned from recent periods of extreme weather.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she has issued to schools on remaining open during periods of extreme weather.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department takes periods of hot weather and heatwaves seriously and has published a climate risk assessment in response. We continue to support responsible bodies and schools to provide education in a safe environment.
To support them, the department has published guidance to support education settings during hot weather, available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/hot-weather-and-heatwaves-guidance-for-schools-and-other-education-settings/. This advice draws on guidance from the UK Health Security Agency. In most cases, schools are the safest place for children during hot weather, as staff can actively monitor pupils, ensure regular hydration, and make adjustments to keep them cool. Children may also not be any cooler at home than in school, and recent analysis by the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing shows that 1.6 million children currently live in overheated homes.
We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-estates-strategy
This includes a new £710 million Renewal and Retrofit Programme to improve condition and climate resilience; investment of almost £3 billion per year by 2034-35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate; and investment of almost £20 billion through to 2034-35 in the School Rebuilding Programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the potential merits of introducing a maximum safe temperature for schools.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s position is that schools should remain open wherever it is safe, allowing as many pupils as possible to attend, rather than applying a fixed maximum temperature for closure.
There are a number of practical considerations associated with introducing a specific legal working temperature for schools. These include determining how temperature would be measured consistently across rooms within a school, as well as between schools, and recognising that any fixed threshold could have a disproportionate impact due to variations in building design and location.
Responsible bodies must make decisions based on the suitability of their buildings and mitigations for the impact of heat, ensuring the health, safety and welfare of pupils and staff. Under workplace regulations, temperatures must be reasonable, and leaders should regularly assess risks and take appropriate action during heat.
Attendance is vital for learning, wellbeing and safeguarding, and absence can disproportionately affect disadvantaged pupils and families, and during a heatwave leave children exposed to similar or worse temperatures than those in schools.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools to remain open during periods of extreme heat.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department takes periods of hot weather and heatwaves seriously and has published a climate risk assessment. We continue to support responsible bodies and schools to provide education in a safe environment.
To support them, the department has published guidance to support education settings during hot weather, available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/hot-weather-and-heatwaves-guidance-for-schools-and-other-education-settings/. This advice draws on guidance from the UK Health Security Agency. In most cases, schools are the safest place for children during hot weather, as staff can actively monitor pupils, ensure regular hydration, and make adjustments to keep them cool. Children may also not be any cooler at home than in school, and recent analysis by the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing shows that 1.6 million children currently live in overheated homes.
We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-estates-strategyThis includes a new £710 million Renewal and Retrofit Programme to improve condition and climate resilience; investment of almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate; and investment of almost £20 billion through to 2034/35 in the School Rebuilding Programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools are fitted with HVAC units throughout the building.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Responsible bodies and school leaders have a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of both staff and pupils, this includes ensuring that temperatures are reasonable and that spaces are sufficiently ventilated.
We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-estates-strategy.
This includes a new £710 million renewal and retrofit programme to improve condition and climate resilience. We will invest almost £3 billion per year by 2034-35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate; and invest almost £20 billion through to 2034-35 in the School Rebuilding Programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.
We have recently updated our design standards, covering heating, cooling and ventilation systems, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-standards-employers-requirements as well as overheating risk assessments and external shading. Our improve and renew guidance also addresses overheating mitigation, ventilation and heating systems and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improve-and-renew-developing-your-long-term-estates-plan/improve-and-renew-your-long-term-estates-plan.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to assist schools with monitoring internal temperatures.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Responsible bodies and school leaders have a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of both staff and pupils. Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations, temperatures in workplaces must be reasonable, and leaders should regularly assess any conditions that may pose a risk and take appropriate action in response to high temperatures. In addition, these regulations require that a sufficient number of thermometers are provided to enable persons at work to determine the temperature in any workplace inside a building.
We have recently updated our design standards, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-standards-employers-requirements. These cover overheating risk assessments which account for rising temperatures associated with climate change, building performance evaluation that incorporate temperature monitoring, as well as external shading and cross ventilation. Our improve and renew guidance also outlines measures that could be implemented to mitigate overheating and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improve-and-renew-developing-your-long-term-estates-plan/improve-and-renew-your-long-term-estates-plan.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will be taking steps to update the school food standards to include free school milk entitlement to the end of reception.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
I refer my hon. my hon. Friend, the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill to the answer of 23 June 2026 to Question 9524.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extending eligibility for free school milk until the end of the Reception year on (a) school readiness, (b) educational attainment and (c) the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
I refer my hon. my hon. Friend, the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill to the answer of 23 June 2026 to Question 9524.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered encouraging the creation of (a) local authority and (b) employer-based pools of supply staff paying in accordance with national teacher pay scales and allowing pension access without incurring agency fees.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The new iteration of the Supply Teachers and Temporary Staffing framework removes excessive agency mark-ups through a cap on agency fees.
To ensure the cap on agency fees is effectively monitored and enforced, the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) holds responsibility for monitoring compliance to the agency fee caps, and all requirements of the framework agreement. As part of the framework terms and conditions, agencies must provide data reporting, with potential consequences of non-compliance resulting in removal from the framework agreement.
To support the GCA, the department will also keep under review and analyse spend across the sector, comparing it with the Management Information reported by suppliers to GCA through the framework.
The new framework does not affect pay for supply teachers employed through agencies. This will continue to be set by agencies in the first 12 weeks of an assignment, and supply teachers are free to register with multiple agencies to find the best pay and conditions to meet their own circumstances. The Agency Worker Regulations provides that all workers on assignments exceeding 12 weeks are paid on equal terms as permanent staff after the 12th week.
The current mix of supply models available in England, including agencies, direct hire and some local pools, gives schools choice over how they secure supply teachers.