Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) academies and (b) free schools have negotiated recognition agreements with teaching unions.
Answered by Robin Walker
The information requested is not held centrally.
The department does not collect data on academies or free schools who have negotiated recognition agreements with teaching unions.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to publish the results of his Department's trial of air purifiers in Bradford schools.
Answered by Robin Walker
The trial of air purifiers is funded by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), who are contracting the trial management to Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust via their Centre for Applied Educational Research programme.
The full results of the study are expected in October 2022, but it is anticipated that an interim report on the feasibility of using air cleaners (HEPA and UV-C devices) in a school setting will be available early in 2022.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools received their full allocation of CO2 monitors by the end of the autumn 2021 term.
Answered by Robin Walker
The CO2 monitor roll out began in September across special schools and alternative provision, who were prioritised to receive their monitors first given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils. These settings have now received their full allocation of monitors. Monitors are now being dispatched to all schools and other eligible settings over the remainder of the autumn term. The roll out is on track, and we expect all eligible settings to have received their monitors by the end of the autumn term.
The department will begin publishing delivery data from 4 November. The first publication will cover all deliveries up to 25 October.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many CO2 monitors were distributed to schools by the end of the autumn 2021 term (a) nationally, (b) regionally and (c) by local authority.
Answered by Robin Walker
The CO2 monitor roll out began in September across special schools and alternative provision, who were prioritised to receive their monitors first given their higher-than-average numbers of vulnerable pupils. These settings have now received their full allocation of monitors. Monitors are now being dispatched to all schools and other eligible settings over the remainder of the autumn term. The roll out is on track, and we expect all eligible settings to have received their monitors by the end of the autumn term.
The department will begin publishing delivery data from 4 November. The first publication will cover all deliveries up to 25 October.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the rate of school exclusions has been in (a) local authority maintained schools and (b) academies in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robin Walker
The requested data is in the attached table. Rates of permanent exclusion and suspension for local authority maintained schools and academies are affected by the mix of schools in each group. Comparisons across years are affected by the increasing numbers of academy schools.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, excluding pupils absent for covid-related reasons, how many pupils (a) with an Education, Health and Care Plan, (b) who had a social worker and (c) eligible for free school meals attended a state-funded school on (i) 15 October 2020 and (ii) 14 October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The daily education setting (EdSet) survey asks schools and colleges to report data such as attendance at an institution level.
The department holds overall attendance data on the number of pupils attending state-funded schools on site, including for pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan, with a social worker, and since 30 March 2021, for pupils who are eligible for free school meals. Table 1b contains available data for 15 October 2020 at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2020-week-42. Available data for 14 October 2021 is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/2021-week-42.
Data is also collected daily on the number of pupils absent due to COVID-19 related reasons across all pupils overall. However, balancing data needs against reporting burdens, data is not collected on COVID-19 related absence for each of these pupil groups. Therefore, the department does not hold the figures requested. EdSet monitors COVID-19 related absence specifically by design and a full breakdown on absence for all reasons is not included in the survey.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of unexplained pupil absence in England from (a) 16 September 2021 and (b) 14 October 2021.
Answered by Robin Walker
Nationally, education settings are open. Attendance is mandatory for schools and strongly encouraged for nurseries. The usual rules on school attendance continue to apply, including parents’ duty to secure their child’s regular attendance at school. Our priority is for schools to deliver face-to-face, high-quality education to all pupils. The evidence is clear that being out of education can impact educational attainment, life chances, mental and physical health. As COVID-19 becomes a virus that we learn to live with, it is imperative that we reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education. Schools should work closely with other professionals, where appropriate, to support school attendance. Where pupils are not able to attend school as they are following clinical or public health advice related to COVID-19, absence will not be penalised.
To maximise attendance within schools we have a comprehensive attendance strategy that has been implemented since the beginning of this academic year to ensure that any absence because of COVID-19 is minimised, and we are continuing to closely monitor absence levels and trends to ensure a focus on attendance remains throughout the rest of this academic year. The department has acted throughout the COVID-19 outbreak to help minimise the impact on pupils’ education and provided extensive support for schools. COVID-19 has caused particular challenges for some children who may already have been disengaged from education. That is why we have been working closely with local authorities and schools to help them re-engage pupils, including providing best practice advice.
