Schools

This page highlights some of the current parliamentary material available on schools. This includes select committee reports, briefing papers on current legislation and other subjects produced by the parliamentary research services, and the latest Early Day Motions put down by MPs.

Standard Notes

Date	Description
01.02.2013	Converter Academies: Statistics
	The Government introduced the Academies Bill at the end of May 2010. The Academies Act 2010 came into force in time to allow the first converter academies to start in September 2010. The legislation streamlined the process of converting to an academy and also allowed primary and special schools to become academies. Up to the start of January 2013 a total of 2,015 schools had converted to become academies and a further 673 had applied for conversion. Most of these academies are secondary schools and almost 40% of secondaries have converted. The secondary schools which have converted so far had free school meal eligibility rates around one third below the national average.
17.01.2013	Financial education in schools
	This note provides an outline of current arrangements relating to financial education in schools, and notes some recent developments. It covers England only.
15.01.2013	Teachers: Social Indicators page
	Summary of data on teache rnumbers, flows and vacancies
15.01.2013	Schools and class sizes: Social Indicators page
	Trends in school numbers, sizes and class sizes
18.12.2012	Careers services
	This note outlines the current provision of careers services in England, then briefly outlines some of the services that have been replaced and also includes some comment from experts on current careers services.

Research Papers

Date	Description
15.02.2013	Children and Families Bill
	The Children and Families Bill introduces a wide range of legislation concerning adoption and children in care, aspects of family justice law, special educational needs, the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England, child care, statutory rights to leave and pay for parents and adopters, time off work for ante-natal care, and the right to request flexible working. This paper has been prepared for the Second Reading of the Bill.
05.05.2011	Education Bill: Committee Stage Report
	This is an account of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Education Bill. It complements Research Paper 11/14, prepared for the Commons Second Reading debate, which examines the range of matters covered by the Bill. As originally presented, the Bill sought to make provision relating to the National Assembly for Wales' framework powers. However, these clauses were removed from the Bill following the 'yes' vote in the Welsh Devolution Referendum. A Government amendment to clause 13 (reporting restrictions on alleged offences by teachers) was agreed to without a vote. This inserted new schedule 11B into the Education Act 2002, and was introduced to secure compliance with a European Electronic Commerce Directive. Several minor and technical Government amendments were also made to the Bill. The Opposition tabled many amendments, a considerable number of which were pressed to a division, but none was successful.
07.02.2011	Education Bill [Bill 137 of 2010-11]
	This paper has been written for the House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Education Bill [Bill 137] on 8 February 2011. The Bill seeks to implement the legislative proposals in the Department for Education's schools White Paper, 'The Importance of Teaching', and measures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills relating to skills and the reform of higher education funding. It is therefore a very wide-ranging Bill.
14.07.2010	Academies Bill [HL] Bill 57 of 2010-11
	The Bill allows the governing body of each maintained school in England to apply to the Secretary of State to convert the school to an academy. The Secretary of State will also be empowered to convert schools that are 'eligible for intervention'. The Bill also makes provision for 'free schools' - new schools set up by parents, teachers, charities, universities, business or community or faith groups where there is parental demand. Free schools will have the same legal requirements as academies. During the Bill's passage through the House of Lords, a number of Government amendments were made, including those on special educational needs provision in academies, consultation during the conversion process and applying Freedom of Information legislation to academies. Many non-Government amendments were proposed, of which two were successful. One of these required the Secretary of State to publish an annual report on academies, which the Government welcomed; the other related to services for children with low incidence special educational needs, which the Government opposed.
15.02.2010	Children, Schools and Families Bill: Committee Stage Report Bill No 8 of 2009-10
	This is an account of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Children, Schools and Families Bill. The Bill contained a clause on the charitable status of academies, but the Government decided it could achieve its objectives by non-legislative means, and at the end of the Committee Stage the clause was removed. No other changes were made to the Bill in Committee. There were many amendments proposed by the opposition parties but none was successful.

Select Committee Reports

Date	Description
07.09.2011	Practical experiments in school science lessons and science field trips.
	Science and Technology Select Committee report [Commons]
22.06.2011	Behaviour and discipline in schools.
	Government response. Education Select Committee; Department for Education report [Commons]
07.06.2011	Legislative scrutiny: Education Bill and other bills.
	Human Rights Joint Select Committee report [Commons and Lords]
26.01.2011	Behaviour and discipline in schools.
	Education Select Committee report [Commons]
19.01.2011	The academies programme.
	Public Accounts Committee report [Commons]

Early Day Motions

Date	Description
06.02.2012	NURSERY MILK SCHEME
	That this House is deeply concerned about planned changes to arrangements for the delivery of the current Nursery Milk Scheme which is likely to affect the numbers of children who drink ...
23.01.2012	FORCED ACADEMIES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
	That this House believes that the Government's threats to force primary schools in Haringey to become academies are undemocratic and threaten to reverse many of the improvements made ...
11.01.2012	GLOBAL LINKS BETWEEN SCHOOLS
	That this House welcomes the links that have been created between schools in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire with Mangochi District in Malawi; acknowledges the benefits that can be achieved ...
20.12.2011	SCHOOL TOILET AND WATER FACILITIES
	That this House is alarmed at plans to abolish the specific provisions on toilets in the School Premises Regulations; notes that school toilet facilities are inconsistent and often ...
20.12.2011	PIANOS IN SCHOOLS
	That this House recognises the value of music education for children's creativity and intellectual development; notes the publication on 25 November 2011,The Importance of Music - A ...

Lords Library Notes

Date	Description
14.10.2011	Debate on 20 October: Teaching of History in Schools
	This Library Note provides background reading for the debate on the teaching of history in schools.
09.06.2011	Education Bill (HL Bill 67 of 2010-12)
	This Library Note provides information for the second reading of the Education Bill in the House of Lords.

POST Papers

Date	Description
15.03.2012	Impacts of Video Games
	There is debate surrounding the impact of violent video games on behaviour.
01.06.2011	Informal STEM education, June 2011
	This POSTnote describes the informal sector's links to formal STEM education and its contribution to the national STEM learning agenda. It complements a forthcoming note on STEM education for 14-19 year olds.
01.10.2009	Teaching children to read
	This POSTnote explains the reading process and the underlying basis of specific reading difficulties. It also summarises different methods of reading instruction, and examines their use in the context of current and possible future policy directions.