Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions on the ethnic diversity of Catholic schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of removing the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions on pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds who seek a place in a Catholic school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to agree the Church Supplemental Agreement.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department is currently considering the changes proposed by the Church of England Education Office and Catholic Education Service to the Church Supplemental Agreement and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure the balance of enabling free speech in universities whilst mitigating the potential risk caused by extremist speakers.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universities are legally required to take reasonable steps to ensure freedom of speech for staff, students and visiting speakers. This includes publishing a code of conduct setting out how they do this. They must balance this duty alongside their other legal responsibilities including the statutory Prevent duty which requires them to have due regard to avoid the potential risk of people being drawn into terrorism.
The Prevent guidance for Higher Education sets out that universities should have policies in place for the management of external speakers and events. This includes guidance on how universities balance their duty to promote free speech whilst mitigating the potential risk to safety or welfare that may be posed by extremist speakers.
The Department for Education’s regional Prevent coordinator network provides additional support to universities to enable them to assess the potential risks from certain speakers and how to take mitigating action to ensure that ideas and opinions can be heard, challenged and debated.
The statutory Prevent duty is monitored by the Higher Education Funding Council for England who report to us that institutions are properly balancing the need to protect their students, whilst ensuring that freedom of speech on campus is not undermined.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the comparative demand between regions from parents for places in Catholic schools.
Answered by Lord Nash
The department makes no assessment of the comparative demand for specific types of school places. Local authorities (LAs) have a statutory responsibility to ensure there are sufficient school places for their areas and they will take parental demand into account when deciding where additional places are needed. Where there is specific demand for additional Catholic school places, it is for the LA to decide how best to meet that demand. This could be through establishing a new school or expanding an existing school.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of pupils’ achievement in non-selective schools operating in areas where there are existing grammar schools.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of entries and achievements of pupils at the end of key stage 4 by school admission basis in England for academic year 2015/16 are publicly available.
The latest statistics, for 2015-2016, are available in Table 2b in the attached tables that accompanied the statistical first release ‘GCSE and equivalent results: 2015 to 2016 (provisional)’, which was published in October 2016.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the proportion of deprived children in existing grammar schools in comparison to non-selective schools.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In January 2016, 2.5% of pupils in grammar schools were eligible for free school meals whereas 13.8% of pupils were eligible for free school meals in non-selective secondary schools.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are considering to ensure that selective schools serve pupils from deprived backgrounds.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our consultation ‘Schools that work for everyone’ sets our expectation that both existing and new selective schools should do more to extend access to disadvantaged children and to support other local schools to help drive up standards across the system, for example by sponsoring an underperforming school or setting up a non-selective school.
We will consider the responses to the consultation carefully, and will set out our response in the Spring of 2017.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to ensure that pupils from the most deprived areas are not negatively impacted by new grammar schools.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our consultation ‘Schools that work for everyone’ sets our expectation that both existing and new selective schools should do more to extend access to disadvantaged children and to support other local schools to help drive up standards across the system, for example by sponsoring an underperforming school or setting up a non-selective school.
We will consider the responses to the consultation carefully, and will set out our response in the Spring of 2017.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the progress made by disadvantaged pupils in Church schools.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Revised key stage 2 and provisional key stage 4 performance data[1][2] shows that Church schools continue to perform well and many help their pupils progress at a higher rate than non-faith schools. It is also the case that pupils from poorer backgrounds perform better[3] at faith secondary schools than at other secondary schools.
We want more good schools and to enable high quality providers to establish them. Our consultation, Schools that Work for Everyone, is aimed at creating more good schools, including Church schools, so they can improve the life chances of young people so they have the chance to go as far as their talents will take them.
[1] Please see table N7b in the attached copy of 'National curriculum assessments at key stage 2 in England, 2016 (revised).
[2] Please see table 2c in the attached copy of Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England, 2105 to 2016.
[3] Based on the percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and mathematics in 2015