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Written Question
Home Education: Standards
Monday 24th May 2021

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2021 to Question 618 on Home Education: Standards, what his planned timetable is for publishing his Department's response to the consultation which closed on 24 June 2019.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department is committed to publishing the Children Not in School consultation response in due course. We hope to have this published in the coming months.


Written Question
Home Education: Standards
Monday 17th May 2021

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to help ensure the quality of education for children who are home-schooled.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government has substantially strengthened its guidance to local authorities on exercising their powers in relation to elective home education. The revised guidance, which was published in April 2019, sets out the steps that local authorities should take to satisfy themselves that the education provided by parents at home is suitable, and the actions that they can take if they are not satisfied.

In the spring of 2019, a consultation was held on proposals for:

- a mandatory register of children not attending state or registered independent schools to help local authorities carry out their responsibilities in relation to children not in school.

- a duty on parents to register their child with the local authority if not registered at specified types of schools.

- a duty on proprietors of certain schools or colleges to respond to enquiries from local authorities.

- a duty on local authorities to provide support to parents who educate children at home.

The consultation closed on 24 June 2019, with nearly 5000 responses. The Department remains committed to a registration system for children not in school. Further details on this will be in the Government response to the consultation, which will be published in due course.


Written Question
Home Education: Standards
Thursday 29th April 2021

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps has he taken to ensure the quality of education for children who are home schooled.

Answered by Nick Gibb

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.


Written Question
Pupil Exclusions
Wednesday 28th April 2021

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in each local authority area have been expelled from their school in each year since 2010; and of those pupils how many have been expelled more than once.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The information requested about pupils being off rolled is not held by the Department and cannot be estimated from current data sources.

However, the Government is clear that informal and unofficial expulsions are unlawful, and off rolling is unacceptable in any form. The Department will continue to work with Ofsted to define and tackle it. Ofsted already considers records of children taken off roll and revisions to the framework in September 2019 strengthened the focus on this. Where inspectors find off rolling, this will always be addressed in the inspection report, and where appropriate, could lead to a school’s leadership being judged inadequate.

A pupil’s name can lawfully be deleted from the admission register only on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended. All schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register under any of the grounds prescribed in regulation 8. This should be done as soon as the ground for removal is met and no later than the time at which the pupil’s name is removed from the register.

The Department publishes annual figures from the school census on the number of pupils permanently excluded from schools in England. Local authority figures for the period from 2010/11 to 2018/19 can be found in the publications listed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions.


Written Question
Pupil Exclusions
Wednesday 28th April 2021

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of school age children who have been off-rolled since April 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The information requested about pupils being off rolled is not held by the Department and cannot be estimated from current data sources.

However, the Government is clear that informal and unofficial expulsions are unlawful, and off rolling is unacceptable in any form. The Department will continue to work with Ofsted to define and tackle it. Ofsted already considers records of children taken off roll and revisions to the framework in September 2019 strengthened the focus on this. Where inspectors find off rolling, this will always be addressed in the inspection report, and where appropriate, could lead to a school’s leadership being judged inadequate.

A pupil’s name can lawfully be deleted from the admission register only on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended. All schools must notify the local authority when a pupil’s name is to be deleted from the admission register under any of the grounds prescribed in regulation 8. This should be done as soon as the ground for removal is met and no later than the time at which the pupil’s name is removed from the register.

The Department publishes annual figures from the school census on the number of pupils permanently excluded from schools in England. Local authority figures for the period from 2010/11 to 2018/19 can be found in the publications listed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions.


Written Question
Pupils: Coronavirus
Friday 27th November 2020

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary pupils who have been sent home from school due a pupil in their cohort testing positive for covid-19 in (a) Halton constituency, (b) the North West and (c) England since 1 August 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department is currently collecting data on attendance of pupils and staff, and the availability of remote learning, from schools on a daily basis and publishes data from this collection as part of the official statistics series. The publication can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. Data is published from 9 September 2020, but prior to 12 October 2020 information on pupils isolating was not collected.

Data on the number of pupils sent home due to a pupil in their cohort testing positive is not collected. The closest estimate of this figure is the number of pupils isolating in each school due to a potential contact with a case of COVID-19 within the setting.

Data is collected as totals for each school. It is therefore not possible to calculate a cumulative total, instead figures for each individual week (which may include the same pupils in both weeks) are provided. It is also not possible to calculate the number of school days lost as a result of absence.

Data is collected from schools and aggregated to local authority level. The Department intends to publish regional and local authority level data on 15 December. This data will be included as part of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (Covid 19) outbreak’.

The frequency of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (Covid 19) outbreak’ will be reviewed in the new year.

The Department is constantly reviewing the content of its publications. Announcements about future content will be made through the official statistics release page: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/statistics.


