argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Jack Edgar Brereton (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. I have spoken with many headteachers in my constituency over the past few weeks, and all our schools across Stoke-on-Trent have been able to remain open throughout the pandemic. A number of schools have seen unexpected costs during this time, particularly with gaps in their budgets from lost income, and many will still have to pay exam fees despite there being no exams. Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking all our teachers for the incredible work they have done, and consider what can be done to try to plug some of those costs?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): I join my hon. Friend in thanking all the teachers in Stoke-on-Trent. It has been great that schools there not only stayed open all the way through the pandemic for those children who are most vulnerable, and the children of critical workers, but that so many of them opened up last week and so many children came back. My hon. Friend mentioned unexpected costs as a result of coronavirus. Secondary and primary schools are able to bid into a fund to recover some of the costs that they might have experienced as a result of the pandemic.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We would all expect respect and tolerance to be very much at the heart of what happens in every one of our schools in every part of the country. That tolerance and respect for all, whatever someone’s background, is incredibly important in education. The national curriculum already ensures that people are able to teach what happened under the British empire, not just in history lessons but in English and in personal, social, health and economic education. There is an amazing range of resources, and we encourage all schools to look at those, and to ensure that children have an education that is able to reflect the rich and diverse nature of this truly wonderful country.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Benjamin David Bradley (Conservative, Centre-right): Recognising that it will not be possible to bring back whole-school cohorts in primary schools until September, will the Secretary of State confirm that he will support and be flexible with those schools that would wish to bring back more than just the minimum number of children, where they are able to do so and they have the space and the staff to do that? Will he help them? Secondly, will he lay out for the parents of those children who now will not be going back until September exactly what their childcare options are to enable them to get back to work?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We are working to devise a priority list so that schools are able, where they do have extra capacity, to welcome back more children. That enables them to support children’s learning, but also their communities, including parents, who of course need to be going out to work as well.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We aim to get all the computers that we have purchased out by the end of June, and we are on course to be able to do that. We also recognise the importance of supporting children through not just online learning, but additional learning that we can provide for them through schools. We are making sure that we have also supported schools to be able to have Microsoft Teams and Google platforms in order to help them deliver more learning online and, for physical learning, we are ensuring that they can deliver by sending resources to pupils directly as well.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Stephen James Metcalfe (Conservative, Centre-right): Attending school supports not only children’s education, but their wellbeing. Returning to normal routine will be immensely beneficial. Will my right hon. Friend therefore also look at reintroducing the vital school fruit and vegetable scheme as soon as possible for schools such as Lee Chapel Primary School to ensure that the most vulnerable children get access to fresh, nutritious food?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes the important point that getting children back into routine is vital, and getting as many children as we can back into the classroom is a top priority for all of us. The fruit and vegetable scheme is led by the Department of Health and Social Care, but I will be in contact with it to have discussions, and I will get back to my hon. Friend on the matter.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We have had an unprecedented package to support nursery and early years provision. There is the continued commitment to paying money through local authorities to support them, there is the furlough scheme and there is rates relief. We constantly talk with those in the sector about how we can do more to support them and how we can support them in the long term to achieve our aim of delivering a rich environment in which children can learn in those early years. Whether they are in the charity sector or the commercial sector, those providers should continue to be able to succeed and create a stable environment for all children.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Laurence Anthony Robertson (Conservative, Centre-right): A number of schools have got quite a few pupils who are children of critical workers or the children themselves are vulnerable. As a result, it is difficult for those schools to accept other pupils. Is there anything the Government can do to help those schools and any advice they can give them? They are anxious to move on, but are having problems doing so.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend highlights an issue that a number of schools are facing, and we are looking at working with them to add extra flexibility. They can perhaps look at using different facilities and different resources that may be available to them in order to be able to expand provision within a school.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): That is why, as I stated earlier, we want to work with local authorities that have concerns to make sure they are in a position to open all their schools and, where they face practical problems or issues, to discuss that with them to ensure that all their schools are open. If we have to close schools, we will do that in conjunction with Public Health England, but it is vital that we get all schools open for these year groups, while always recognising that there might be clusters of schools that have to close for short periods.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
