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Children, Schools and Families

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement made earlier in the other place. It is large and comprehensive, so I will concentrate on only a few issues this afternoon. No doubt, we will have many weeks and months to discuss this in detail. As my honourable friend Michael Gove said, a new commitment to aspiration, excellence, diversity and discipline in our schools is to be applauded. It goes without saying that we all have a responsibility to ensure that every child has a chance to develop their full potential, because every child matters. So, we welcome much of what has been announced, which is hardly surprising given that a good deal of it chimes with Conservative Party thinking—not least, good discipline in our schools and access for all our children to good after-school activities. The proposals announced this afternoon are ambitious, but we have doubts about the Government’s ability to deliver, based on their record of the past 10 years. If a child is deprived of the basics in literacy and numeracy, then all the exciting things that education has to offer will be lost, which is why we campaign vigorously for the teaching of synthetic phonics in our schools and welcomed the findings of the Rose review. Can the Minister assure us that phonics will be incorporated in the Every Child a Reader programme? There has also been a good deal of concern that so much of the modern maths curriculum now requires reading skills, so children who have not mastered reading will also fall behind in maths. So, we were pleased that in their new focus on standards and rigour the Government are reviewing the way that maths is taught in our schools. Almost half of 11 year-olds do not reach expected levels in maths, and the proportion of pupils with good GCSEs in maths has fallen since 1997. The targets for numeracy have been missed in every spending round since 1997, and Ofsted has reported that the national numeracy strategy is having ““limited effects””. Why, I wonder, have we had to wait 10 years for this review? Fewer than half the maths teachers in our schools have a maths degree. What is being done to attract more talented maths and science graduates into the classroom? The Government, as we have heard today, are placing a great emphasis on personalised learning. We agree that ensuring that teaching is tailored to the needs of each child is valuable. Can the Minister explain how this will be achieved, given that the number of pupils in classes of more than 50 has risen in the past two years? That is particularly important among our youngest children. There is, however, concern that lots of children will get their personalised learning from computer screens. While technology has an important role to play in education, it is not and nor should it become a substitute for a teacher or whole-class teaching. An important part of personalised learning will be setting by ability. Twice last week I tried to tease out from the Minister the Government’s intention on setting, and I shall try for a third time. The Minister said quite rightly that it would be up to head teachers to decide what to do; but, with only 40 per cent of lessons in secondary schools set by ability, how will the Government persuade the rest? The Minister’s commitment to academies, which build on the Conservative Government’s city technology colleges, is beyond question. There is an energy and sense of purpose in academies. We are pleased that there are to be more, that the Government have spotted a good policy when they see one, and that they have adopted our proposals for relaxing the barriers to involvement in setting up new academies. However, one of their strengths is their ability to run their own affairs. I wonder whether the Minister shares our concerns that their very attractiveness may be undermined by placing them under the control of local authorities once more. In 2001, my right honourable friend Iain Duncan Smith, in looking to new ways of delivering policy, created a shadow department for children and families, so we welcome the creation of the new Department for Children, Schools and Families, which has one of the most important briefs and faces some of the most difficult challenges. As the Secretary of State said, getting it right is critical to the future of our country. Conservatives have always had at their heart a commitment to expand opportunity and to champion aspiration for all. We will work with the Government where such measures that they propose are clearly in the best interests of our nation’s children.