The department publishes information about open free schools, including the date they opened. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development.

On the Get Information about Schools site, it is possible, by using the filter of ‘free schools’ and ‘closed’ in a search function, to bring up a list of all free schools that are now closed. The site is available at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Search?SelectedTab=Establishments.

The department publishes information about open free schools, including the date they opened. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development.

The attached table provides the number of free schools opened each year from 2011 to 2023. This includes primary, secondary, all through and 16-19 age ranges of the following types of free schools: mainstream free schools, alternative provision free schools, special free schools and specialist maths schools. University technical colleges and Studio schools have been listed separately.

As of 4 March 2024, there are 7,223 mainstream primary academies and 12 alternative provision primary academies. There are 2,867 mainstream secondary academies and 151 alternative provision secondary academies.

Between January 2008 and December 2023, 9,345 schools opened as primary converter academies, primary sponsored academies, secondary converter academies and secondary sponsored academies. A breakdown of this information by calendar year is given the following table:

Table 1: Converter and sponsored academies opened between 2008 and 2023.

The number of GCSE entries by pupils at the end of key stage 4 in the requested subjects can be found in the attached spreadsheet.

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The Department is investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels to ensure people have access to high quality teaching and can access career opportunities in STEM related sectors. The Department is working with other Government Departments through the UK Science & Technology Framework to deliver talent and skills for critical technologies.

The Department funds several programmes to encourage young people into STEM, including:

• The Stimulating Physics Network, which provides support to schools to increase rates of progression to physics A level.
• An inclusion in schools project to increase the uptake of A level physics from students in underrepresented groups.
• The Isaac Physics programme to increase the numbers of students, particularly from typically underrepresented backgrounds, studying physics in higher education.

The Department also supports the STEM ambassadors programme, which inspires young people from underrepresented backgrounds to engage with STEM subjects. Secondary schools are also expected to provide pupils with at least one meaningful interaction with employers per pupil per year, with a focus on STEM employers.

The Department is harnessing expertise through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce to increase the number of people taking digital and computing qualifications and to attract a diverse range of individuals into digital jobs. The Department is also investing over £100 million in the National Centre for Computing Education to improve the teaching of computing and to increase participation in computer science at GCSE and A level.

The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths works with a network of 40 maths hubs to help local schools improve the quality of their teaching. In April, the Prime Minister announced that every young person will study some form of mathematics up to the age of 18, and that the Department will expand and extend the work of maths hubs.

The Prime Minister also recently announced plans to develop a new baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 16 to 19 year-olds, which will bring together the best of A levels and T Levels into a single qualification, and ensure students continue with some form of mathematics and English study until they are 18.

The Department is making a £600 million downpayment for the ABS, focused on recruiting and retaining teachers in key STEM and technical shortage subjects, ensuring better attainment in mathematics and English, and providing better resources for teachers and pupils. As part of this, it is investing around £100 million a year to give early career STEM teachers, working in disadvantaged schools and all further education colleges up to £6,000 tax free annually on top of their pay, and an additional £60 million over two years to improve mathematics education. This will help to ensure our young people receive high quality specialist teaching to equip them with the mathematics and science skills the UK needs.

The Department also funds the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme which delivers high quality teacher professional development as well as focused support and enrichment for students and institutions to improve participation and provision in level 3 mathematics.

There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.

The Department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects, including mathematics. This is why the Department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries worth £28,000 tax free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax free, to encourage talented trainees to teach mathematics, as well as physics, chemistry and computing. The initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, a £15 million increase on the last cycle.

The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions from Members of Parliament. The below table provides the proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named day written parliamentary questions answered by the Department from 1 January 2023 to 23 October 2023, as at 23 October.

There are many opportunities for animal health and welfare to be taught in schools. In science the curriculum includes teaching about animals and their environment, including understanding the basic needs of animals. The need to care for and return animals taken from their local environment is also included in the non statutory guidance notes section of the Key Stage 1 programme of study. More information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-science-programmes-of-study#key-stage-1.

