Munira Wilson

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE.

The review will be driven by evidence as it seeks to deliver an excellent foundation in the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics, and considers the key knowledge and skills, including digital, needed for future life.

It will also seek to deliver an assessment system that captures the strengths of every child and young person, with the right balance of assessment methods whilst maintaining the important role of examinations.

The review group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work. The final report with recommendations will be published this autumn. The department will take decisions on what changes to make to assessment and qualifications in light of these recommendations.

The department recently published its latest research on the cost of school uniform, surveying parents and carers of children aged 4 to 16 attending state-funded schools in England. The research report assessed the relative changes to the cost of school uniform since the department’s previous report in 2015. This report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms-survey-2023.

The research found that the average total expenditure on school uniform and physical education (PE) kit, based on the items required in 2023, was £381.92. There were higher levels of expenditure for children in secondary schools, at £442.25, than in primary schools, at £343.28, and within both phases for girls (secondary: £454.31; primary: £357.28) compared to boys (secondary: £430.40; primary: £330.78).

The data was sampled to be representative of the population at primary and secondary level. The sample size was not large enough to make robust comparisons at a regional level.

Too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities. This will give parents more choice in where to purchase uniform and allow them greater flexibility to make the spending decisions that suit their circumstances.

Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index provides an insight into the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff working in the UK.

Ensuring our education workforce are supported is critical to retaining teachers our children need and to deliver high-quality teaching for every child. The department is working in partnership with the sector and mental health experts to improve staff mental health and wellbeing to boost retention. Measures to do so include:

• Continued promotion of the education staff wellbeing charter, which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges, more than 4,000 schools and colleges have adopted the charter. The charter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.
• Funded mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling. With more than 2,500 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. More information can be accessed at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/professional-supervision/.
• Making a range of resources available to help schools prioritise staff wellbeing. For example, the department’s ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, which was developed alongside school leaders, provides tools to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload and improve staff wellbeing; and guidance to support school leaders and staff to help manage behaviour in schools.

The department knows there are further changes needed to make to ensure the system is most effective for children, schools and staff, and to reset the relationship with the sector.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.

​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.

​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:

• ​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.

​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.

Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.

This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.

The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.

The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.

​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.

​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:

• ​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.

​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.

Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.

This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.

The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.

The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.

​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.

​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:

• ​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.

​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.

Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.

This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.

The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.

The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

Recruiting and retaining more teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child, as the in-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high-quality teaching. This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes.

​Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools. Since the department does not collect the curriculum data for primary teachers, we cannot identify the primary music teachers to calculate a leaver statistic.

​Based on the school workforce census data, the numbers of secondary school music teachers who left the teaching profession during the specified periods are as follows:

• ​ In the 2010/11 to 2014/15 academic years,1,968 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2015/16 to 2019/20 academic years, 1,833 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.
• ​ In the 2020/21 to 2022/23 academic years,1,068 secondary school music teachers left the teaching profession.

​Information on the number of teachers leaving service for the 2023/24 academic year will be published in June 2025.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School workforce in England’ statistical publication, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

This includes the number and rate of teacher vacancies in each school, local authority, region and nationally. Figures for primary and secondary schools for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years, which is the latest information available, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/8a3eb31d-c466-4007-0220-08dd45ba797d.

Information on teacher vacancies for the 2024/25 academic year will be published in June 2025.

This is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge by ensuring teaching is once again an attractive and respected profession, which is key to ensuring teachers receive the pay they deserve. That is why we have accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available from the 2025/26 recruitment cycle to support teacher trainees, with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

In addition to recruiting expert teachers, we want existing teachers to stay and thrive in the profession, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are six schools in Mid Cheshire that are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

To further support retention, we have made available workload and wellbeing resources that were developed with school leaders, through our new Improving Workload and Wellbeing online service. We are also continuing to promote the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which currently has nearly 4,000 school and college signatories.

The department is also funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders. This includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting Education Support’s website.

The department is also committed to supporting schools to implement flexible working practices including taking planning, preparation and assessment time remotely.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. They play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework, national professional qualifications and appropriate body services.

Information on the school workforce is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

The pandemic period affects figures relating to the data between 2019 and 2021.

In the state school sector, there were 45,381 new entrants in 2019/20 compared to 47,230 in 2018/19. This reduced to 41,796 in 2020/21. The numbers have risen again as reflected in the most recent census, where there were 44,002 new entrants in 2023/24.

