Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Monday 26th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

  Thanks to our teachers and all in education, our schools are once again the centres of learning. Many pupils and teachers at secondary schools would like to see face coverings in the classroom come to an end by 17 May. Can I ask the Minister if the data gives cause for optimism?

[The Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb)]

Our overriding objective is to keep covid out of the classroom and keep pupils and staff safe. All decisions will be based on that data, and on scientific and medical advice. Whether or not we continue to advise that face coverings should be worn in secondary school classrooms is subject to step 3 of the road map process, which will happen, as my hon. Friend mentioned, no earlier than 17 May.

Educational Settings: Reopening

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

The hon. Member raises a hugely important issue that has been at the forefront of our decision making right from the very beginning of the pandemic. When we closed schools for the first time, we allowed vulnerable children and the children of critical workers to attend school, but the attendance rates were quite low—certainly compared with those children’s rates of attendance today. We took action to ensure that local authorities and schools made contact with the families of those children to find out why they were not attending school—whether there were good reasons for that—and to encourage the most vulnerable children to attend school. That remains our position now.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con) [V]]

I thank all the teachers who continue to work so hard to teach our young pupils. Given that by mid-February we should have vaccinated those accounting for 90% of mortality risk, why cannot pupils return to their classrooms later that month? Surely, by that time the risks from school attendance will be lower than they were last autumn, when the school gates were open to all.

[Nick Gibb]

My hon. Friend is right to raise those issues, and I agree with him to the extent that vaccination is an important criterion that will determine how and when we emerge from the national lockdown position, of which schools are an important part. But vaccination is only one of the criteria; hospitalisation rates and mortality rates are also important, as is the challenge of any new variants. We rely on the advice of the scientists to weigh up those different criteria and to advise us on when and how soon we can undo the national lockdown.

Relationship Education in Schools

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Tuesday 16th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

Yes, we do support that pledge, and, as I have said, we will support schools that decide to teach children to understand the importance of difference. That is a fundamental part of our statutory guidance, which was passed by this House.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

I find it somewhat disappointing that most of the ire has been focused on the Government—who have updated the relationship guidance—and not solely on the people who protest outside schools, doing their best to deprive young people of their ability to make their choices, and harassing great teachers and headteachers and putting them under pressure. If the protesters do not desist, and if the Minister is not going to make the guidance prescriptive, which would render the protests fruitless, will he consider introducing exclusion zones around the schools so that those protests cannot bear any fruit?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I pay tribute to her for her interest and passion for educational standards in her constituency. She will be aware that, compared with 2017-18, per pupil funding in Medway is going up by 3.4% and in Kent by 6%. On top of the national funding formula, Medway will receive £12 million and Kent £57.7 million in pupil premium funding.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

I add my congratulations to you, Mr Speaker. I hope that you get your testimonial.

Broad Oak School in my constituency is under threat of closure. It is heavily dependent on its pupil ratio, but the number of pupils it has is down by about 60%. The wider area is down by 20%. What more can the Department do to encourage local authorities to make sure that we build the homes in the areas where we have falling rolls at schools?

[Nick Gibb]

Of course, we have a presumption against the closure of small rural schools. Closing a school is a very difficult decision to take, but my hon. Friend is right. This is a Government who are committed to ensuring that young people can get on to the housing ladder and, because we have a strong economy and a determination to build those houses, we hope that young people will have the homes that they need.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Monday 11th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

As I say, we are spending record amounts on our schools and we have special provision within the national funding formula to help rural, small schools in particular. There is an extra £25 million to ensure that those schools can support themselves and there is a fixed sum for every school of £110,000, but I will meet the hon. Lady and her headteachers to discuss her schools’ particular concerns.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

On Friday, I was one of 3.5 million parents who received a letter from their school concerned that costs are outstripping funding. I was threatened with detention unless I asked the Secretary of State this: when it comes to more funding—and I hope that there will be more funding—will he ensure that it goes to those areas that are currently the lowest-funded counties?