Schools also have the freedom to teach animal welfare in subjects such as citizenship and personal, social, health and economic education. Teachers are free to determine what further activities they offer in this subject to meet the needs of their pupils. All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

The Department will be consulting extensively over the coming months on the design and content of the Advanced British Standard, accompanied by a programme of stakeholder engagement. This will inform a White Paper to be published next year.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

The Department will spend what it takes to keep children safe. The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, all reasonable requests will be approved. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term.

The Department has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the 2023/4 financial year to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. On top of this, the Department will transform 500 schools through our School Rebuilding Programme, prioritising buildings in the poorest condition. Currently, 400 schools have been announced to date.

The Department is committed to working collaboratively with our devolved administration counterparts on this issue, and the Barnett formula will continue to apply in the usual way to any change in the Government Departmental budget.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

The Department has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the 2023/24 financial year to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. On top of this, the Department will transform 500 schools through the School Rebuilding Programme, prioritising buildings in the poorest condition. Currently, 400 schools have been announced to date.

The Government will spend what it takes to keep children safe. The Department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, all reasonable requests will be approved. The Department will also fund longer term refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to rectify the RAAC issue in the long term. This will not affect existing programmes. Further details will be set out in due course.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

The Department will spend what it takes to keep children safe. This includes paying for the emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including alternative classroom space where necessary, and supporting schools with remedial works – this is the Department’s immediate focus. Where schools need additional help with revenue costs like transport to other locations, the Department is actively engaging with every school affected to put appropriate support in place. The Department expects to fund all reasonable revenue costs related to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). It will also fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where needed, to rectify RAAC for the long term.

The Department is providing funding to improve the condition of the school estate, with over £15 billion allocated since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed for 2023/24. This funding is informed by consistent data on the condition of the estate. On top of this, the Department will transform 500 schools through its School Rebuilding Programme, prioritising buildings in the poorest condition and those with evidence of potential safety issues.

Local authorities, larger multi academy trusts and larger voluntary aided school bodies are eligible to receive an annual School Condition Allocation (SCA) for maintaining and improving the condition of the schools for which they are responsible. Small and standalone academy trusts, small voluntary aided school bodies and sixth-form colleges are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year for specific capital projects to improve the condition of their buildings. Further details are available at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund. Schools also receive Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) each year to spend on small capital projects or contribute to larger projects. As part of the overall condition funding allocated, the Department has provided one off allocations in some years. This includes £560 million in 2020/21 allocated through SCA and CIF, as well as £447 million allocated in 2022/23 to improve buildings prioritising energy efficiency.

Details of SCA and DFC, as well as overall funding for the Condition Improvement Fund, for the current financial year are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding#funding-allocations-for-the-2022-to-2023-financial-year; and for previous years, including one off allocations, at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations.

The figures do not include capital funding for the Department’s rebuilding programmes, which are delivering rebuilt and refurbished school buildings across the country.

It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the Department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.

An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 19 October, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information. This contains a summary of the number of schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC and the status of education in place at these schools and colleges at the specified date. This will be updated on a regular basis as new buildings are identified and surveying and remediation are carried out. At the time of publication, none of the schools with remote education arrangements in place were special schools.

The Department is focused on ensuring schools are supported to put in place immediate measures to enable face to face teaching. The longer-term requirements of each school or college with RAAC will vary depending on the extent of the issue and nature and design of the buildings. The Department will work closely with responsible bodies to understand and assess requirements in detail and offer appropriate support.

The varying contexts of specialist provision mean special schools may require different solutions if RAAC is confirmed. A caseworker from the Department will be able to discuss the support they might need and mitigations they are putting in place. The Department recognises that some pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including those in alternative provision, may find it more difficult to adapt to change and require additional support to transition to emergency accommodation or longer-term temporary accommodation. If pupils or students in a special school need to be taught in emergency or temporary accommodation, head teachers and staff are best placed to know how their needs can most effectively continue to be met.

The Department’s priority is that pupils remain in face to face education or can return to it as soon as possible. The Department will provide funding for all mitigation works that are capital funded. This includes propping and temporary units on the estate. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, such as transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall or office, all reasonable requests will be approved.