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Education and Skills Bill

It is always a pleasure to receive your rulings, Madam Deputy Speaker. In the debate on grammar schools, some people sometimes take the view that intake determines how good a school is, and that if we manipulates that, we fix everything. The view is taken by some on the extreme left and by others who are stuck in the past. My view is that it is not the social engineering of the intake that makes a good school, but getting the basics right. If a school has the right ethos and good behaviour and discipline, if its leadership team inculcates appropriate values in all those associated with the school, and if high standards are the school's watchword, any school, no matter how challenging its intake, can be good. I—and, I am sure, the Secretary of State—have seen schools with uniquely challenging intakes produce superb results. I have also seen schools in relatively privileged areas where high standards have not been the norm, and where expectations have not been as high as they should be. Those schools have been underperforming. It is my contention that deprivation is not destiny. It is the quality of the school, not the background of the intake, that is the decisive factor. It should be the mission of hon. Members from across the House to drive up standards, whatever a school's intake, and to concentrate on the changes that will generate improvements.