To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) if he will include British Sign Language in the list of options of minority languages in the national curriculum;

[152318]

To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) if he will include British Sign Language in the list of options of minority languages in the national curriculum;

[152318]

(2) if he will change the definition of a modern foreign language in the national curriculum to a written, spoken or signed language.

[152319]

Mr Andrew Smith:

(2) if he will change the definition of a modern foreign language in the national curriculum to a written, spoken or signed language.

[152319]

Mr Andrew Smith:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the Statement of 17 September 2012, Official Report, column 653, on examination reform, what provision will be made for the teaching of (a) Spanish and (b) Hebrew under the new system of allowing only a single examination board per subject.

[134654]

To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the Statement of 17 September 2012, Official Report, column 653, on examination reform, what provision will be made for the teaching of (a) Spanish and (b) Hebrew under the new system of allowing only a single examination board per subject.

[134654]

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what criteria his Department used to identify the list of seven languages at Key Stage 2, one of which primary schools are required to teach.

[151912]

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what criteria his Department used to identify the list of seven languages at Key Stage 2, one of which primary schools are required to teach.

[151912]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for making it possible for us to have this debate on the curriculum, which it is not going to be possible to debate in the Chamber because it will not involve any new lawmaking.

Personally, I have no argument with the Government’s...

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for making it possible for us to have this debate on the curriculum, which it is not going to be possible to debate in the Chamber because it will not involve any new lawmaking.

Personally, I have no argument with the Government’s...

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on the admirable way in his excellent opening speech in which he summed up the issues facing us. This debate offers us all the opportunities

that a bran tub presents to a small child—so many possibilities. Part of me wanted to talk, like...

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on the admirable way in his excellent opening speech in which he summed up the issues facing us. This debate offers us all the opportunities

that a bran tub presents to a small child—so many possibilities. Part of me wanted to talk, like...

My Lords, I will focus on modern foreign languages and declare an interest as chair of the all-party group on modern languages. The reasons why learning a language is important are clearly not controversial, judging by the Education Secretary’s recent comments. It improves oracy and literacy in English and has...

My Lords, I will focus on modern foreign languages and declare an interest as chair of the all-party group on modern languages. The reasons why learning a language is important are clearly not controversial, judging by the Education Secretary’s recent comments. It improves oracy and literacy in English and has...

My Lords, I, too, welcome several aspects of the proposals of the new national curriculum. I welcome the idea of languages from age seven. There is evidence that if a child learns a second language early, he will find it easier to learn other languages later and it is generally...

My Lords, I, too, welcome several aspects of the proposals of the new national curriculum. I welcome the idea of languages from age seven. There is evidence that if a child learns a second language early, he will find it easier to learn other languages later and it is generally...

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Black, for mentioning his cat, since I am going to mention my children. I declare an interest as a co-founder of Film Club, a charity that has a presence in more than 7,000 state schools.

Tim Oates’s review lays out the four pillars...

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Black, for mentioning his cat, since I am going to mention my children. I declare an interest as a co-founder of Film Club, a charity that has a presence in more than 7,000 state schools.

Tim Oates’s review lays out the four pillars...

My Lords, I am a great fan of the national curriculum review. It is set out with the right principles underlying it of increasing emphasis on knowledge and on ambition and is well executed. The current consultation is a real consultation. I have had several conversations with departmental officials and...

My Lords, I am a great fan of the national curriculum review. It is set out with the right principles underlying it of increasing emphasis on knowledge and on ambition and is well executed. The current consultation is a real consultation. I have had several conversations with departmental officials and...

My Lords, in view of the points I am about to make, I have to declare two interests. I shall be speaking briefly about Ofsted, so I should declare that I was formerly a Chief Inspector of Schools. I also declare an interest in computing and computer science, so I...

My Lords, in view of the points I am about to make, I have to declare two interests. I shall be speaking briefly about Ofsted, so I should declare that I was formerly a Chief Inspector of Schools. I also declare an interest in computing and computer science, so I...

My Lords, I warmly welcome the objective at paragraph 1.1 of the consultation to,

“ensure that all children are taught the essential knowledge in the key subject disciplines”,

and the proposal to replace the current ICT curriculum with a new computing curriculum with more emphasis on practical programming skills. I also welcome...

My Lords, I warmly welcome the objective at paragraph 1.1 of the consultation to,

“ensure that all children are taught the essential knowledge in the key subject disciplines”,

and the proposal to replace the current ICT curriculum with a new computing curriculum with more emphasis on practical programming skills. I also welcome...

My Lords, with the permission of the Grand Committee I will speak seated today. To cover the national curriculum in under five minutes is an impossibility so I will focus ruthlessly on maths and English, particularly at key stage 4. I remember the launch of the national curriculum. I was...

My Lords, with the permission of the Grand Committee I will speak seated today. To cover the national curriculum in under five minutes is an impossibility so I will focus ruthlessly on maths and English, particularly at key stage 4. I remember the launch of the national curriculum. I was...

My Lords, I find it bizarre that a national curriculum can be so much the product of those—some might say of a single individual—who, in their day-to-day work, have such an overtly political agenda. Surely our country’s national curriculum should be in the hands of an expert independent commission, at...

My Lords, I find it bizarre that a national curriculum can be so much the product of those—some might say of a single individual—who, in their day-to-day work, have such an overtly political agenda. Surely our country’s national curriculum should be in the hands of an expert independent commission, at...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for initiating this debate and for giving us all an opportunity to contribute to the consultation, which is clearly important. We have had a constructive and thoughtful debate and I want to continue in that spirit because, despite the very short timescale for the...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for initiating this debate and for giving us all an opportunity to contribute to the consultation, which is clearly important. We have had a constructive and thoughtful debate and I want to continue in that spirit because, despite the very short timescale for the...

I thank the noble Baroness for giving way. I absolutely agree that the heresy is actually to follow those principles rather than to accept them.

I thank the noble Baroness for giving way. I absolutely agree that the heresy is actually to follow those principles rather than to accept them.

Perhaps this is something for a longer debate but some teachers would say that they are desperate to escape the straitjacket of being forced to teach to the test but are literally prevented from doing so. We can all see the absolute merit of teachers being freed up to inspire...

Perhaps this is something for a longer debate but some teachers would say that they are desperate to escape the straitjacket of being forced to teach to the test but are literally prevented from doing so. We can all see the absolute merit of teachers being freed up to inspire...

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, for her detailed comments on design. I very much hope that she will feed them into the consultation. We recognise the concerns raised about design and technology study programmes. We are listening, and working with the subject community and the Design...

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, for her detailed comments on design. I very much hope that she will feed them into the consultation. We recognise the concerns raised about design and technology study programmes. We are listening, and working with the subject community and the Design...

I thank the noble Lord for giving way. I just wonder whether he has noted that my noble friend Lord Quirk and I have both chaired meetings with more than 100 professors in them. They were called senates and they did not always fill us with confidence that the judgment...

I thank the noble Lord for giving way. I just wonder whether he has noted that my noble friend Lord Quirk and I have both chaired meetings with more than 100 professors in them. They were called senates and they did not always fill us with confidence that the judgment...

I am obliged to the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, for that comment and have to say that I rather sympathise with Sir Michael Wilshaw, who has encouraged people like that to get out there and see what is happening in many of our classrooms. Once you have done that, only...

I am obliged to the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, for that comment and have to say that I rather sympathise with Sir Michael Wilshaw, who has encouraged people like that to get out there and see what is happening in many of our classrooms. Once you have done that, only...