Parliament and Policy: March 2014

 

March mentions of the Sutton Trust and EEF in Parliament

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13 March 2014

Lord Nash secured a debate on social mobility and education in the House of Lords. There were a number of interesting contributions, with two Sutton Trust and one EEF mention:

Speaking on access to professions Baroness Massey of Darwen (Labour) stated,

“Some banks have teamed up with the Sutton Trust to boost access to careers in banking through training and support.” (Column 1882)

You can find out more about the programme here.

Baroness Uddin also commented on access to professions;

“Take the top universities—five elite schools sent more pupils to Oxford and Cambridge than 2,000 schools comprising two-thirds of the entire state sector. We know the statistics. Take the professions—more than two-thirds of the public servants and leading lawyers studied by the Sutton Trust were privately educated, while the thousands of graduates in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs cannot access the hundreds of thousands of jobs on their City doorstep and the increasing number of our home-grown graduates are staffing the rising pockets of areas which have local branches of Sainsbury and Tesco.” (Column 1904)

Read our research, Degrees of Success, on access to university.

Lord Nash referenced the Education Endowment Foundation when speaking about research in education;

 “We believe in a mixed economy in teacher training and greater research into the effects of education measures, which is why, for instance, we have funded, with some £100 million, the education endowment fund.”  (Column 1934)

View the full discussion here.

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18 March 2014 – Westminster Hall Debate on teaching assistants

Alex Cunningham (Labour) cited the EEF Sutton Trust Toolkit when discussing the role of teaching assistants;

“For example, although it is true that the teaching and learning toolkit produced by a collaboration of the Education Endowment Foundation and the Sutton Trust suggests that teaching assistants have a low impact for a high cost, it is important to note that the toolkit also specifies that this judgment is “based on limited evidence”.

The implication, of course, is that the sentiment should not necessarily be taken at face value, or at least not without some fairly substantial caveats.

The Education Endowment Foundation makes it clear that a simplistic reading of its evidence is decidedly unhelpful. To be sure, the toolkit also specifies that teaching assistants can have a positive impact on academic achievement, but that assessment was not given equal weighting by Reform.”

View the full discussion here.

24 March 2014 – Education Questions, House of Commons

The Sutton Trust was mentioned in Education Questions by Rob Wilson MP and Tristram Hunt:

Rob Wilson (Conservative) quotes the recent Sutton Trust report Baby Bonds;

“A new Sutton Trust report states that 40% of children are missing out on the parenting they need to succeed in life. International evidence finds that under-threes who do not form strong bonds with a parent are more likely to suffer from aggression and hyperactivity when older, and they do less well in their education. In the light of that, is the Minister happy that parents are getting the full picture when making choices about the right balance of time spent in nursery and child care settings, as opposed to with their parents?”

View the full discussion here.

Tristram Hunt (Labour) also mentions Baby Bonds;

“The Tories might laugh at the impact that health visitors have on early-years education, but the Opposition think that the early years are vital. As the hon. Member for Reading East (Mr Wilson) suggested, research published by the Sutton Trust on Friday reiterated the impact that good parenting has on school readiness, educational attainment and progression into continued education and work.”

View the full discussion here.

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24 March 2014

The Sutton Trust-EEF Toolkit was mentioned by Simon Wright MP;

Simon Wright (Liberal Democrats), “I welcomed last week’s announcement of an early-years pupil premium. Schools have benefited from access to the Education Endowment Foundation toolkit to use the pupil premium to its best effect. Will the Department consider how best to make early-years pupil premium research available to providers?”

View the full discussion here.

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27 March 2014 – Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission: Government Response

David Laws MP announced the publication of the Government’s response to the first annual report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission:

The EEF is mentioned on page 20.