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Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Senior mental health lead training, which schools in North Devon constituency have applied for the senior mental health training grant.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department began offering schools and colleges a grant to train senior mental health leads in October 2021. A list of schools and colleges receiving a senior mental health lead training grant is published and updated throughout the year. This list is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-data-on-funding-claims-by-institutions. In the 2021/22 financial year, 15 schools and colleges within the North Devon constituency applied for the senior mental health training grant. 8 schools and colleges applied for the grant in the 2022/23 financial year, totalling 23 grant applications to date. There were no grant applications in this constituency for Q1 and Q2 of this financial year (2023/24).


Written Question
Summer Schools: Coronavirus
Monday 6th September 2021

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Education:

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the 2021 summer schools programme.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Understanding the effectiveness and success of the 2021 summer schools programme is important. We have designed a research study to help us to better understand the perceived impact of summer schools on children’s wellbeing, transition to secondary school, and academic recovery. The fieldwork for this research is currently under way. We have commissioned an independent research agency to carry out the analysis and reporting of this important research. The results from this study will be published on gov.uk.

Over 2800 secondary schools signed up to participate, which is equivalent to three quarters (74%) of those eligible and over 500,000 pupils were invited to take part in courses designed to offer a mix of academic and enrichment activities to aid lost learning.


Written Question
Schools: Coronavirus
Wednesday 10th June 2020

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has for the reopening of schools in relation to pupils taking (a) GCSE and (b) A Level exams in 2021.

Answered by Nick Gibb

From the 15 June, we are asking secondary schools to offer face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 and year 12 pupils, which should remain the predominant mode of education during this term for pupils in these year groups.

Our assessment, based on the latest scientific and medical advice, is that we need to continue to control the numbers attending school to reduce the risk of increasing transmission. Therefore, schools are able to have a quarter of the year 10 and year 12 cohort (for schools with sixth forms) in school at any one time, alongside full time provision for priority groups (vulnerable children and children of critical workers) in all year groups.

Year 10 and year 12 have been prioritised in mainstream secondary schools because they are preparing for key examinations next year (2021) and, of the secondary year groups, are most impacted by time out of school.

Guidance for secondary schools on wider opening is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools.


Written Question
Mathematics: Primary Education
Tuesday 17th March 2020

Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the grid multiplication method in maths teaching at key stage 2; and whether he plans to publish revised guidance to encourage that method in the curriculum.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The mathematics national curriculum was reformed in 2014. It was developed by the Department with advice from subject experts, to ensure that it provided the knowledge to progress in education and employment.

The national curriculum requires pupils in state-maintained schools to be taught a formal written method of multiplication and ‘Mathematics Appendix 1’ provides a set of examples for this.

There are no current plans to published revised guidance on this matter.