Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to increase the minimum number of hours training in physical education required as part of teacher training.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Physical education (PE) is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the National Curriculum (2014). Through the primary PE and sport premium, the Government has invested over £600 million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. An independent evaluation report into the premium was published in December 2015. It found that 87% of schools reported that the quality of PE teaching had increased since the introduction of the premium.
Providing the best possible initial teacher training (ITT) is at the heart of the Government’s drive to improve teaching standards. All programmes of ITT must prepare teachers to demonstrate that they have met the Teachers’ Standards (2011), and demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge. This includes physical education for all primary trainees, and for secondary PE subject specialists.
The amount of time that primary trainees spend in training on each of the subjects of the National Curriculum is not specified by Government. However, ITT providers must ensure that trainees meet all of the relevant standards by the end of their training.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people took a GCSE or equivalent qualification in Food Technology in each of the past 15 years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The total number of pupils, at the end of key stage 4[1], who entered GCSE (or equivalent) food technology between 2002/3 and 2016/17 is published as part of the Department’s key stage 4 statistical first release[2]. The figures are presented in the table below.
Year[3] | Number of pupils (thousands)[4] |
|
|
2016/17 | 29.8[5] |
2015/16 | 33.4 |
2014/15 | 38.4 |
2013/14[6] | 40.6 |
2012/13 | 43.4 |
2011/12 | 49.5 |
2010/11 | 54.0 |
2009/10 | 62.1 |
2008/09 | 66.7 |
2007/08 | 72.5 |
2006/07 | 80.1 |
2005/06 | 85.2 |
2004/05 | 93.8 |
2003/04 | 103.0 |
2002/03 | 103.8 |
[1] Pupils are identified as being at the end of key stage 4 if they were on roll at the school and in year 11 at the time of the January school census for that year. Age is calculated as at 31 August for that year, and the majority of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were age 15 at the start of the academic year. Some pupils may complete this key stage in an earlier or later year group.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2016-to-2017-provisional (Subject time series table). Figures for pre 2010 are accessible on the national archives website.
[3] In 2004/05 – 2007/08 an additional table provides a slightly different figure (varying by 1-300 from those provided in this table). This has no meaningful impact on the figures or trend.
[4] Includes pupils who were absent, whose results are pending and results which are ungraded or unclassified.
[5] 2017 figures are based on provisional data. Figures for all other years are final.
[6] In 2013/14, two major reforms were implemented which affect the calculation of key stage 4 performance measures data: 1) Professor Alison Wolf’s Review of Vocational Education recommendations which: restrict the qualifications counted; prevent any qualification from counting as larger than one GCSE; and cap the number of non-GCSEs included in performance measures at two per pupil, and 2) an early entry policy to only count a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification, in subjects counted in the English Baccalaureate.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will write to schools to remind them of their power to vary the dates of school terms.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Head teachers, school governors and local authorities are best placed to set school term and holiday dates, in the best interests of the pupils and parents in their local area. As such, term dates are determined locally by schools and local authorities. The Department for Education does not collect data on schools’ term-dates.
For maintained schools, community schools, community special schools, voluntary controlled schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery schools, the governing body or local authority are responsible for setting term dates. This must be done in line with the requirements of the length of the school year, as set out in the Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999.
Academies, free schools, and other schools where the governing body is the employer of staff, such as foundation or voluntary-aided (church) schools, are free to set their own term and holiday dates. Some of these schools have already made innovative changes in the interests of pupils and parents.
Schools and local authorities can find guidance on the responsibilities for setting school term dates in the published School Attendance Guidance, which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools have varied the dates of their school terms in the last three years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Head teachers, school governors and local authorities are best placed to set school term and holiday dates, in the best interests of the pupils and parents in their local area. As such, term dates are determined locally by schools and local authorities. The Department for Education does not collect data on schools’ term-dates.
For maintained schools, community schools, community special schools, voluntary controlled schools, pupil referral units and maintained nursery schools, the governing body or local authority are responsible for setting term dates. This must be done in line with the requirements of the length of the school year, as set out in the Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999.
Academies, free schools, and other schools where the governing body is the employer of staff, such as foundation or voluntary-aided (church) schools, are free to set their own term and holiday dates. Some of these schools have already made innovative changes in the interests of pupils and parents.
Schools and local authorities can find guidance on the responsibilities for setting school term dates in the published School Attendance Guidance, which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to communicate to the public the value of increases in the education budget.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The department has published the full detail of the school and high needs national funding formulae, which outlines the impact they will have for every local authority. We have also published notional school level allocations showing what each school would attract through the formula. This means that for the first time, everyone can see what the national funding formulae will mean for their school. The published documents can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.
