Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that animal welfare is included in the (a) school curriculum and (b) Advanced British Standard.

There are many opportunities for animal health and welfare to be taught in schools. In science the curriculum includes teaching about animals and their environment, including understanding the basic needs of animals. The need to care for and return animals taken from their local environment is also included in the non statutory guidance notes section of the Key Stage 1 programme of study. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study#key-stage-1.

Schools also have the freedom to teach animal welfare in subjects such as citizenship and personal, social, health and economic education. Teachers are free to determine what further activities they offer in this subject to meet the needs of their pupils. All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

The Department will be consulting extensively over the coming months on the design and content of the Advanced British Standard, accompanied by a programme of stakeholder engagement. This will inform a White Paper to be published next year.