Contributions
3,240 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesI am sure my noble friend, the Leader of the House, would join me in saying that that lane is always open for my noble friend, whenever she wants to go down it. The Government are…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesThe right reverend Prelate will be aware that we have been working hard with the Office for Students to ensure that there is the strongest possible approach to fair access for…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesAs ever, the noble Baroness makes a good point about the potential for online collaboration. The department really supports partnerships with independent schools, and there is…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesI do not recognise the noble Baroness’s figure of 1/10th, but we have been highly targeted in our interventions and the early data is encouraging, particularly for primary school…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesMy Lords, pupils were one to three months behind in their learning in summer 2021; an improvement on spring 2021. Pupil premium pupils were around half a month further behind in…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesI apologise, but I caught only part of my noble friend’s question. I think I understood him to say that a child’s background does not have a great impact on their outcome. The…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesTime does not permit all the details, and I do not have them to hand, but I did look at the difference between the data that we have been using in terms of lost learning and the…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesI partly agree with the noble Baroness about the disproportionate impact. I absolutely agree with her about the science of early childhood development and how important it is that…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesThe noble Lord is right on the principle that we need to keep close track of the impact of the measures that we have announced already. I remind the House that the interventions…23 Feb 2022HANSARDCovid-19: Effect on Education in Deprived CommunitiesI do not have the specific data to hand as to the number of pupils from the Traveller and Roma community, but I am happy to share that with the noble Baroness if it can be found.23 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesI am grateful to the noble Baroness for giving me the opportunity to set this out in more detail. Attendance is an absolute priority for this Government, both because children…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesMy Lords, I am very sorry to hear about the noble Lord’s grandson. I hope that he recovers speedily. Absence data is collected by the department on a termly basis, but we publish…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesThe laptops that were distributed in the department’s Get Help with Technology programme are owned by the schools, trusts, local authorities and further education institutions…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesI am pleased to update the House that, this morning, we announced our response to the Children Not in School consultation and have confirmed that we will be setting up a register…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesI think the noble Lord is being a little harsh: 99.9% of schools have stayed open. I know that he, with me, will recognise and deeply thank head teachers and all the teaching and…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesThe noble Lord is right to raise the issue of the 600,000 primary-age children not in school, although I remind the House that there is a clear expectation that all schools offer…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesMy noble friend is right to highlight this. I will try to set out for the House that our approach is genuinely comprehensive. Last week, we announced a consultation on new…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesMy noble friend is right to focus on children with special educational needs. School is absolutely the best place for them to be, too. Throughout the pandemic, we have…03 Feb 2022HANSARDSchool AbsencesThe noble Baroness raises a very specific point. The department’s advice would be to talk to the director of public health and our teams, who are available and have been offering…03 Feb 2022HANSARDCapita: Turing Scheme ContractI absolutely cannot accept what my noble friend suggests. We have had over 41,000 applications for the scheme this year. That compares with around 16,500 under Erasmus+ in…27 Jan 2022