Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to ensure young people in Knowsley have access to academic A-level provision within the borough boundaries.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The hon. Member for Garston and Halewood met my Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education, on 25 October 2017. The Department remains committed to working with the local authority (LA) Executive Director (Children), to determine the demand for A level provision above and beyond existing accessible provision, and ensure that the needs of young people in the borough are being met.
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough will benefit from some limited A level provision through the imminent merger of Knowsley Community College with St Helens College, where A levels will be taught at the Knowsley campus from September 2018.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency is meeting the leadership of both colleges in December. The Department is also working closely with Knowsley LA’s Executive Director (Children), to ensure the implementation of ‘Knowsley Better Together’; the wider local LA led plan for improving access to A levels in Knowsley.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of average class sizes in Garston and Halewood constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Average class size figures for state-funded schools in England are calculated and published annually in the statistical first releases available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers.
A national summary of average class sizes for key stages 1 and 2 and secondary is in the national tables document for each year, tables 6a and 6b respectively.
Data is not summarised by parliamentary constituency, but data for each school providing average class sizes for key stages 1 and 2, where appropriate, and overall is available via opening the underlying tables document for each year then the file ‘…Schools_Classes_UD’. The figures can be filtered by parliamentary constituency, school phase and local authority.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that reductions in real-terms to school funding in Garston and Halewood constituency will not exceed 1.5 per cent in 2017-18.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We have made a significant investment in our schools by providing an additional £1.3 billion across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above existing plans. As the independent IFS have confirmed, overall funding per pupil will now be maintained in real terms up to 2020. The national funding formula will deliver higher per pupil funding in respect of every school, and every local area.
Since 2015, the schools budget has been protected in real terms. Both Liverpool’s and Knowsley’s School Block allocations have been protected in cash terms per pupil.
Local authorities, in consultation with local schools, set their own formulae that determine schools’ budgets. As my Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out in July, this will continue in 2018-19 and 2019-20, providing stability for schools during the transition to the national funding formula.
Local formulae must include the minimum funding guarantee, which means that no school’s budget can be reduced by more than 1.5% per pupil in any year.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much core revenue funding Springwood Heath Primary School in Garston and Halewood constituency received for (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18; and how much funding that school is planned to receive for (i) 2019-20 and (ii) 2020-21.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department primarily allocates revenue funding at local authority level.
The schools block allocation for individual schools for the 2016-17 financial year are published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2016-to-2017.
Further information can be found in the attached table.
Individual school allocations for 2017-18 will be published later this year. The formulae that local authorities have used to distribute funding to schools this year are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/schools-block-funding-formulae-2017-to-2018.
We recently consulted on a national funding formula for schools. We believe that the current funding arrangements are unfair and we remain committed to changing them.
We received over 25,000 responses to the consultation, which we are analysing in detail. We are grateful to all those who expressed their views on school funding and the proposed formula as part of this process. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course. Until then, we are unable to confirm the funding each school will receive in future years.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Liverpool Garston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much core revenue funding Calderstone's School in Garston and Halewood constituency received for (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18; and how much funding that school is planned to receive for (i) 2019-20 and (ii) 2020-21.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department primarily allocates revenue funding at local authority level.
The schools block allocation for individual schools for the 2016-17 financial year are published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-block-funding-allocations-2016-to-2017.
Further information can be found in the attached table.
Individual school allocations for 2017-18 will be published later this year. The formulae that local authorities have used to distribute funding to schools this year are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/schools-block-funding-formulae-2017-to-2018.
We recently consulted on a national funding formula for schools. We believe that the current funding arrangements are unfair and we remain committed to changing them.
We received over 25,000 responses to the consultation, which we are analysing in detail. We are grateful to all those who expressed their views on school funding and the proposed formula as part of this process. We will publish the response to the consultation in due course. Until then, we are unable to confirm the funding each school will receive in future years.