Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school places were available in (a) Edmonton constituency and (b) Enfield borough in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects pupil forecasts, existing school capacities, and plans to deliver additional school places from each local authority via the annual school capacity survey which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-capacity.
The Department only collects data at local authority and planning area level, and so do not hold constituency level data. Over 5,000 new school places have been created in Enfield local authority since 2010.
Table 1: Secondary capacity in Enfield since 2010
Academic Year | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Enfield | 23,914 | 24,585 | 24,615 | 24,000 | 28,230 | 27,901 | 28,533 | 28,717 | 29,394 |
The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. We provide basic need funding for every place that is needed, based on local authorities’ own data on pupil forecasts. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. Enfield has been allocated £122.7 million to provide new school places from 2011-2021.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department issues to schools on the (a) use and (b) recycling of plastics.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Department for Education is encouraging schools, as well as suppliers of goods and services to schools, to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics throughout the supply chain. Further information regarding this can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-challenged-to-go-single-use-plastic-free-by-2022.
We urge schools to consider finding reusable alternatives wherever possible.
As part of the science curriculum, children are taught about the scientific concepts that relate to the environment. At key stage 2, pupils should explore examples of the human impact on environments, which can include the negative impact of litter. This is built upon in key stage 3 chemistry where pupils are taught about the efficacy of recycling.