Asked by: Phillip Lee (Liberal Democrat - Bracknell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2015 to Question 14393, what proportion of the £4.2 billion funding to schools, local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided partners has been allocated to Bracknell Forest Council.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Bracknell Forest local authority received £2.7m (0.2%) of the £1.4bn allocated to schools in 2015-16. This funding is for maintained and voluntary aided schools. Academies are not funded via local authorities.
Bracknell Forest local authority’s share of the £1.4bn allocations for 2016-17 and 2017-18 (and therefore the total £4.2bn for 2015-18) will depend on the number of maintained and voluntary aided schools in the local authority.
Asked by: Phillip Lee (Liberal Democrat - Bracknell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effects of open-plan teaching facilities on pupils' learning; and what provision is available to assist schools with conversion of facilities from an open-plan layout where that layout is shown to be having a detrimental effect on learning.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department has not made any formal assessment of the overall effects of open-plan teaching facilities on pupil’s learning.
On 9 February 2015 the government announced £4.2bn of allocations to schools, local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided partners to fund the improvement and maintenance of our schools. This includes £1.4bn in 2015-16.
While we would expect this money to be spent first on making sure that existing school buildings are in good condition, it is for these bodies to decide how to prioritise the funding, according to local needs.
In 2015-16, the Department spent £8 million on improvements to large open teaching areas in academies which had been built under the Building Schools for the Future programme, where independent evidence suggested this was having a detrimental effect on good teaching and learning.
Asked by: Phillip Lee (Liberal Democrat - Bracknell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure children receive high quality mathematics, technology and science teaching.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As we committed in our manifesto, we will help teachers make Britain the best country in the world for developing mathematics, engineering, science and computing skills. To help achieve this, in March 2015, the Prime Minister announced further investment of £67 million over the next five years to train an extra 2,500 mathematics and physics teachers and improve the skills of 15,000 existing teachers.
The new national curriculum, GCSEs and A Levels all set expectations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics which meet those of countries which have the highest levels of performance in education in the world.
To support high quality teaching in science, the Department for Education funds training through a network of Regional Science Learning Centres and bursaries which reduce the cost to schools of science training. For mathematics, we fund a national network of 34 Maths Hubs and the Shanghai teacher exchange programme to raise standards based on the best international practice, and the Further Maths Support Programme to improve teaching of A level mathematics and further mathematics.
Asked by: Phillip Lee (Liberal Democrat - Bracknell)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure more employers offer apprenticeships to 16 to 18 year-olds.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are building on the success of the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers by providing an additional £170m over the next two years. This additional support will fund over 100,000 incentive payments of £1,500 to employers. Grants will be targeted where they will be most effective.
Apprenticeship reforms are putting employers in the driving seat of designing world-class standards for apprenticeships, making it easier for them to offer more Apprenticeships in the future.