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Education and Skills Bill

I am not going to start criticising schools in leafy suburbs, but there are many schools across the country which have few indicators of deprivation, but which are not achieving as well as Mossbourne academy in Hackney. The vast majority of comprehensive schools have between 10 and 21 per cent. of pupils on free school meals. Simply moving children around so that every school has the national average of 14 per cent. of pupils qualifying for free school meals would not make the slightest difference to the quality of education in those schools. As I have said, one of the best comprehensives in the country has half its children qualifying for free school meals. The objective of a Conservative Government would be to concentrate on standards of behaviour, assessing and streaming, school uniform and high academic achievement.