Written Question
Pupils: Coronavirus
Friday 27th November 2020

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of school days that have been lost as a result of pupils being sent home due to a covid-19 outbreak in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in (i) England (ii) the North West and (iii) Halton constituency since 1 August 2020.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department is currently collecting data on attendance of pupils and staff, and the availability of remote learning, from schools on a daily basis and publishes data from this collection as part of the official statistics series. The publication can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak. Data is published from 9 September 2020, but prior to 12 October 2020 information on pupils isolating was not collected.

Data on the number of pupils sent home due to a pupil in their cohort testing positive is not collected. The closest estimate of this figure is the number of pupils isolating in each school due to a potential contact with a case of COVID-19 within the setting.

Data is collected as totals for each school. It is therefore not possible to calculate a cumulative total, instead figures for each individual week (which may include the same pupils in both weeks) are provided. It is also not possible to calculate the number of school days lost as a result of absence.

Data is collected from schools and aggregated to local authority level. The Department intends to publish regional and local authority level data on 15 December. This data will be included as part of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (Covid 19) outbreak’.

The frequency of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (Covid 19) outbreak’ will be reviewed in the new year.

The Department is constantly reviewing the content of its publications. Announcements about future content will be made through the official statistics release page: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/statistics.


Written Question
GCSE: Coronavirus
Wednesday 4th November 2020

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he made of the preparedness of pupils to sit their GCSE examinations in 2021 due to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on educational settings.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government has been clear that it is a top priority to keep schools open throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and ensure all pupils benefit from a high quality education.

On 12 October, the Department announced that assessment by examination will be part of a normalised year for Year 11 pupils because examinations are the fairest form of assessment. The Department also announced that the examinations will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all GCSEs. This is three weeks later than the usual start dates from previous years to help teachers and pupils prepare for examinations. The delay and the changes already agreed to what will be assessed in some GCSE subjects, as well as changes that ease the burden of assessment in some subjects at GCSE , will give pupils extra time to study, without causing unnecessary disruption to the usual timetable of the academic year. These changes to the assessment of GCSEs were announced in August, following a public consultation. The outcome of Ofqual’s consultation on summer 2021 exams is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-assessment-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2021.

The Department, along with Ofqual and exam boards, is engaging extensively with the sector on plans for exams in summer 2021, including with head teachers, principals of further education colleges, trade unions and sector representative bodies. Engagement with head teachers and their representatives are through a number of different forums and cover a range of issues, including the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on pupils’ attendance, teaching time and GCSE examinations in 2021. These engagements will inform our planning for all foreseeable scenarios to safeguard pupils’ ability to sit exams and achieve qualifications which allow them to progress to the next stage of their education or employment. We expect to share details of these contingency plans later in the autumn.


Written Question
GCSE: Coronavirus
Wednesday 4th November 2020

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with headteachers on (a) the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on (i) pupil attendance and (ii) teaching time and (b) whether year 11 pupils will be ready to sit their GCSE examinations in 2021; and if he will publish the outcome of those discussions.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government has been clear that it is a top priority to keep schools open throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and ensure all pupils benefit from a high quality education.

On 12 October, the Department announced that assessment by examination will be part of a normalised year for Year 11 pupils because examinations are the fairest form of assessment. The Department also announced that the examinations will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all GCSEs. This is three weeks later than the usual start dates from previous years to help teachers and pupils prepare for examinations. The delay and the changes already agreed to what will be assessed in some GCSE subjects, as well as changes that ease the burden of assessment in some subjects at GCSE , will give pupils extra time to study, without causing unnecessary disruption to the usual timetable of the academic year. These changes to the assessment of GCSEs were announced in August, following a public consultation. The outcome of Ofqual’s consultation on summer 2021 exams is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-assessment-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2021.

The Department, along with Ofqual and exam boards, is engaging extensively with the sector on plans for exams in summer 2021, including with head teachers, principals of further education colleges, trade unions and sector representative bodies. Engagement with head teachers and their representatives are through a number of different forums and cover a range of issues, including the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on pupils’ attendance, teaching time and GCSE examinations in 2021. These engagements will inform our planning for all foreseeable scenarios to safeguard pupils’ ability to sit exams and achieve qualifications which allow them to progress to the next stage of their education or employment. We expect to share details of these contingency plans later in the autumn.


Written Question
Students: Coronavirus
Monday 29th June 2020

Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to provide additional funding to support (a) students at Riverside College, Halton and (b) other students affected by the closure of colleges as a result of the covid-19 outbreak to catch-up on their studies.

Answered by Nick Gibb

We are committed to supporting all children and young people to make up for time spent out of education. We’re giving colleges the flexibility to offer a combination of face-to-face and online delivery to more of their students and apprentices and we know that remote education has been working well for many students in post-16 education.

We will continue to work with the sector to establish the best methods of supporting students to make up for disruption due to COVID-19.