Liberal Democrat Schools Minister David Laws is calling for a new education body that would independently assess whether school standards are rising or falling over time. Mr Laws has said he wants to see an independent body take charge of setting what's in the curriculum and bar politicians from deciding which authors are read in English and which monarchs are studied in history.
While the body's leadership would be appointed by the Secretary of State for Education it would have operational independence from government. Liberal Democrats believe what children learn at school should not be subject to political whims. The government would set out which subjects are statutory but a new Educational Standards Authority would co-ordinate panels of experts for each subject area to propose and make changes to the national curriculum.
Commenting David Laws said: “Successive politicians from both Labour and the Tories have been unable to resist trying to force their own pet subjects upon teachers – whether that’s Ed Balls and blogging or Michael Gove and medieval kings. The truth is it teachers and subject experts who know best what should be taught in the classroom. What children learn in school should not be subject to the whims of politicians and Liberal Democrats stop politicians from meddling in the curriculum in the future.
“The debate on school standards has all too often been informed by political prejudice rather than real evidence. So we will also ask for independent reporting on standards in schools over time – so that politicians can be properly held to account on how well schools are performing.” Mr Laws added.
Showing posts with label David Laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Laws. Show all posts
Monday, 3 November 2014
Monday, 25 August 2014
Liberal Democrats to triple early years pupil premium
The Liberal Democrats will more than triple investment in the early years pupil premium from £300 to £1000 per child under manifesto plans announced by Schools Minister David Laws today. The early years pupil premium was announced in March 2014 and is currently worth £300 for every disadvantaged child. Liberal Democrats want to extend this to £1000, helping to ensure that every child has got a fair start in life and is ready to learn when they start school.
As children in early years are only in part time education this represents an equivalent investment higher than the primary school pupil premium, demonstrating the huge importance that Liberal Democrats place on early years education. This will benefit over 170,000 disadvantaged children from 2015-16.
Commenting, David Laws MP said: "Liberal Democrats have delivered huge amounts for the early years in our time in Government. We have given extra free hours of early years education to all three year olds, and introduced free early years education to two year olds from the most hard pressed homes. We have introduced new Early Years Teachers, and we vetoed Tory plans that would have meant adults looking after up to six two year olds at the same time.
“By committing this extra money to help the youngest disadvantaged children in society, we will ensure that they get the best possible start in life and have an opportunity to get on. Investing in early years is one of the best ways to build the fairer society that Liberal Democrats want to see and we are ambitious about delivering for future generations. This extra investment will mean a huge amount of support for the people who need it most and demonstrates our strong commitment to education.”
As children in early years are only in part time education this represents an equivalent investment higher than the primary school pupil premium, demonstrating the huge importance that Liberal Democrats place on early years education. This will benefit over 170,000 disadvantaged children from 2015-16.
Commenting, David Laws MP said: "Liberal Democrats have delivered huge amounts for the early years in our time in Government. We have given extra free hours of early years education to all three year olds, and introduced free early years education to two year olds from the most hard pressed homes. We have introduced new Early Years Teachers, and we vetoed Tory plans that would have meant adults looking after up to six two year olds at the same time.
“By committing this extra money to help the youngest disadvantaged children in society, we will ensure that they get the best possible start in life and have an opportunity to get on. Investing in early years is one of the best ways to build the fairer society that Liberal Democrats want to see and we are ambitious about delivering for future generations. This extra investment will mean a huge amount of support for the people who need it most and demonstrates our strong commitment to education.”
Friday, 2 May 2014
Deputy Prime Minister's Pupil Premium Awards for schools that do the most to help disadvantaged pupils
Schools that go "above and beyond" to help disadvantaged pupils improve their results could win a share of £4m, as part of the Pupil Premium Awards announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Schools Minister David Laws. The awards encourage schools up and down the country to find innovative and effective ways of using Pupil Premium funding to boost the achievements of disadvantaged students. Thousands of pupils in up to 500 schools across England could benefit from the awards. Prizes for schools who enter the Deputy Prime Minister’s Pupil Premium Awards include:
Schools can use the money to fund extra teacher support for pupils who need it most or send their disadvantaged pupils on educational visits that benefit their studies.
Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “Too often a child’s destiny can be determined by where they were born or how much their parents earn. The pupil premium helps schools turn this around with vital funding - it’s social mobility in action. It helps disadvantaged children get the support, education and skills they need to get on in life and succeed.
