Faith groups run some of the best schools in the country, including in some of the most disadvantaged areas. Current rules mean that religious free schools are only allowed to offer 50% of places to pupils based on faith. Some …
The Government provides a significant package of childcare to parents and carers, including our 30 hours offer for working parents of three and four year olds, which benefited over 340,000 children in the first year of delivery. Low income families also have access to support through Universal Credit, which can cover up to 85% of childcare costs.
On Friday 7 June, the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for 2019 was published. This year’s list includes 96 figures from the education and children’s services sectors, including headteachers, governors, principals and foster carers.
Continuing to improve behaviour in our schools is a key priority for this Government. Calm and safe school environments benefit all students, allowing them to concentrate fully on their studies. Just one instance of bad behaviour in a classroom can derail an entire lesson, holding back every other pupil in the room.
The SCIF was launched with a pilot in October 2017. By the end of the scheme, we will have supported 80 colleges with funding of £12.3 million to undertake a focused quality improvement programme with a higher-performing partner.
Children’s centres can play an important role in supporting families, and local councils decide how to organise and provide services for families in their areas to meet local needs – whether this is through children’s centre buildings or delivering services in different ways, and we continuously reflect on what works best.
Parents and children with disabilities deserve the best support we can provide and the government has made £410 million available to local authorities this year specifically for adult and children social care, with £46.4 billion available this year for local services, including children’s services.
Teaching in further education is an incredibly rewarding career. We are reforming technical education in this country with the introduction of new T Levels and we want more staff with industry skills to pass on their expertise and inspire the next generation.
As the Prime Minister said at the launch event for the panel’s report this morning, this government is dedicated to making higher education accessible to everyone and we have welcomed the work of the panel.
The opportunity to study at university should be open to anyone with the talent and potential to benefit from higher education. With students and taxpayers sharing the cost of higher education it’s right that we challenge those institutions which could appear to be more focused on ‘getting bums on seats’ than getting students into high quality courses worth paying for.
The curriculum also includes the knowledge pupils need to help address climate change in the future. For example, in design and technology pupils are taught to consider the impact of the products they design on individuals, society and the environment. Schools have the autonomy to go into as much depth on these subjects as they see fit.