Department for Education

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

I should point out that special educational needs funding is rising from £5 billion in 2013 to £6 billion this year. The statistics that the hon. Gentleman referred to in his speech—the exclusion figures—will be published on 19 July in the usual way, as we do every year.

I wish to point out—

[Huw Merriman]

rose—

[Nick Gibb]

I will not take any interventions for the moment, if my hon. Friend will forgive me.

In addition to the funding distributed through the NFF, eligible pupils will also attract the pupil premium, which has a specific focus on raising the attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds—we are talking about £2.4 billion this year. As a result, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has closed by 10%, and standards are rising in our schools.

Our focus on phonics has transformed the way reading is taught in our primary schools. When we introduced the phonics screening check in 2012, just 58% of the six-year-olds taking the test reached the expected standard. Last year, that 58% had risen to 81%. However, we need to go further to ensure that every primary school is using the best approach to teaching reading. That is why we have funded phonics roadshows and why we are rolling out English hubs across the country to promote, and train schools in, the use of systematic synthetic phonics in the teaching of reading. We want every child in every primary school to be a fluent reader.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Monday 25th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

This Government take mental health very seriously. Some 84% of secondary schools have a counsellor to help children deal with mental health issues and stress, and we have unveiled our Green Paper, whereby we intend to improve mental health support for young people in our schools, including by having a designated senior mental health lead in every school in the country.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

The teachers I meet in my constituency want to use more of their judgment and to reduce their assessment workload. Will the new goals for four to five-year-olds achieve on both fronts?

[Nick Gibb]

We are introducing a baseline assessment so that we can measure the progress that all pupils make in their time at primary school, and that will be based very much on assessment and observation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Monday 19th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb)]

We have funded a considerable number of defibrillators in schools, and we are working with the British Heart Foundation to provide facilities for schools to teach first aid and lifesaving skills in schools.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

Pay rises for teachers in schools in my constituency would be most welcome, but there is a concern that those rises will have to be met from the increase in funding that was delivered to schools in the summer. Are there plans, like there are with the NHS, to find a budget outside the existing school funding formula for those pay rises?

Education: Public Funding

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

As I have said, we are spending record amounts of money on school funding, but there are cost pressures. One of those cost pressures, which the hon. Gentleman has identified, is the increased employer contribution to the teachers’ pension scheme. That is part of a range of measures that are helping to tackle our historic budget deficit, which we have reduced from 9.9% of national income to 2.5% of national income, and which we have to eliminate if we are to keep the economy strong. We are determined to continue with that.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

Will the Minister work with colleagues across Whitehall to persuade councils to prioritise house building in parishes and towns where schools are facing falling rolls and a resultant shortage in funds?

Key Stage 2 Tests

Debate between Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb

Tuesday 10th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

I do not disagree with the right hon. Lady. It is important that children are tested frequently, which helps with memory and practice. Schools use informal formative testing as part of the learning process. There is also another purpose of testing, as summative testing for public accountability and to hold schools to account. That is why the key stage 2 assessments, or SATs, were introduced nearly 30 years ago: to hold schools to account. In doing so, we can target school improvement resources on those schools that are not delivering the quality of education that we want for our young people. We need to be able to do that. Children have only one chance at an education and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is committed to ensuring that we have educational excellence everywhere, in every part of the country. To be able to identify those areas and schools that need the extra support, we need external assessment of children as they leave primary school.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

As a parent who has a child who will do key stage 1 this year and another doing key stage 2, I find it absolutely outrageous that an individual has put my child’s chances at risk with this leak. Does the Minister agree that it would be better for the Opposition to bear that point in mind rather than playing politics with children’s testing?

[Mr Gibb]

I agree with my hon. Friend. As I said, the whole system depends on the integrity of professionals. We need our senior markers to have access to this material weeks before it goes live. We need our test developers to have access to individual questions months before the tests go live. We test these tests with a large number of pupils before we are sure that they have the right degree of demand. A range of people have access to this material long before it goes live in the classroom. If people do not have that professional integrity, there will be problems. We will be investigating to identify the individual and to ensure that Pearson’s processes are tightened up so that this cannot happen again.