Continuing Mr Clegg commented: “Schools across the country are showing how innovative methods can not only help improve the opportunities for individual children, but helps whole classes progress too, and so I’m pleased to announce the rewards up for grabs in next year’s Pupil Premium Awards are even greater for both schools and the children whose lives they help transform.”
- £250,000 for the top secondary school
- £100,000 for the top primary and special schools
- Up to 20 regional rewards of £100,000 for secondary schools and £50,000 for primary and special schools
- Up to 18 runner-up prizes of up to £50,000
- Hundreds of qualifier awards of up to £5,000
Schools can use the money to fund extra teacher support for pupils who need it most or send their disadvantaged pupils on educational visits that benefit their studies.
Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: “Too often a child’s destiny can be determined by where they were born or how much their parents earn. The pupil premium helps schools turn this around with vital funding - it’s social mobility in action. It helps disadvantaged children get the support, education and skills they need to get on in life and succeed.
Continuing Mr Clegg commented: “Schools across the country are showing how innovative methods can not only help improve the opportunities for individual children, but helps whole classes progress too, and so I’m pleased to announce the rewards up for grabs in next year’s Pupil Premium Awards are even greater for both schools and the children whose lives they help transform.”
Up to 8 additional prizes of £25,000 each will be awarded to eligible schools with the highest proportions of free school meal eligible pupils that:
Liberal Democrat Schools Minister David Laws said: “The pupil premium is transforming the way we educate our disadvantaged children. Now the enhanced Pupil Premium Awards will reward the schools leading the way in bridging the gap between background and achievement. Previous awards have been a tremendous success and we are making the 2015 scheme bigger and better. By next year’s awards we will have invested a total of £6.25 billion through the pupil premium over 4 years, highlighting our commitment to helping disadvantaged pupils do well in school.”
- Achieve the top grade (level 6) in reading and mathematics tests at 11 years old
- Pass A level physics having participated in the Cambridge Rutherford Schools Physics Project
- Achieve the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a combination of qualifications including English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language
- Pass A level further mathematics
- Go on to study at Oxford or Cambridge universities
- Go on to study at Russell Group universities, an association of 24 leading universities
Liberal Democrat Schools Minister David Laws said: “The pupil premium is transforming the way we educate our disadvantaged children. Now the enhanced Pupil Premium Awards will reward the schools leading the way in bridging the gap between background and achievement. Previous awards have been a tremendous success and we are making the 2015 scheme bigger and better. By next year’s awards we will have invested a total of £6.25 billion through the pupil premium over 4 years, highlighting our commitment to helping disadvantaged pupils do well in school.”
The awards will bring together schools from across England to a ceremony in London next year to celebrate the hard work of teachers, pupils and governors.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Capital funding for 256,000 new school places is needed urgently
Margaret Hodge, The Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, publishing the Committee's 12th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from Department for Education, examined its distribution of capital funding for new school places today said:
"256,000 new school places are needed by September 2014, but the Department for Education does not know whether the £5 billion it is contributing will be enough to pay for them or even spent to best effect. The Department failed to identify in time the rising demand for school places. Growth in demand is concentrated in particular areas of the country. Without enough resources to provide new places, some authorities are forced to sacrifice facilities like music rooms or expand classes beyond the statutory 30 children per class. The inability of local authorities to require academies and free schools to expand further constrains them.
"The Department does not understand the costs for local authorities in delivering places or the relative value for money of different approaches around the country. The Department believes that the money it is contributing for new school places will cover all the costs. But, in 2012-13, nearly 65 per cent of authorities were having to dip into their maintenance funding to pay for the extra places, storing up unknown maintenance costs for the future. What is also being lost in all of this is the effect that different ways of providing new places might have on pupils' learning. It does not take much imagination to realize that educational opportunities and standards might be diminished if specialist areas, such as music rooms and libraries, are converted into classrooms, poorly performing schools expanded, or playgrounds used to house children in overcrowded demountables."
The report found that one of the Department for Education's (the Department) aims is "to use available capital funding to best effect to provide sufficient places in schools parents want to send their children to." Local authorities are legally responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient schools, and therefore school places. However, the location and development of new free schools is subject to decisions made by the Department. The Department is responsible for the overall policy and statutory framework and makes a substantial financial contribution to the cost of delivering these places-around £5 billion in capital funding to local authorities over the spending period to March 2015.
