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Education

My Lords, I am delighted that the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard, has secured this debate. Like the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, I am enjoying the many excellent speeches—I am sure with more to come. It is a great pleasure to talk about schools; it is one of my favourite topics. Indeed, were I not standing here today there is no place I would rather be than in front of a class of young people in a school somewhere. For about 20 years I taught French and health education—a strange combination—mainly in inner London comprehensive schools, where I was a senior teacher and then an advisor. Today I will raise a few initial points, then move on to describe some conversations I have had recently with head teachers and classroom teachers about how they see the state of our schools. This Government have done more than any other to improve the lot of children. The seminal document Every Child Matters, setting out the five outcomes desirable for children, is aspirational and inspirational. The Children Act should result in better support for families and children who have the problems of deprivation described so eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp. The youth Green Paper sets out positive directions, as does the 10-year strategy for learning. There are many other reports I could mention. The drive is to not only to protect children but to enable them to gain self-esteem and self-confidence—surely the heart of any success, be it academic or social. There has been a commitment to raise children and families out of poverty, and improve their lives; Sure Start has sought to enable parents in difficult circumstances to be able to deal more positively with their children, and its impact is still to be seen. I was at school a long way from Eton and not far from where the noble Baroness on the Opposition Bench was at school. It was in a largely working-class area. I went to the local grammar school where the top stream out of three went on to higher education if they were lucky. Many were not lucky, largely due to a lack of aspiration for them from school and parents, and their own perception of their ability and worth. This experience made me into a teacher, with the sure knowledge that things could be done better. They are being done better. I do not want just to focus on academic performance—education is far more than academic performance. We must focus on making every school a good school, open to all children in a community. Many people have spoken about the importance of community. We all know what makes a good school; that was referred to by my noble friend Lady Morgan of Huyton. It is about strong leadership, a vision for the school, clear goals, good and dedicated teachers supported by good management, a programme of personal, social and health education as well as a range of formal subjects, and the encouragement of aspiration, motivation and self-discipline, with parental involvement and support where possible. External support from an LEA or from expert advice is also valuable. The Audit Office report on improving poorly performing schools, mentioned by several noble Lords, recognises much of this. The report attracted headlines described by the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, such as,"““A million pupils failed by schools””." Behind the headlines, the report also states that the number of poorly performing schools is reducing, GCSE and equivalent performance in England has improved, and more primary schools are achieving basic numeracy and literacy skills. I suspect that many pupils fail in schools because they are being failed long before they get to school. Schools have a difficult job in trying to make up for that deficit. Some of the pupils who enter the primary school where I am a governor do not know what a book is, let alone how to turn a page. Some are aggressive toward staff and other children, and have poor social skills. My school is a difficult one, with high levels of poverty and deprivation, and 60 different languages, set in a housing estate in Wandsworth. Yet, the school has those good qualities I described earlier, with a focus on social development. Many children are helped to achieve their potential. Whether this continues into their secondary school, I do not know. We certainly have to look at what happens in the crucial transfer from primary to secondary school. My school is a strong part of the community. Assistants come from within the community, as do many of the teachers. The school has never been vandalised, despite its setting. Every community should have a good school, and every school should involve the community. It is known from research that being part of a community decreases the likelihood in young people of risk-taking and anti-social behaviour. I want to say a word on the controversial White Paper for schools: some of it is good, and some of it I have serious concerns about. The White Paper is for the future, whatever that means, and I am talking about now. Let me share with your Lordships some of the things that teachers and head teachers have told me. Of course they have criticisms, but they largely feel that education in schools has improved over the past 10 years. They speak of steady improvement in the professionalism and accountability of the education service. They speak of the consolidation of the national curriculum, a curriculum of entitlement for all pupils, and a curriculum for the foundation stage of schooling. They speak of the establishment of understood national levels of pupil attainment at the end of each key stage, and the obligation to report on attainment and record pupil progress. They speak of the establishment of SEN legislation and provision beyond mainstream funding. They refer also to the improvement of the careers service with the establishment of Connexions and to the recognition that, with funding, additional support can bring about improved pupil outcomes, for example, through Sure Start, after and before school clubs, holiday activity programmes and out of school activities. They refer also to the provision of an extended curriculum to complement the basic curriculum and to personal, social and health education and citizenship, which I was delighted to hear the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford discuss, although I wish that citizenship and personal, social and health education were part of the statutory curriculum. They refer to the national healthy school standard award, which in my school has involved the community—parents, grandparents, local industry, the police and so on. Those people refer to improved pay and conditions for teachers and to the establishment of teaching assistants who can deal with small groups in classrooms. They refer to improvements to initial teacher training and the acceptance by the profession of improvement through inspection, reporting and action planning. They refer to the primary strategy, Excellence and Enjoyment, which improves on the literacy and numeracy strategy by making it more creative. They refer to the use of information technology and to the recognition that continuing professional development and attention to the school leadership role for heads, deputies and senior staff is important. I could go on. Much good practice has developed. A friend of mine, who was the head teacher of a local community school, instituted an access class for pupils arriving from primary schools who have weak skills in literacy and numeracy. The mornings for that group of pupils were taken up with basic skill learning with primary school teachers in the classroom. They were more than catch-up classes. My friend reported that the impact on achievement and the cutting of potential behaviour problems were enormous. My question for the Minister is: how is good practice such as this shared between schools? Is there a formal procedure? Are there informal procedures? If there are no procedures, could we have some? Again, I am grateful for this debate. We are all keen to improve performance in schools. How we do that will be discussed in more detail in the coming months, but it is certain that a good experience in school contributes to a motivated and a civilised society.