David Mervyn Johnston (Conservative, Centre-right): When the Children’s Commissioner appeared before the Education Committee last week, she said that if no further children went back to school before September, 8 million children will have missed six months of learning. Given what we know already happens over the summer holidays, does my right hon. Friend agree that that is too long and that any school that conceivably can open should do so?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to see all schools open, and that is why we will continue to work with all schools to look at how they can accept more and more pupils, making sure that all children have the amazing opportunity of learning from their teachers. I am very optimistic that we will see more children returning to school and the number of children attending school increasing week upon week.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate the University of Glasgow on that great success. I know the leadership there is truly outstanding. We will continue to work with the universities sector, including on how it can support us in our response to covid. We have seen brilliant work on testing and the development of vaccines as well as supporting NHS workers with the provision of accommodation. That is why we brought out the stabilisation package for universities just a few weeks ago. We continue to work with the sector on how we can do more and continue to support them.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Damian Patrick George Hinds (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is acutely conscious of the detriment caused by this extended period away from school, educationally, socially and for mental and physical health, so can we have maximum flexibility for those schools that could welcome back more children—for example, with rotas for the use of suitable additional premises or even by having year 6 pupils doing extended transition time in their soon-to-be secondary school if and where schools locally believe they can do that?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is absolutely correct. We want to give schools the maximum flexibility to get as many children as possible through the doors before the summer holidays so that we can maximise their learning opportunities as a result.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We encourage all schools to return and open their doors to pupils. As I think we all recognise, children gain vast benefits—both physically and mentally, as well as in their learning—from being able to return. We very much encourage Sheffield City Council to engage with us to ensure that it is supporting schools to open their doors and get children learning once again.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous (Conservative, Centre-right): Children at Wombourne High School in the Secretary of State’s own constituency are very fortunate because they continue to enjoy virtual lessons. What will the Secretary of State do to make sure that all children can have that?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to highlight the brilliant work of Wombourne High School in supporting pupils in my constituency of South Staffordshire. We want to see that replicated across all schools. That is why we will set minimum expectations for curriculum delivery for the remaining weeks of this term. We are also working with schools to make sure that the bar is set as high as possible for those children who are not able to go back to school, perhaps because they are shielding, in our minimum expectations for what they should be learning at all times.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): Of course, the best advert for why children should be going back to school is those incredibly powerful images of children returning to school for the first time. We see absolute joy across their faces, their passion for learning and the fact that they are so pleased to see their teachers and friends once more. And they come back from school having had the opportunity to learn. That, for me, is the very best advert for what we are doing The hon. Lady highlights the important issue of black and ethnic minority communities. We continue to work with Public Health England and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to make sure that we do everything we can to assuage the concerns of all communities. The best place for children is back in school.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Sarah Elizabeth Dines (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has tried very hard to get as many children as possible back to school, particularly vulnerable children. Does he agree not only that education supports social factors and wellbeing, but that it is immensely important to get those in non-accessible areas, including rural areas such as Derbyshire Dales, back to school as soon as possible, when it is safe?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. We need to get every child back to school. We should not stint in our ambition to see all children back in school and learning at the very earliest opportunity. I do not want the return to school to be delayed. Picking up on the points made by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds), it is important to look at different ways to bring more children back so that they have the opportunity to learn and to be set new tasks and new learning goals by their teachers before the summer.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Transportation
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We continue to work on this issue with the Department for Transport, the Local Government Association, local authorities and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. We recognise the challenges of home-to-school transport and will look at how we can provide support to bring more children back, especially as we move into the September period.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): This is why it was vital that we immediately made it clear to those organisations that we will continue to support them with grant funding for those children who access those settings. Those organisations receive money from Government. On top of that, there is the furlough scheme and we have been able to offer rates relief to many of those organisations. We continue to work with the sector to find long-term solutions to some of the challenges they face.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions, MHCLG and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on this. I talked about the unprecedented £6.5 billion extra that the DWP was distributing. We also have the holiday activities and food fund, which we are looking to continue to run this summer.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Christopher Stephen Grayling (Conservative, Centre-right): The Secretary of State rightly identified year 6s as one of the groups that should be in the early phase of pupils being brought back to school because they are about to transition to a new school. Of course, in areas with infant schools, there are children in year 2 who are in the same position. Will he confirm—and, indeed, give guidance—that he will allow those schools, if they can, to bring back some year 2s ahead of the transition this summer?