In the 2011/12 school year, there were 6.8 million 4 to 16 year olds in state-funded schools in England, of which around 600,000 were in reception classes in primary schools. The number of children entering reception classes has been rising for some years, putting pressure on school places with greater stress falling on particular local authority areas where population growth has accelerated. Neither the Department nor local authorities anticipated how much and where pupil numbers were rising early enough and therefore failed to adequately plan for the increased demand. As a result the number of children in infant classes of more than 30 has more than doubled in the last 5 years and 20% of primary schools were full or over capacity in May 2012.
The Department's funding for additional places is coming out of a significantly reduced capital funding pot. This reduced capital allocation also has to maintain the fabric and condition of school buildings across the country and fund the Government's new priorities like the establishment of free schools.
The Department has slowly improved its approach to allocating funding but could still do more to target its funding to the areas that need it most, particularly with the new information it plans to collect from local authorities about costs and methods of delivering school places. Costs will vary according to local circumstances including, for example, the cost of land. We are concerned that the scale of financial contributions expected from some local authorities for new school places introduces wider risks to the on-going maintenance of the school estate and may exacerbate pressures on local authorities' finances.
The Department does not have a good enough understanding of what value for money would look like in the delivery of school places, and whether it is being achieved. In response to fluctuations in local demand local authorities can direct maintained schools to expand or close but do not have this power over academies or free schools. Local authorities need to have mature discussions with all parties, including the academies and free schools, to resolve any mismatch between demand and supply for their communities as a whole. We hope that discussions at local level always prove successful, but the Department needs to be clear about how it will achieve the best value for money solutions in the event that local discussions fail to achieve a resolution.
This has to be in the context that Free Schools and Academies are directly accountable to central Government, but the Government has no mechanism to force them to expand to meet the demand for school places. In addition, the Department does not sufficiently understand the risks to children's learning and development that may arise as authorities strain the sinews of the school estate to deliver enough places. The imperative to increase the quantity of school places should not be achieved at the expense of quality.
Responding the report the Schools Minister David Laws: "Margaret Hodge is right that there is a severe need to ensure there are enough school places but she has failed to pin the blame where it belongs - at the door of the last government of which she was a member. Her report correctly states that the Department 'failed to adequately plan' for the rising population, but does not explain that the responsibility for this failure lies with the previous Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, who ignored the rising birth rates reported by the ONS. This government has more than doubled spending on new school places compared to the previous government. We are investing £5 billion in new school places up to 2015 and we expect 190,000 extra places will have been created by this September, with many more to come. The Coalition is clearing up the mess left by Ed Balls and Labour when they were in government."
"256,000 new school places are needed by September 2014, but the Department for Education does not know whether the £5 billion it is contributing will be enough to pay for them or even spent to best effect. The Department failed to identify in time the rising demand for school places. Growth in demand is concentrated in particular areas of the country. Without enough resources to provide new places, some authorities are forced to sacrifice facilities like music rooms or expand classes beyond the statutory 30 children per class. The inability of local authorities to require academies and free schools to expand further constrains them.
"The Department does not understand the costs for local authorities in delivering places or the relative value for money of different approaches around the country. The Department believes that the money it is contributing for new school places will cover all the costs. But, in 2012-13, nearly 65 per cent of authorities were having to dip into their maintenance funding to pay for the extra places, storing up unknown maintenance costs for the future. What is also being lost in all of this is the effect that different ways of providing new places might have on pupils' learning. It does not take much imagination to realize that educational opportunities and standards might be diminished if specialist areas, such as music rooms and libraries, are converted into classrooms, poorly performing schools expanded, or playgrounds used to house children in overcrowded demountables."
The report found that one of the Department for Education's (the Department) aims is "to use available capital funding to best effect to provide sufficient places in schools parents want to send their children to." Local authorities are legally responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient schools, and therefore school places. However, the location and development of new free schools is subject to decisions made by the Department. The Department is responsible for the overall policy and statutory framework and makes a substantial financial contribution to the cost of delivering these places-around £5 billion in capital funding to local authorities over the spending period to March 2015.
In the 2011/12 school year, there were 6.8 million 4 to 16 year olds in state-funded schools in England, of which around 600,000 were in reception classes in primary schools. The number of children entering reception classes has been rising for some years, putting pressure on school places with greater stress falling on particular local authority areas where population growth has accelerated. Neither the Department nor local authorities anticipated how much and where pupil numbers were rising early enough and therefore failed to adequately plan for the increased demand. As a result the number of children in infant classes of more than 30 has more than doubled in the last 5 years and 20% of primary schools were full or over capacity in May 2012.
