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Written Question
Army Foundation College: Inspections
Tuesday 9th March 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the Ofsted inspection regime for the Army Foundation College differs from that used in civilian colleges of further education for the same age group.

Answered by Nick Gibb

This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.


Written Question
Education: Coronavirus
Tuesday 9th March 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

What steps he is taking to help make up for teaching time lost as a result of the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to helping children and young people make up learning lost as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is why we have invested £1.7 billion to give early years, schools and colleges support to help pupils get back on track, including additional funding for tutoring, early language support and summer schools.

We have appointed Sir Kevan Collins as an Education Recovery Commissioner to advise on our recovery plan and academic and non-academic factors in supporting attainment will form a part of this work.


Written Question
Children: Reading
Monday 22nd February 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support reading for pleasure among children during the national covid-19 lockdown that has been in place since January 2021.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards by ensuring all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can read fluently and with understanding. The Department is aware that reading for pleasure brings a range of benefits, including reading attainment, writing ability, text comprehension and grammar, breadth of vocabulary, and pleasure in reading in later life.

In 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, particularly for disadvantaged children. Since its launch, the Government has provided a further £17 million in funding for this improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. The programme has provided targeted support to several thousands of schools across England, and in the 2020-21 academic year, is providing intensive support to over 850 partner schools.

To provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision, the Department has made £4.84 million available to Oak National Academy to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Oak National Academy’s video lessons include coverage of literacy, reading for pleasure and English as appropriate from Early Years Foundation Stage up to Key Stage 4.

To support schools in making up for lost classroom time, the Government has announced a £1 billion catch-up package, including a universal catch-up premium worth £650 million. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional measures required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education. This can include support in reading through systematic synthetic phonics and reading for pleasure initiatives.

The catch-up package includes a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils. The programme comprises three elements: a tuition programme for five to 16 year olds, with tuition partners and academic mentors specialising in English available to schools; a 16 to 19 tuition fund, including support for small group tuition in English, and a targeted early language support programme for Reception aged children to support early literacy.

The Department is regularly conducting evidence reviews to understand the effect of COVID-19 on reading comprehension, as well as other subjects. As expected, published studies show that primary pupils faced considerable loss in overall reading comprehension, as well as other subjects, based on studies that assessed pupils in the autumn 2020 term, although there are some methodological limitations, which mean that the exact estimates are uncertain.

The Department has not yet published data on the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on reading for pleasure. Recognising the importance of reading during the disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department held a Reading Together Day on 16 July 2020 to celebrate the benefits of reading. As part of this, we published 10 top tips to help parents support their children to read and this information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-top-tips-to-encourage-children-to-read.


Written Question
Children: Literacy and Reading
Monday 22nd February 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) reading for pleasure and (b) literacy levels among children.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards by ensuring all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can read fluently and with understanding. The Department is aware that reading for pleasure brings a range of benefits, including reading attainment, writing ability, text comprehension and grammar, breadth of vocabulary, and pleasure in reading in later life.

In 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, particularly for disadvantaged children. Since its launch, the Government has provided a further £17 million in funding for this improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. The programme has provided targeted support to several thousands of schools across England, and in the 2020-21 academic year, is providing intensive support to over 850 partner schools.

To provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision, the Department has made £4.84 million available to Oak National Academy to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Oak National Academy’s video lessons include coverage of literacy, reading for pleasure and English as appropriate from Early Years Foundation Stage up to Key Stage 4.

To support schools in making up for lost classroom time, the Government has announced a £1 billion catch-up package, including a universal catch-up premium worth £650 million. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional measures required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education. This can include support in reading through systematic synthetic phonics and reading for pleasure initiatives.

The catch-up package includes a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils. The programme comprises three elements: a tuition programme for five to 16 year olds, with tuition partners and academic mentors specialising in English available to schools; a 16 to 19 tuition fund, including support for small group tuition in English, and a targeted early language support programme for Reception aged children to support early literacy.

The Department is regularly conducting evidence reviews to understand the effect of COVID-19 on reading comprehension, as well as other subjects. As expected, published studies show that primary pupils faced considerable loss in overall reading comprehension, as well as other subjects, based on studies that assessed pupils in the autumn 2020 term, although there are some methodological limitations, which mean that the exact estimates are uncertain.

The Department has not yet published data on the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on reading for pleasure. Recognising the importance of reading during the disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department held a Reading Together Day on 16 July 2020 to celebrate the benefits of reading. As part of this, we published 10 top tips to help parents support their children to read and this information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-top-tips-to-encourage-children-to-read.


Written Question
Children: Literacy and Reading
Monday 22nd February 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of covid-19 on children’s (a) reading for pleasure and (b) literacy levels.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards by ensuring all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can read fluently and with understanding. The Department is aware that reading for pleasure brings a range of benefits, including reading attainment, writing ability, text comprehension and grammar, breadth of vocabulary, and pleasure in reading in later life.

In 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, particularly for disadvantaged children. Since its launch, the Government has provided a further £17 million in funding for this improvement programme, which focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. The programme has provided targeted support to several thousands of schools across England, and in the 2020-21 academic year, is providing intensive support to over 850 partner schools.

To provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision, the Department has made £4.84 million available to Oak National Academy to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to Year 11. Oak National Academy’s video lessons include coverage of literacy, reading for pleasure and English as appropriate from Early Years Foundation Stage up to Key Stage 4.

To support schools in making up for lost classroom time, the Government has announced a £1 billion catch-up package, including a universal catch-up premium worth £650 million. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional measures required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education. This can include support in reading through systematic synthetic phonics and reading for pleasure initiatives.

