Top PDF House of Commons library: Briefing paper: Number 07819, 2 December 2016: Constituency casework: schools in Scotland

Members often receive enquiries from constituents about school-related matters. Many of these can be answered from readily available information on the internet or in standard publications. Where complex issues are raised it may be more appropriate to refer the constituent to specialist bodies and organisations or to a solicitor if legal advice is sought. This note gives a very brief overview of the structure of the state-maintained school system, including an outline of the different categories of schools, as often an answer to a school-related constituency question may depend upon the type of school in question. The note provides brief background and key sources on a selection of issues that are typically raised with Members by constituents. Members who have questions on topics not covered here may contact the Social Policy Section for information.

sufficient number of places in adequate schools for all children of school age. The legislation directly relevant to the opening, closing or status change of a school is The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 , as amended and the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 , as amended. In that context, education authorities may undertake reorganisation of their school estate at any time. School closures (or rationalisations), amalgamations or altering catchment areas can be prompted by many factors such as changing population patterns and the need to provide suitable school buildings for pupils and teachers. 4

sufficient number of places in adequate schools for all children of school age. The legislation directly relevant to the opening, closing or status change of a school is The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 , as amended and the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 , as amended. In that context, education authorities may undertake reorganisation of their school estate at any time. School closures (or rationalisations), amalgamations or altering catchment areas can be prompted by many factors such as changing population patterns and the need to provide suitable school buildings for pupils and teachers. 2

This year’s GCSE league tables will be changed in the most radical way since they were first introduced a quarter of a century ago. Two new headline measures –Progress 8 and Attainment 8 -will be introduced to encourage schools to focus on an ‘academic core’ of subjects and count every increase in every grade for all pupils. As noted in section 2, above, progress 8 will also be used to judge whether schools fall below the ‘floor’ target or are classed as ‘coasting’; both of which have important implications for schools.

Neither of the first two falls changed the overall upward trends, they were dips linked to changes in fees. Applicant numbers recovered more quickly after the introduction of variable fees in 2006. There is no way to assign a set proportion of these changes to tuition fees. Variations in applicants and acceptances across the home countries since 2006 can help focus on the impact of higher fees to some extent. The number of applicants who lived in Scotland (and hence were not liable for variable fees at institutions in Scotland) increased by 2% in 2006, compared to a 4% fall among those living in England. However, after then the increase in applicants has been larger in England and the total increase between 2004 and 2011 was 28% in England compared with 15% in Scotland. 44

Any comparisons between the pupils that attend free schools and those attending all state-funded schools should be viewed with caution because the numbers at free schools are still relatively small and they are not distributed evenly throughout the country. An ideal comparison would compare characteristics to those of the local population. In January 2016 eligibility for free school meals was below average at primary free schools (13.6% v 15.2%), but above average at secondary free schools (15.0% v 14.1%). The non-white population at primary free schools at 55% 8 was well above the national rate of 25%. 46% of pupils

It is this Government’s policy that all good and outstanding schools should be able to expand to offer excellent places to local students. The Weald of Kent Grammar School is one of the top performing schools in the country, with 99% of its students achieving five A*-C grades in GCSE exams in 2014, and 98% of sixth form students achieving at least 3 A-Levels at grades A*-E. The Weald of Kent Grammar School submitted a proposal for expansion in 2013. At that stage the then Secretary of State could not approve the proposal as an expansion because the proposal at that time was for a mixed sex annexe when the existing school was single sex. The school submitted a revised proposal in September 2015 under which girls will be educated on both sites alongside a mixed sex sixth form. I am satisfied that this proposal represents a genuine expansion of the existing school, and that there will be integration between the two sites in terms of leadership, management, governance, admissions and curriculum. I am also satisfied that the excellent quality of learning currently delivered will be replicated across the newly expanded school. I welcome the fact that the newly expanded school will better meet the needs of parents in the local area, with 41% of existing pupils at the Weald of Kent Grammar School already travelling from the Sevenoaks area.

In a speech on 4 May 2018, the Secretary of State recognised the pressures inherent in the accountability system and consequently he set out some principles for a clear and simple accountability system. He announced that there will be a public consultation in the autumn on proposals to replace the current floor and coasting standards with a single, transparent trigger to identify schools that would benefit from an offer of support. He also confirmed that where a school is below the floor or coasting standards, but is not judged inadequate by Ofsted, the RSC will not use the Secretary of State’s powers to issue a warning notice. This should help with concerns around ‘high stakes’ accountability and more broadly reduce incentives for schools to exclude pupils. 16

29. Pupils count towards the Progress 8 scores of schools if they are registered on the school’s census in the January in which they are in Year 11. While Progress 8 tracks the academic ‘distance’ travelled by a student and takes into account prior attainment, pupils who fall behind in secondary school, for example for medical reasons or because a pupil’s additional needs which were met in their smaller primary school but then become unmet in larger secondary settings, can negatively affect a school’s results. Off-rolling— the process by which pupils are removed from the school’s register by moving them to alternative provision, to home education or other schools—was raised by many witnesses, and we were told that the accountability system and Progress 8 was a major factor. […]

The Department has developed programmes including the ‘Teacher Subject Specialism Training’ (TSST), to attract existing teachers into MFL. TSST aims to enhance the MFL expertise of current teachers and provide more targeted support to help returning teachers and career changers into the profession. The Department is creating expert hubs for languages that will share best practice in pedagogy among schools. These hubs will improve access to high quality, modern MFL teaching. Further details will be announced in due course. 10

As I said, we have been working very collaboratively with local authorities to plan much more accurately with them precisely where they want free schools. Local authorities obviously often produce free school sites on a peppercorn for no money. It is also clear to us that some local authorities have perhaps not been spending their basic need money, as they should have been, but relying on the central programme. I believe that this can be done efficiently. The local authorities that we work with certainly seem keen to provide many more of these schools. We go through a process whereby they decide where they want the schools to be and, effectively, an open process is then gone through whereby school providers can approach them and be approved, initially by the local authority and then by the department.