The Department's funding for additional places is coming out of a significantly reduced capital funding pot. This reduced capital allocation also has to maintain the fabric and condition of school buildings across the country and fund the Government's new priorities like the establishment of free schools.
The Department has slowly improved its approach to allocating funding but could still do more to target its funding to the areas that need it most, particularly with the new information it plans to collect from local authorities about costs and methods of delivering school places. Costs will vary according to local circumstances including, for example, the cost of land. We are concerned that the scale of financial contributions expected from some local authorities for new school places introduces wider risks to the on-going maintenance of the school estate and may exacerbate pressures on local authorities' finances.
The Department does not have a good enough understanding of what value for money would look like in the delivery of school places, and whether it is being achieved. In response to fluctuations in local demand local authorities can direct maintained schools to expand or close but do not have this power over academies or free schools. Local authorities need to have mature discussions with all parties, including the academies and free schools, to resolve any mismatch between demand and supply for their communities as a whole. We hope that discussions at local level always prove successful, but the Department needs to be clear about how it will achieve the best value for money solutions in the event that local discussions fail to achieve a resolution.
This has to be in the context that Free Schools and Academies are directly accountable to central Government, but the Government has no mechanism to force them to expand to meet the demand for school places. In addition, the Department does not sufficiently understand the risks to children's learning and development that may arise as authorities strain the sinews of the school estate to deliver enough places. The imperative to increase the quantity of school places should not be achieved at the expense of quality.
Responding the report the Schools Minister David Laws: "Margaret Hodge is right that there is a severe need to ensure there are enough school places but she has failed to pin the blame where it belongs - at the door of the last government of which she was a member. Her report correctly states that the Department 'failed to adequately plan' for the rising population, but does not explain that the responsibility for this failure lies with the previous Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, who ignored the rising birth rates reported by the ONS. This government has more than doubled spending on new school places compared to the previous government. We are investing £5 billion in new school places up to 2015 and we expect 190,000 extra places will have been created by this September, with many more to come. The Coalition is clearing up the mess left by Ed Balls and Labour when they were in government."
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Lib Dems confirm David Laws is to chair their manifesto working group
The Liberal Democrats have announced that David Laws is to chair the party's manifesto working group for the 2015 general election. The party have also named the rest of the working group:
- David Laws MP (Yeovil) Chair
- Sharon Bowles MEP, Vice-Chair
- Duncan Brack Vice-Chair
- Nick Clegg MP (Sheffield Hallam)
- Tim Farron MP (Westmorland & Lonsdale)
- Duncan Hames MP (Chippenham)
- Cllr Dr Julie Smith
- Dr Julian Huppert MP (Cambridge)
- Jenny Willott MP (Cardiff Central)
- Baroness Sal Brinton
- Jo Swinson MP (East Dumbartonshire)
- Lord John Shipley
Friday, 6 July 2012
Lib Dem threatens Tory rebels over Lord reform
 |
| Richard Reeves |
The Liberal Democrats will block parliamentary boundary changes if rebel Tory MPs kill off plans to reform the House of Lords, a senior aide to Nick Clegg has warned. Richard Reeves, the Deputy Prime Minister's outgoing director of strategy, said there would be "broader consequences" for the coalition if it failed to win a crucial vote next week on Lords reform.
Some Conservative backbenchers are deeply opposed to Mr Clegg's plans for a mainly-elected upper chamber are threatening to combine with Labour to defeat a programme motion limiting debate on the legislation in the Commons. In an interview with The Independent, Mr Reeves admitted without the time limit, the chances of the Bill reaching the Statute Book were "vanishingly small" as opponents would be able to talk out the proposals.
He made clear that if that happened, the Lib Dems would block plans to redraw parliamentary boundaries and cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 - a measure which some experts believe could give the Tories an additional 20 seats at the next general election. "Anyone who thinks Nick Clegg will shrug his shoulders, say 'never mind' and 'everyone tried our best', will be in for a rude awakening. That is not going to happen," Mr Reeves said. But despite the tough talk, Mr Reeves said the Lib Dems would not walk out of the coalition, which would be "crazy", or block Tory public service reforms.
 |
| The House of Lords in session |
Senior Lib Dem MP David Laws sought to play down the prospects of a clash with Conservatives over the timetable for the Bill. He said that both parties had included a commitment to Lords reform in their manifestos at the last general election.These were commitments made by Conservative MPs as well as Lib Dems and we expect the vast majority of coalition MPs to support this and we expect it to go through next week," he told Sky News.
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