Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to projects aimed at supporting the teaching of (a) English, (b) mathematics, (c) music, (d) languages, (e) science, (f) geography and (g) religious education in the last 5 years, excluding examination reform.

The department has allocated central funding between financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21 on the curriculum projects and programmes in the attached table. In particular, the department provides funding for 4 curriculum hubs programmes in English, mathematics, music and languages as set out in the table.

The English hubs programme was launched in 2018 and aims to improve the teaching of reading in the primary phase, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The total departmental funding in the last 2 years is £22 million and the programme works across 34 hubs to provide appropriate and targeted support to several thousands of schools across England.

The maths hubs programme was launched in 2014 and aims to improve the teaching of mathematics from reception to A level. The total departmental funding in the last 5 years is £115 million and the programme works across 40 hubs and the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), supporting over 11,000 primary and secondary schools.

Music education hubs were launched in 2012 and aim to create joined-up music education provision and provide specialist music education services across schools. The total departmental funding in the last five years is £381 million and the programme works across 119 hubs to provide support for around 90% of state-funded schools across England.

The modern foreign language hubs pilot was launched in 2018 and aims to support secondary phase teaching of French, German, and Spanish through the development of teaching resources, assessments, and continuing professional development (CPD). The total departmental funding in the last 3 years is £4.2 million. The programme has worked across 45 secondary schools between December 2018 and December 2021 and now offers free online CPD to over 1,350 teachers nationally in 2022.

Alongside the funding for the subject-specific curriculum programmes, the department also allocated funding over this period that supports teacher development, such as the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund and subject knowledge enhancement, which have benefitted teaching in a range of subjects, including geography and religious education. The department also provides scholarships and bursaries for initial teacher training in a wide range of subjects.