When the department announced the final details of the formulae in September, the former Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening) made a statement in the House; we have also written to all hon. Members setting out the details of the formulae and the impact on schools in their constituencies.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the total education budget for Swindon was in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The planned expenditure of Swindon local authority on schools and other education services in each of the last seven years was as follows:
| Total Schools Budget | Other Education and Community Budget |
| (Net) | (Net) |
| £000s | £000s |
2017-18 | 170,120 | 7,069 |
2016-17 | 164,072 | 7,159 |
2015-16 | 161,514 | 6,953 |
2014-15 | 146,933 | 6,005 |
2013-14 | 144,772 | 6,132 |
2012-13 | Not available on a consistent basis | 7,834 |
2011-12 | Not available on a consistent basis | 8,951 |
Source: Section 251 Budget returns. | ||
Figures shown are net of expected income. Income sources could include private sources, other local authorities’ fees, charges paid by parents (such as meals, music, board / lodging) and lettings.
Planned expenditure on schools, education and children’s services by local authorities in England is published at:
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the number of students studying GCSE or equivalent in ICT & Computer Science.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The total number of pupils, at the end of Key Stage 4, achieving grades A*-G in GCSE or equivalent in ICT/ Information Technology or Computer Science since 2009/10 is published in the Department’s statistical first release[1], and is set out below:
Subject |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017[2] |
Information Technology[3] |
| 42.8 | 35.9 | 39.4 | 58.3 | 82.7 | 100.9 | 73.5 | 60.9 |
Computer Science[4] |
| - | - | - | - | 15.2 | 32.6 | 60.2 | 65.6 |
Source: Key stage 4 attainment data
The Department reformed the Computer Science GCSE to provide a stronger foundation for further academic and vocational study. The new GCSE was introduced in September 2016 and requires students to understand mathematical principles and concepts such as data representation, Boolean logic and different data types. Students also have to understand the components of computer systems, and write and refine programs. The ICT GCSE was not reformed and ceased to be available for teaching from September 2017.
The Government announced during the Budget that it was investing £84 million of new funding from 2018-23 to deliver a comprehensive programme to improve the teaching of computing in schools and drive up participation in computer science at GCSE. This new programme will include retraining up to 8,000 secondary teachers to teach computer science GCSE, a National Centre for Computing Education including a national network of support for schools to provide training and resources to schools, and pilot of targeted activities to improve the gender balance in computer science GCSE and A level.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4 - Select the revised link for each year (latest for 2017 is provisional), then open the ‘subject tables’. The figures are provided in the first tab (in some years, data on equivalents is provided in table 12).
[2] 2017 figures are based on provisional data. Figures for all other years are final.
[3] Includes Computer Studies, Information Systems and any combined syllabus of which Information Technology is the major part.
[4] Computer science includes all computer science qualifications and is not limited to just those located on the science pillar of the EBacc.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have left school with a GCSE or equivalent in ICT & Computer Science in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The total number of pupils, at the end of Key Stage 4, achieving grades A*-G in GCSE or equivalent in ICT/ Information Technology or Computer Science since 2009/10 is published in the Department’s statistical first release[1], and is set out below:
Subject |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017[2] |
Information Technology[3] |
| 42.8 | 35.9 | 39.4 | 58.3 | 82.7 | 100.9 | 73.5 | 60.9 |
Computer Science[4] |
| - | - | - | - | 15.2 | 32.6 | 60.2 | 65.6 |
Source: Key stage 4 attainment data
The Department reformed the Computer Science GCSE to provide a stronger foundation for further academic and vocational study. The new GCSE was introduced in September 2016 and requires students to understand mathematical principles and concepts such as data representation, Boolean logic and different data types. Students also have to understand the components of computer systems, and write and refine programs. The ICT GCSE was not reformed and ceased to be available for teaching from September 2017.
The Government announced during the Budget that it was investing £84 million of new funding from 2018-23 to deliver a comprehensive programme to improve the teaching of computing in schools and drive up participation in computer science at GCSE. This new programme will include retraining up to 8,000 secondary teachers to teach computer science GCSE, a National Centre for Computing Education including a national network of support for schools to provide training and resources to schools, and pilot of targeted activities to improve the gender balance in computer science GCSE and A level.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-gcses-key-stage-4 - Select the revised link for each year (latest for 2017 is provisional), then open the ‘subject tables’. The figures are provided in the first tab (in some years, data on equivalents is provided in table 12).
[2] 2017 figures are based on provisional data. Figures for all other years are final.
[3] Includes Computer Studies, Information Systems and any combined syllabus of which Information Technology is the major part.
[4] Computer science includes all computer science qualifications and is not limited to just those located on the science pillar of the EBacc.