The catch-up package includes a £350 million National Tutoring Programme for disadvantaged pupils. The programme comprises three elements: a tuition programme for five to 16 year olds, with tuition partners and academic mentors specialising in English available to schools; a 16 to 19 tuition fund, including support for small group tuition in English, and a targeted early language support programme for Reception aged children to support early literacy.

The Department is regularly conducting evidence reviews to understand the effect of COVID-19 on reading comprehension, as well as other subjects. As expected, published studies show that primary pupils faced considerable loss in overall reading comprehension, as well as other subjects, based on studies that assessed pupils in the autumn 2020 term, although there are some methodological limitations, which mean that the exact estimates are uncertain.

The Department has not yet published data on the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on reading for pleasure. Recognising the importance of reading during the disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the Department held a Reading Together Day on 16 July 2020 to celebrate the benefits of reading. As part of this, we published 10 top tips to help parents support their children to read and this information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-top-tips-to-encourage-children-to-read.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Friday 15th January 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) primary and (b) secondary schools provide his Department with regular updates on covid-19 cases within their education facility.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Primary and secondary schools are required to supply daily COVID-19 attendance data to the Department for both pupils and staff. This information is collected on electronic forms and submitted to the Department through an online portal.

Schools provide the numbers of pupils unable to attend face to face education or undertake remote learning according to the categories below:

  • Suspected cases of COVID-19
  • Confirmed cases of COVID-19
  • Pupils who have been asked to remain at home due to potential contact with a case of COVID-19 within their setting
  • Pupils who have been asked to remain at home due to potential contact with a case of COVID-19 outside of their setting, including self isolation.


Written Question
Teachers: Coronavirus
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary and secondary school teachers have died as a result of covid-19.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department does not hold data on how many deaths there have been due to COVID-19 in the teaching profession, nor information on how many teachers have contracted COVID-19 in the workplace.

Current scientific evidence is that children are at very low risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and there is also no current evidence that staff are at higher risk of infection than those working in other sectors.

The safety and wellbeing of staff and pupils is always our priority. The Government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our registered nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.

On 7 January the Department published guidance “Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak”, which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

The Department will continue to keep its plans under review and ensure our position is informed by the latest evidence.


Written Question
Teachers: Coronavirus
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary and secondary school teachers have contracted covid-19 in the workplace.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department does not hold data on how many deaths there have been due to COVID-19 in the teaching profession, nor information on how many teachers have contracted COVID-19 in the workplace.

Current scientific evidence is that children are at very low risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and there is also no current evidence that staff are at higher risk of infection than those working in other sectors.

The safety and wellbeing of staff and pupils is always our priority. The Government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our registered nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.

On 7 January the Department published guidance “Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak”, which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

The Department will continue to keep its plans under review and ensure our position is informed by the latest evidence.


Written Question
Teachers: Coronavirus
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the Government will publish statistics on the number of teachers who have died of covid-19.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department does not hold data on how many deaths there have been due to COVID-19 in the teaching profession, nor information on how many teachers have contracted COVID-19 in the workplace.

Current scientific evidence is that children are at very low risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and there is also no current evidence that staff are at higher risk of infection than those working in other sectors.

The safety and wellbeing of staff and pupils is always our priority. The Government is doing all it can to minimise the risks to those working and studying in our registered nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities in this unprecedented situation, while mitigating the impact on education.

On 7 January the Department published guidance “Actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak”, which sets out what all schools will need to do during the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2021: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

The Department will continue to keep its plans under review and ensure our position is informed by the latest evidence.


Written Question
Teachers: Absenteeism and Sick Leave
Monday 11th January 2021

Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the data his Department holds on the rates of (a) sick leave and (b) absence of (i) primary and (ii) secondary school teachers from the workplace for the periods from (A) 1 September 2018 to 4 January 2019, (B) 1 September 2019 to 4 January 2020 and (C) 1 September 2020 to 4 January 2021.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The information requested is not available in the format requested.

For the 2018/19 academic year, the Department collects information on teacher sickness absence from all state funded schools via the School Workforce Census, held in November each year since 2010. Each census collects data for absence from the previous academic year. The latest data available cover the academic year September 2018 to August 2019.

Information on the number and rates of teacher sickness absence are published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The table below shows teacher sickness absence data during the 2018/19 academic year in state funded schools in England:

Teacher sickness absence data[1][2]

2018/19

Average number of Days - all teachers

4.1

Average number of days taken

7.5

Percentage taking absence

54.0

Total Number of Days lost

2,133,253

Total teachers taking absence

284,146

For the 2019/20 academic year, to reduce burdens on schools during the COVID-19 outbreak, the return of absence data for the 2019/20 academic year was not required in the ongoing 2020 School Workforce Census. Schools will not be asked to submit 2020 census absence data retrospectively in future censuses.

For the 2020/21 academic year, the Department intends to publish detailed school workforce absence data?from 19 January 2021. This data will be included as part of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-?19) outbreak’.? The data shall be drawn from the educational setting status form, which was set up to help the government monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on schools, nurseries and colleges, focus support more effectively and keep children safe.

The Department plans to return to collecting information on teacher sickness absence in the 2020/21 academic year from all state funded schools via the School Workforce Census, held in November 2021. This data shall be released, as per the usual timings, in the summer of 2022.

[1] The total teachers taking sickness absence and total days taken are estimates based on the schools that were able to make a full absence return. They are only available for England as a whole and not by region, local authority or school. For further details please see the methodology document.

[2] Before using this data, please check the methodology section for important information such as definitions, limitations and caveats. This is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/891b274b-8080-433d-897f-5e39f2082379.