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Debate on the Address

My Lords, in speaking about the education section of the gracious Speech, I particularly welcome the emphasis that it placed on giving all a chance to fulfil their potential. In this context, I believe that raising the school leaving age is a symbol, offering to all that which is currently available to some. I am pleased, however, that this will be a phased-in measure, not taking full effect until 2015, as rushing quickly would be a mistake. After all, this will work only if the levels of overall literacy and numeracy from the early years through primary and secondary schools are raised for those currently underachieving. Alongside it, we need a renewed emphasis on the curriculum available for 14 to 19 year-olds and the rolling out of the much needed expansion of apprenticeships. I recall talking last year with a group of British Aerospace apprentices in Preston, who spoke enthusiastically of their renewed interest in learning. Finally they could see the point, as it was in the context of their new and exciting jobs. There is much to be said for learning from existing apprenticeship schemes. The comments of the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families about the obligation of the Government to offer a range of choices and a strong curriculum are very positive. If the raising of the school leaving age is seen predominantly as punitive rather than as an extension of opportunity, we are in danger of antagonising the very pupils whom we are seeking to reach, and I welcome the overall approach in this area. It is of course right, however, that schools, the Government, parents and pupils all have shared responsibilities. Our hope must be that legislation by 2015 becomes almost irrelevant because we will have reached almost full participation by that date. However, the promise of the legislation will, I believe, act as a bit of a kick to the system. That kick is still necessary. I am currently chairing a charity, Future Leaders, which trains potential head teachers for the most challenging urban secondary schools. It is focused and strongly mission-led, making it absolutely clear that excuses for failure are unacceptable. The lead tutor is a great former head teacher, Sir Iain Hall, who used to teach in the north-west. Every Friday he writes an uplifting missive to the participants. This week's communication was particularly pertinent. He writes: "““Throughout life we make choices. We decide who we should live with, where we should live; what the quality of our life will be like; how we will spend our free time or, if we have any, how we spend our surplus money. We can make, or even unmake, these choices as we pilot our journey through life. Sometimes events may seem to overwhelm us, but even then, we can decide how to handle the situation. However, there are four aspects of this journey through life in which we had no choice. We did not decide who should be our parents; we did not decide our ethnicity; we did not decide our social class or even our gender. Each of these aspects of our starting points in life was decided for us. We had no say in the matter despite these choices probably being the most important determinants of our future. These determinants were, for us, an act of randomness … It was as if our start in life, to some extent, was the result of a large slot machine … with four giant rollers. The first roller would determine our parentage—married and stable or single parent. The second would determine our social class … The third roller would determine our ethnicity, whilst the fourth would determine our gender. Far fetched? If you look at the starting points of some of our students in our schools you may not think so””." On the whole, they are not there through their own actions, but through a range of other influences. Sir Iain goes on to ask us to imagine the consequences of the slot machine. With the first pull of the lever, he states: "““Great result! You have scored stable family, middle class, white and a boy””—" today it could be a girl as well. "““The machine predicts a good life ahead of you. By the age of three you will probably have a vocabulary some ten months ahead of your peers. You will be twelve months ahead in the recognition of colour, shape and numbers. By the age of eighteen you are headed for university and, given a fair wind, a successful life””." With another pull of the lever, the machine spins again: "““English-Bangladeshi, working class, stable family and female. By the age of five you will already be twelve months behind your peers in terms of school readiness; you have a two in three chance of living below the poverty line; one in sixteen chance of being unemployed when you leave school and, just to add more troubles, only ten percent of our university students come from minority ethnic backgrounds””." Let us try again: "““Afro-Caribbean, single parent, male and working class. Your proposed future seems somewhat difficult as well. Statistically, you have a one in four chance of being delayed in your development; two in three chance of growing up in poverty; one in six chance of being unemployed between the ages of sixteen and eighteen and, if you don't gain employment by then, a forty percent chance of being permanently unemployed until you are at least twenty five””." The machine is set for one last spin: "““White, male, single parent and working class. The only difference between this and our first spin is single parent and working class, yet statistically the odds are now stacked against you. The greatest under-performers in our school system are now white working class boys. Having a single parent gives you a seventy percent chance of growing up in poverty; you have a one in eight chance of being unemployed at the age of sixteen and the same chance of entering university as our ethnic minorities. However, you will not be alone. In 2005 there were 220,000 young people who were not in education, training or employment””." They have plenty of company, but not much likelihood of success. Sir Iain then urges the participants, these future head teachers—whether they had a lucky start in life or managed themselves to break through the barriers, perhaps because they had the opportunity of attending a great school—to help those in the coming generations to break through these barriers, too, and to help pupils to raise their sights by delivering to them the education that they clearly deserve. That almost missionary zeal to raise the life chances of disadvantaged children through education is one that I believe we all can and should support. It is no longer acceptable, thank goodness, to be fatalistic and explain failure in detail. Our responsibility is to deal with failure and underachievement. There is another group of children not picked up in those Rowntree Trust figures: children in care. The low achievement of these children is well documented and I am delighted that the Children and Young Persons Bill will offer protection for older children and minimise school movements, both very worthwhile measures. I know that we will spend a good deal of time debating those issues in this House. It is vital that, in addition to the new Bills announced in the gracious Speech, there is continued effort on the basics, the building blocks of achievement. So there can be no let-up in the concentration on literacy and numeracy skills; without them, a wide-ranging and fulfilling later education is impossible. I would urge further consideration of, as Jim Rose advocated, the use of synthetic phonics in our schools. I confess personally that, if a school is not achieving high literacy rates and is not choosing phonics, I would want to know why. In this area, as in so many others, intervention is both justified and necessary. The Prime Minister's recent speech on education emphasised that the Government will close failing schools quickly. That has to be right. We cannot stand by and let a generation of young people fail in case the school gradually improves a bit. The extension of city academies in this context, particularly sharing the expertise of leading independent schools and universities, is very welcome. The recipe for great schools does not change; for me, it is a concentration on teaching and learning, a focus on literacy and numeracy until students reach an adequate level using whatever extra help it takes at whatever level of schooling, a strong school ethos with clear codes of behaviour understood and operated by the whole school community, the expectation and celebration of success and, crucially, a great head teacher leading a committed team. Recently I visited a school in Liverpool, the North Liverpool Academy, formed by the amalgamation of two poor comprehensive schools. It is in one of the most deprived wards in the UK, where the head and her teaching staff are totally focused on transforming the opportunities for the pupils by concentrating on each student, one by one, and stretching them to go as far as they possibly can achieve. That focus and commitment was humbling and the response of the pupils remarkable. Yesterday I spoke to the head teacher, Kay Askew, to ask her permission to mention the school to noble Lords today. Her response was, ““Yes, please, but you must tell them this””. I promised that I would, and she went on to say that, "““the students are really trying with their work and their attendance … they are joining in, putting on shows for charity, making shoes boxes for Christmas, running football coaching in the community and many other citizenship contributions. The staff work their socks off to make really focused dynamic lessons with a variety of experiences for the students and help them by giving up many Saturdays and weekends to catch up and revise. We also could not be where we are without our many community partners who have worked for years to bring the Academy to fruition and especially … a very dedicated sponsor. One of the real successes has been the parents and how they turn out for the students to our many evening events. On Tuesday we are having a Pink and Powerful day to support Women's Enterprise day where we will show that you can be … fashionable trendy and successful in a career””." Kay Askew is right to be proud, as she clearly is. It is in schools such as this that we can really deliver the opportunity for all, for which we strive. I look forward to our debates around this subject in the coming year.