Retention increased during the COVID-19 pandemic which we expect is due to changing career plans for individuals. In 2019/20, 41,193 teachers left the profession compared to 43,134 in 2018/19, and this dropped to 32,227 in 2020/21. In the most recent census, 43,522 teachers left the profession, whilst almost 9 in 10 (88.7%) teachers who qualified in 2022 are still teaching one year after qualification, almost three-quarters (74.1%) of teachers who qualified three years ago are still teaching and over two-thirds (67.5%) of teachers who qualified five years ago are still teaching.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.

​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.

The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.

No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.

​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.

The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.

No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.

​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.

The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.

No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

The within school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is therefore critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child.

​This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. That is why the government has set out the ambition to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this Parliament.

​​​The department has made good early progress towards this key pledge. We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools for 2024/25. Alongside teacher pay, we have made £233 million available for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, which is an increase of £37 million from the 2024/25 cycle, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its schoolteacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’ and the further education teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Share your Skills’.

​A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy, and new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in the first five years of their careers will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000 after-tax if working in disadvantaged schools. There are four schools in the Twickenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.

We want to ensure teaching is an attractive profession to a wide range of people, including parents. This is why the department is enabling schools to offer greater flexible working, such as allowing planning, preparation, and assessment to be undertaken from home, as well as making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.

The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Charles Dickens Primary School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Twickenham schools.

The department has established Teaching School Hubs across the country, which play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training and development. Wandle Teaching School Hub supports teacher training and development across Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth.

No notices of reduced or ended funding have been issued regarding teacher recruitment or retention schemes since 30 October 2024.

The government has committed £1.4 billion to continue the current School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) in 2025/26, reconfirming our commitment to rebuild or refurbish 518 schools and sixth form colleges across England, prioritising delivery based on need.

All schools within the programme, including those with confirmed reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, are prioritised for delivery according to the condition of their buildings, readiness to proceed and efficiency of delivery. The department also takes into account the suitability and longevity of any temporary accommodation schools and sixth form colleges may have in place. Expected delivery timeframes have been communicated to all responsible bodies and specific start dates are communicated at least a month in advance of the project entering delivery. Since we communicated these timescales, we have not made any significant changes to them to move start dates around.

Just under half of SRP projects have started various stages of delivery activity and the department plans to increase the number of existing school rebuilding projects to 100, of which delivery begins in the next financial year so work can start more quickly.

Once a school enters delivery, a project team carries out a feasibility study which determines the scope of the works. SRP projects typically take 3 to 5 years to complete.

The higher education (HE) sector is independent from government and it is therefore for individual providers to determine and address any estate issues.

The Institution of Structural Engineers has published guidance that HE institutions can refer to on investigating and assessing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Departmental officials engaged with Universities UK and HE mission groups during 2023, to direct HE providers to RAAC guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers and to departmental RAAC guidance for state-funded education buildings.

The department knows that children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. We recognise the importance of the early identification of needs to ensure the right support is put in place as early as possible to ensure children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and developmental differences and delays can get the best start in life.

The department wants all early years educators to feel confident in identifying and supporting developmental differences and delays, including knowing how to access further support and advice when needed. To support this we have funded training for up to 7000 special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs), have published new resources, including a free online training module and SEND assessment guidance to help early educators to identify, assess and support children in their settings, and announced funding support for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme for this academic year for children needing extra support with their speech and language development.

When a child is between two and three-years-old, educators must review their progress and provide parents or carers with a brief written summary of their development in key areas. This summary highlights strengths, areas needing additional support, and strategies to address any concerns. Guidance is available to help educators accurately assess a child's development and work closely with parents and professionals to provide necessary support.

The government is committed to reducing the numbers of lives lost to suicide, including through prevention in educational institutions.

The Department of Health and Social Care published a Prevention Strategy for England on 11 September 2023 with over 130 actions aimed at reducing the suicide rate. The strategy also sets ambitions to improve support for people who self-harm and people who have been bereaved by suicide. As part of the strategy, a number of groups have been identified for consideration for tailored or targeted action at a national level, including children and young people.

Guidance to schools is reviewed regularly, including the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance that all schools must have regard to. Amongst other things, the guidance sets out the role all staff must play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including identifying where mental health concerns are also safeguarding concerns and making appropriate referrals into early help support services and statutory support services as appropriate.

The statutory guidance for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which came into force in September 2020, advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.

The department is currently reviewing the RSHE guidance and as part of this process the department will explore whether additional content is required on suicide prevention.

The National Review of Higher Education Student Suicides will report with important lessons for better supporting students and preventing tragedies in higher education (HE) settings in the spring. This will be published alongside updated data on HE student suicides from the Office for National Statistics.