Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the findings on the gender pay gap for early language attainment at age five in Save the Children's report, entitled The Lost Boys: How boys are falling behind in early years, published in July 2016.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Save the Children report, The Lost Boys: How boys are falling behind in the early years, addresses the gender gap of boys falling behind in language and literacy in the early years. I would like to clarify to the Hon. Member that the report does not refer to pay. The answer to this parliamentary question therefore sets out what Government are doing to support disadvantaged children regardless of background or gender.
The Government recognises a key part of raising the standard of education for all children is to ensure they receive a good level of development in literacy and numeracy before they start school at age five. This is why in 2010 we extended the free entitlement to 15 hours for all three and four year olds, and in 2013 introduced the entitlement for two-year-olds which has increased early education take-up for children from the most disadvantaged families. We have also introduced an early years pupil premium to help providers support the learning and development of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework sets the prime areas of learning which early years providers must follow. This includes a focus on communication and language. The Early Years Foundation stage is published on gov.uk, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335504/EYFS_framework_from_1_September_2014__with_clarification_note.pdf
The 2014-15 EYFS Profile results tell us that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development continues to increase – 66 % in 2015, compared to 60% in 2014 and 52% in 2013. The EYFS Profile results also show that more than 80% of children are reaching the expected communication and language skills by age five. A higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals are achieving a good level of development – 51% in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014. Although the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is narrowing, we recognise there is still some way to go.
The quality of early education is improving, the numbers of qualified staff have risen, the numbers of graduates in the workforce continues to rise, and a record number of providers are rated good or outstanding, with 86% of providers currently on the Early Years Register judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness at 31 March 2016.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to ensure that the forthcoming review of fair funding for early years education will include measures to help close the attainment gap at age five.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
This Government is committed to narrowing the gap in attainment between the most disadvantaged children and their peers, including in the early years. We will be investing over £1 billion more per year by 2019-20 to fund our commitments on the early years entitlements – this includes £300 million per year from 2017-18 for a significant increase to the hourly rate paid for the two, three and four year old entitlements.
The 2014-15 Early Years Foundation Stage Profile results tell us that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development continues to increase – 66% in 2015, compared to 60% in 2014 and 52% in 2013. Furthermore, a higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals are achieving a good level of development – 51% in 2015 compared to 45% in 2014.
We need to continue this improvement. This is why we propose an additional needs factor in our new early years national funding formula, in order to channel funding towards local authorities with a higher relative proportion of children with additional needs. Our consultation on early years funding reform is currently open, and I would encourage my Honourable Friend and his constituents to submit their views.
The Government already provides additional funding for the most disadvantaged three- and four-year olds through the Early Years Pupil Premium. This will continue as a separate funding stream, additional to the early years national funding formula.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that computer coding is taught to children from an early stage in their education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Demand for high-level skills in computing will only grow in the years ahead and will be crucial to supporting a successful economy. It is essential that we have a generation of pupils who have the knowledge and understanding they need to become active creators of digital technology, and not just passive consumers of it. We want them to have a deeper understanding of how digital technologies work and be able to write computer programs.
Since 2014, computing has been part of the National Curriculum at all four key stages. This replaced the outdated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programme of study. The computing curriculum focuses on teaching children how computers work, the basics of programming, and encourages them to design computer programs to address real world problems. This includes introducing coding to primary pupils. At primary school, pupils are being taught what algorithms are, how to design and write programs to accomplish specific goals using sequencing, selection and repetition and how to apply logical reasoning to detect and correct errors.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to encourage students at Key Stage 3 to take up modern foreign languages.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government expects all pupils in secondary education to be taught a broad and balanced curriculum, and that includes the opportunity to study a foreign language at Key Stage 3 and 4. In 2010, only 43% of pupils were studying a GCSE in a foreign language, down from 76% in 2000. Since the Government introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), the proportion of the cohort in state schools that are entered for a modern foreign language GCSE increased by 20% between 2011 and 2015. Our ambition is that 90 per cent of pupils in mainstream secondary schools will enter GCSEs in the EBacc subjects, including a foreign language.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on development of an early years workforce strategy.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Government committed to develop a workforce strategy in 2016. We want to continue to attract quality staff into the early years, and to support those already working in the sector to progress, which is why we are reviewing career progression routes. We want to understand what improvements can be made to help more staff reach their potential and forge a successful career in the early years.
We began discussions with a range of stakeholders in the sector earlier this year on the elements of a workforce strategy, and we are continuing to speak to stakeholders as we develop the strategy further. We plan to communicate an update to the sector on the workforce strategy in the coming months.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people leaving sixth form are fully aware of all further education options open to them.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We are taking a number of steps to ensure that the full range of education and training options are widely understood by young people. Schools are legally required to secure independent careers guidance for pupils up to the age of 18. This must include information on the full range of education and training options, including apprenticeships.
Destination measures are a key tool to assess how well schools and colleges prepare their students to make a successful transition into the next stage of education or training, or employment. The key stage 5 measure looks at activity in the year after the young person took A level or other level 3 qualifications. Destination measures will be one of the headline performance measures in the 2016 performance tables if the data are robust enough. They are taken into account by Ofsted during school inspections.
However, the range of information that young people receive remains too narrow and we want to ensure that young people hear much more consistently about the merits of alternatives to academic routes and are aware of all the routes to higher skills and into the workplace. The government intends to bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity that will require schools to allow other education and training providers the opportunity to talk to students about their offer on school premises.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what incentives she plans to encourage more schools to extend their teaching hours.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In March 2016, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Budget statement that over £500 million of additional funding will be allocated to give 25 per cent of secondary schools the opportunity to extend their school day to include a wider range of activities, such as sports, arts and debating. The Department is currently determining the details of how the funding with be allocated and will provide further details in due course.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that Ofsted is able to assess the effectiveness of schools under proposals for all schools to become academies.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Academies are already subject to inspection by Ofsted under the same framework that applies to maintained schools. The White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, sets out the intention that the Department will also publish new performance tables to show how well multi-academy trusts are leading their schools. This will be in addition to school-level inspection results and performance data. The White Paper is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans the Government has to review the school funding formula to ensure fair funding for schools in rural areas.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We are committed to making schools funding fairer and will come forward with our proposals for this in due course. These will include proposals about how to ensure that schools in rural areas are funded fairly.