[response to Q260] Justine Greening: I think the first thing to say is that for the children in grammars, particularly children on free school meals, their progress comes on in leaps and bounds. The grammars are closing the attainment gap that we have between disadvantaged children who are on free school meals and other children and doing a great job of that. They absolutely have something to offer in helping us make sure that children do not get left behind, but if they have been left behind, catch up. The real prize is making sure that they do that, but at the same time play a role bettering other schools around them as well. That is the real prize and that is what we were consulting on, Michelle, because it is important that we get both of those issues

A report published by the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) in November 2016 examined how the RSC regions had changed in terms of the number and proportion of free schools and academies since RSCs were introduced in 2014. The report also included eight individual ‘region profiles’. Among other things, the report found that the rate of academisation remains highly variable between RSC regions, but also that differences within regions are greater than between regions. 33

The premium has enabled schools to enhance both the quality and range of PE teaching and sports provision. As a result of this investment, schools reported a range of positive impacts on pupils including increased pupil engagement and participation in PE and sports as well as impacts on social and inter-personal skills, behaviour, and PE skills and fitness. Schools also perceived positive impacts on the skills and confidence of teachers to deliver PE. The findings of this study have also highlighted challenges for the future of PE and sport in primary schools. To sustain the impact of the premium, schools have used it to invest in training for existing staff. However, a question remains over how to maintain this investment in CPD for new teachers entering the profession, once premium funding ends. Schools also raised issues related to sourcing good quality provision in their local area, and may need further support to robustly assess the quality of the provision available. The survey also found that monitoring and evaluation of the premium was not consistent and schools may require further advice and guidance to support them to first assess impacts and then put in place strategies for continuing quality improvement. 27

By way of a summary, the insolvency provisions contained in Part 2 (and Schedules 3 and 4) were considered in detail during the sixth, seventh and eighth sittings. Opposition amendments were largely probing amendments on how the new special administration regime (SAR) would work in practice. In particular, there was a long debate on clause 22, which sets out the general functions of the education administrator. There was only one division, namely amendment 7 to clause 23. This Opposition amendment sought to ensure that FE bodies with a track record of accruing assets publicly could not be transferred to a private company. Following a lengthy debate the amendment was pressed to a vote and defeated (8 votes to 5). Government amendments, which were minor and technical in nature, were all accepted without debate.

highest proportion of pupils attending faith schools in 2016 at 42% and 36% respectively. Outer London (20%) had the lowest. At secondary level the North West (31%) and inner London (26%) and had the highest proportion of faith schools and the East of England (12%) and the South West (13%) had the lowest. At a local authority level more than 55% of primary pupils in Rutland, Wigan, Wiltshire, Blackburn, Knowsley and Dorset attended a faith school. In Leicester, Southend, Newham, Waltham Forest, Luton and Nottingham 10-11% did so. The smaller number of secondary schools means that patterns tend to be more extreme. More than half of secondary pupils attended faith schools in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Liverpool, Bolton and Hammersmith and Fulham. There were six authorities that had no religious secondary schools in 2016. 19

Although at that point the Green Paper was due to be published before the end of July 2018 (since postponed further, see below), it would only have been a consultation paper – even if it had been published then, it would have been expected that several months would pass following publication to allow responses to be submitted, and then for the Government to consider them and devise its own response. Therefore, to bridge this gap, the Government also published in June 2018 the Carers Action Plan 2018–20 which “set out a cross-government programme of work to improve support for carers over the next two years”. 127

introduced statutory ‘life chances’ indicators relating to children in England living in workless households and educational attainment at the end of Key Stage 4 (age 16). A policy paper published by the Department for Work and Pensions in April 2017, Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families , set out seven other non-statutory indicator areas, relating to parental conflict; poor parental mental health; drug and alcohol dependency; problem debt; homelessness; early years; and youth employment.

judgement about what constitutes minimum needs. Successive governments have argued there is no single, objective way of determining what constitutes a minimum acceptable income for a particular person or family, although independent researchers have made a number of attempts. Section 2 of Library Research Paper 13/1, Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, 2013 , gives an overview of the debate. One such attempt is a major annual research project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which estimates Minimum Income Standards (MIS) for different household types in the UK. The research involves in-depth consultation with members of the public, combined with expert knowledge, to identify the level of income required to meet a minimum acceptable standard of living – “having what you need in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society.” The first findings were published in 2008 and are updated each year. 26

19 Commons Library Briefing, 11 April 2017 Employment by age group and sector, UK, Q3 2016 % of workers in age group employed in each sector 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Wholesale & retail Heal[r]