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): We are looking at giving schools much more flexibility to bring the maximum amount of pupils into schools. Where transition years fall slightly differently in different areas, one of the conversations we will be having with those schools is about how we can prioritise those pupils.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not wish to disagree with the hon. Lady, but I think that we have a much more ambitious plan than Scotland in terms of actually wanting to see schools open. We have seen literally thousands of schools open right across the country, offering children face-to-face lessons and support from teachers, teaching assistants and everyone else. I think that is far better than anything that can be delivered digitally. There is no substitute for a brilliant teacher in a classroom inspiring a child. However, as I touched on, we will continue to develop our digital platforms. The Oak National Academy has delivered more than 10 million lessons over the last few weeks. That is an amazing success and we want to build on it.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Felicia Jane Beatrix Drummond (Conservative, Centre-right): As my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) just said, children who are transitioning into a new school must have extra support over the next few months so that they feel comfortable about entering their new school. Has my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State given any consideration to allowing those in year 6 to spend time this term in their new secondary school so that they are fully prepared for September?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend highlights an important benefit that can be given to children—the opportunity to spend vital time in a setting that will become their new school—and asks how we can help facilitate that. There is also the question of how we can relieve some of the pressures that may exist in the primary school system so that primary schools can look at bringing more children in. This is one of the options as part of the increasingly flexible approach that we will be taking to getting more children into school and more children benefiting from education.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): As at every stage, the interests of children and care for children in education is at the heart of it, but our focus as a Department has been how we can support schools in supporting their children. That is what we have seen over the last few weeks and that is what we will continue to do. The holiday activities resources that we are looking at rolling out will be an important step in helping local authorities to do that.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gareth Alan Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Secretary of State update the House on the progress that has been made to open universities? Online lectures can be very useful but they are no substitute for face-to-face lectures and lectures that require some practical work.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend highlights the importance of ensuring that universities are able to deliver lectures not just virtually but for practical steps, and of opening up research facilities in universities. That is what we are working with Universities UK on, to ensure that they are able to return to normal as rapidly as possible, so that not only do students get the best, but the wider community of the UK gets the best from all universities being open.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): At every stage, we will take the maximum cautious approach on how we bring schools back. Every step, whether it is making sure children are able to come back to much smaller class sizes, so that we reduce the risk of transmission, or making sure that contact between children is absolutely minimised—although these things are incredibly challenging for schools and reduce the ease of operating schools—has been taken to reduce the chances of transmission. SAGE always publishes all its papers and makes them public, and I imagine it will continue to do so.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Aaron Stuart Bell (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my right hon. Friend acknowledge the international evidence that looking at the R rate, either locally or regionally, becomes less useful as case numbers fall and that perhaps we should be looking at the prevalence data from the Office for National Statistics? In that light, will he commit to working with the sector to get all children back to school in September and supporting them to make up for the lost time?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My absolute ambition is to see all children back in September but over the coming weeks it is to maximise the number of children who are able to benefit by going into schools. My hon. Friend raises an important point: this is about not just the R rate, but what we are doing on track and trace, and everything we can do to minimise transmission within schools to make them a safe environment for people to work in and learn in.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): It is vital to be able to support that age group, and not just in their choices as to whether they want to go on to university, a further education college or an apprenticeship. We are doing a lot of work on skills to make sure we are able to support them in their next step of that journey. We are also working, through the National Careers Service, to make sure they are getting the best advice and guidance, so that they can make the choices that are right for them.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Jane Fiona Catherine Stevenson (Conservative, Centre-right): I am sure we are all concerned to hear about the attainment gap between richer and poorer students widening during time off school. What measures will my right hon. Friend take to close that gap and reassure parents that this Government want every child, from every background, to reach their full potential, regardless of covid?
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Education
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend and neighbour is correct about how we support these students. As I keep saying, there is no magic, simple solution whereby we can put something in place for a short period. This has to be done over a long period—how we support their learning and how we close the gap to make sure that children, whatever background they come from, have the maximum number of opportunities as they go through the school system, and especially as they face exams in the near future.
Education Settings: Wider Opening — House of Commons, 2020-06-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Gavin Alexander Williamson (Conservative, Centre-right): As I have said, not only through the Department for Work and Pensions but MHCLG and DEFRA, we continue to look at how we can support the families who are most vulnerable and most in need of support.