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21st Century Schools

At the centre of the White Paper is the idea of schools working with schools, parents and other children's services to break down all barriers to progress, whether those barriers are in the classroom or outside it. Our vision of schools working with children's services, and taking an interest in the progress of pupils before they get to school by working with Sure Start and children's centres, is vital, particularly in areas such as the one that my hon. Friend represents. Programmes such as Every Child a Talker, which are about getting children to start communicating and speaking English at the ages of two and three, are particularly important for her constituency, and I am happy to meet her to discuss that further.