Daily on-site attendance data is collected through the educational setting status form (EdSet). EdSet monitors COVID-19 related absence specifically by design and a full breakdown on absence for all reasons is not included in the survey.
Reasons for not attending on-site, other than for COVID-19 related reasons, includes off-site educational activities, such as school trips or work experience, other authorised absences, such as non-COVID illnesses, and unauthorised absences.
More detailed absence data is collected in the termly School Census. In line with usual reporting timetable, Autumn term 2021 statistics are due to be published in mid-2022. Autumn term data is not collected daily and has different coverage and definitions to the EdSet data and so they are not directly comparable.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve the retention rate of mathematics teachers.
Answered by Robin Walker
There are more than 461,000 full-time equivalent classroom teachers, which is 20,000 more than in 2010. 41,472 new trainee teachers were recruited to start training in 2020/21, which is 23% more than in 2019/20, while just over two thirds of teachers who started teaching five years ago are still teaching.
However, the department recognises that some schools face challenges recruiting mathematics teachers, and that there is more to do to ensure that teaching remains a well-rewarded and prestigious profession. That is why we have announced a levelling up premium, worth up to £3,000 tax-free, for mathematics teachers in years 1 to 5 of their careers. This will support the recruitment and retention of maths teachers in the schools and areas that need them most. We will confirm the full eligibility details, including the eligible schools and areas, in due course. This is in addition to our tax-free bursaries worth up to £24,000 to encourage talented trainees into subjects such as mathematics.
As part of the education recovery plan, the department has announced that we are investing over £250 million of additional funding to help provide 500,000 teacher training opportunities to teachers so that they can access world-leading training appropriate for whatever point they are at in their career, from new teachers to headteachers. This includes £184 million of funding for new National Professional Qualifications (NPQs). Three new specialist NPQs have been launched to best address the broad range of responsibilities of current and aspiring middle leaders, including the NPQ for Leading Teaching. This aims to develop teachers who are subject leads or responsible for improving teaching practice in a subject or phase, including subjects such as mathematics.
Finally, we are taking action to reduce workload and improve wellbeing, which we know is crucial to teacher retention. The department has created an Education Staff Wellbeing Charter which sets out a range of commitments on the government and employers in schools and colleges on wellbeing. Furthermore, the Department for Education school workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside school leaders, is a helpful resource that is being used by schools to review and reduce workload in their unique context. We are working with the sector on an update to be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers hold a degree or degree-level qualification in the subject they teach (a) nationally, (b) regionally in England and (c) by local authority for the latest year for which figures are available.
Answered by Robin Walker
Information on the proportion of teachers nationally that hold a degree or degree-level qualification in the subject they teach is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication. Teachers are counted against each subject taught and may therefore appear under more than one subject. This means it is not possible to calculate a total across all teachers. A breakdown for individual subjects is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/0ec7c7e8-7ad2-4a20-a343-e46150028b62.
To provide the information requested at regional and local authority level would require additional analysis which would incur disproportionate cost for a written parliamentary question.
To reduce burden during the COVID-19 outbreak, schools were not required to provide information on teacher qualifications in 2020. Therefore, the information provided relates to the November 2019 School Workforce Census.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to improve the provision of specialist after-school and holiday clubs for children with disabilities.
Answered by Will Quince
We recognise that after-school and holiday clubs play an important role in providing enriching activities for children, including those with disabilities, as well as being a valuable source of additional childcare for working parents and carers.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, vulnerable children, such as those with disabilities, have been prioritised for attendance at after-school, holiday clubs and other out-of-school settings. All children are now able to attend these settings without restrictions on the reasons for which they may attend, and we have provided updated COVID-19 guidance for providers to enable them to run their provision as safely as possible. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/covid-19-actions-for-out-of-school-settings.
Where parents are still finding it difficult to access sufficient childcare, we recommend that they contact their local authority’s family information services. Local authorities are required by legislation to secure sufficient free early years provision and paid-for childcare places, so far as is reasonably practicable, for working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0-14.
We have also published safeguarding guidance for out-of-school settings , available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-out-of-school-settings-code-of-practice/keeping-children-safe-during-community-activities-after-school-clubs-and-tuition-non-statutory-guidance-for-providers-running-out-of-school-settings. This guidance outlines the policies and procedures that providers should have in place to promote the welfare of the children attending them. This includes specific advice for providers that cater for children with special educational needs and disabilities.