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National Curriculum Tests

I should put on the record that the expert group that we are establishing, with its terms of reference, includes one primary school and one secondary school head teacher—Gill Mills and Yasmin Bevan, from the Cross-in-Hand Church of England primary school and Denbigh high school respectively. The group also includes Jim Rose, a leading expert in curricular matters who is doing our primary curriculum review, Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector, and Tim Brighouse, who ran the London challenge. The five members will make sure that they consult widely, including with the Children, Schools and Families Committee. I was disappointed that the Committee Chairman and other members could not be here today; I discovered only yesterday that they were in Canada. However, I have suggested to the Chairman that he and his colleagues might want to go to Alberta to look at the report card system there, and that they might want to change planes in New York city on the way back to start investigations into how the report card can work. The Committee's report in July was careful, measured and forward thinking. My hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) and others played an important role in ensuring that the report was good, and it has influenced our thinking. On the issue of sample testing, I made the point that such testing cannot deliver for every parent their child's progress, and it cannot deliver their child's school's progress either. Sample testing has a role to play, however, and it will do so at key stage 3, for children at the age of 14, on the basis of the expert group's advice. As part of its work, I am happy to ask the expert group to look at the wider issues that my hon. Friend has raised.