This House of Commons Library page provides information relevant to the Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill 2015-16, introduced by Rt Hon Frank Field MP.
An e-petition entitled, ‘Make an allowance for up to 2 weeks term time leave from school for holiday ’ attracted over 100,000 signatures. The Petitions Committee agreed to schedule a debate on the motion “That this House has considered an e-petition relating to term-time leave from school for holiday” in Westminster Hall on Monday 26 October 2015 at 4.30 pm. Steve Double MP will lead the debate.
This debate pack has been compiled ahead of the debate on fire safety measures in schools to be held on Thursday 22 October 2015 at 3pm in Westminster Hall. The Member in charge of the debate is Sir David Amess. Debate packs are produced quickly after the announcement of parliamentary business. They are intended to provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material. More detailed briefing can be prepared for MPs on request to the Library.
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 September 2015 a total of 3,420 schools had converted to become academies and a further 782had applied for conversion. Secondary schools dominated the first two years of conversions, but since then more primaries have converted and now a majority of all converter academies are primary schools. A greater proportion of secondaries have converted; currently 41%. The secondary schools which have converted so far had free school meal eligibility rates around half the national average.
This paper considers the background and reaction to, and the provisions of, the Education and Adoption Bill which proposes new powers in relation to converting school judged "inadequate" to academy status, the academy conversion process and intervention powers and the reaction to them, and the establishment of regional adoption agencies.
Sections 5 to 7 were added to this paper on 14 September 2015, to cover the Bill's Second Reading and Commons Committee Stages. Sections 1 to 5 of the note remain as originally published on 17 June 2015, and have not been updated.
This page provides some background information for the Westminster Hall debate, Cost of school transport, on Thursday 25 June 2015. It shows the statutory guidance for local authorities regarding transport to school and a link to individual local authorities' policies.
This page contains a Library briefing, links to press articles and parliamentary questions for background to the Westminster Hall debate, Government policy on support for pupils with English as an additional language, scheduled for Tuesday 23 June 2015.
This book examines the key issues facing the House of Commons over the course of the 2015 Parliament - from the public finances to the UK’s membership of the EU and from school places for children to climate change.
This note collates the public commitments regarding schools policy in England made by the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP and Green Party.