Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce details of the Primary PE and Sport Premium for the 2022-23 academic year.
Answered by Will Quince
The department is considering arrangements for the primary PE and sport premium for the 2022/23 academic year and beyond and will confirm the position in due course.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Department for Education:
What support his Department is providing to help safeguard (a) staff and (b) children in early years settings during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department has worked collaboratively with Public Health England to develop a system of controls, which when implemented in line with a revised risk assessment, create an inherently safer environment where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced for children and staff.
Settings must comply with health and safety law, which requires them to assess risks and put in place proportionate control measures. Settings should thoroughly review their health and safety risk assessment and draw up plans on re-opening, in the event that they have to close. Settings should have active arrangements in place to monitor that the controls are effective, working as planned, and updated appropriately, for example when any issues are identified, or when there are changes in public health advice.
When conducting risk assessments, settings should ensure consideration is given to staff and children with protected characteristics from groups where a disparity has been shown by the review of disparities in risks and outcomes (for example, age and sex, where someone lives, deprivation, ethnicity and/or people’s occupation).
The department has published the ‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’ guidance, which provides details on the system of controls and how they work in practice. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
We are continuing to work closely with other government departments and local authorities to secure the most effective approach to asymptomatic testing for the whole of the early years sector. This includes ongoing discussions about providing testing via the education testing programme as well as strongly encouraging local authorities to prioritise appropriate testing for early years staff via Community Testing programmes, which now covers all local authorities. The fastest way testing can currently be delivered is through the community rapid asymptomatic testing being run by local authorities.
We are rolling out our asymptomatic testing programme to primary schools, schools-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools. The asymptomatic testing programme will offer all primary school, schools-based nursery and maintained nursery school staff home Lateral Flow Device test kits for twice weekly testing. This will help to break the chains of transmission of COVID-19 in education settings by identifying asymptomatic positive cases. Those who test positive will then self-isolate, helping to reduce transmission of the virus.
Furthermore, with regard to vaccinations, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that the first priorities for the COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of mortality and the maintenance of the health and social care systems. As the risk of mortality from COVID-19 increases with age, prioritisation is primarily based on age.
Under the priority groups for the first phase of vaccine rollout, those over 50 years of age, and all those 16 years of age and over in a risk group, would be eligible for vaccination within the first phase of the programme. This prioritisation captures almost all preventable deaths from COVID-19.
Regarding the next phase of vaccine rollout, the JCVI have asked that the Department of Health and Social Care consider occupational vaccination in collaboration with other Government departments. The department is inputting into this cross governmental exercise.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that Modern Greek continues to be available to students to study as A and AS-levels after 2017.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education is currently considering what further support and encouragement can be provided to awarding organisations to enable as wide a range of languages as possible to be maintained at GCSE and A level, including Modern Greek.
The government has been clear that it wants to see all pupils provided with the opportunity to take a core set of academic subjects, including modern foreign languages. The number of pupils entering for a modern language GCSE has increased by 20% since 2010 due to the introduction of the English Baccalaureate. There are considerable benefits to learning a second language and the government is keen to see the range of languages at GCSE and A level preserved. To this end, the Secretary of State for Education wrote to exam boards during the pre-election period in April to express her concern about their decision to stop awarding qualifications in some languages. She asked awarding organisations to work with Ofqual on the future of these qualifications and committed, if there is no further action, to launching a consultation on how best to secure the future of these qualifications.