Education and Adoption Bill

Debate between Baroness Perry of Southwark and Baroness Massey of Darwen

Tuesday 10th November 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Perry of Southwark]

Absolutely. I would be the first person to say that there are some wonderful maintained schools and some very good local authorities. Nevertheless, it is true, and the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, made this point, that local authorities have had decades to get this right and have allowed far too many schools to fall below the standard and taken no action to improve that. It was right that central government should move in to try to do something about it. I am sure that noble Lords opposite would have alternative ways to do that; the Labour Government did a great deal when in power as a central authority to help to raise standards, and they are to be highly praised for the legacy that they left in London and so on. There is a good history of central government moving in when local government is failing, and there is no question that plenty of schools that have been taken out of local authority control have succeeded. That does not mean that there are not lots of excellent local authority-maintained schools.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen]

My Lords, I wonder if I may add something to what the noble Baroness has said. I am glad that she has raised this issue. I like to think that the raising of achievement in schools when I was a parent in London was due to a great deal of consultation with parents, councillors, industry and so on. That is not the point that I wanted to make.

I want to refer back to what the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, said about the meeting that I chaired last night. I happen to have in front of me a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on achieving schools and the Achievement for All programme, but I will not go into that now.

I had a very interesting email this morning about coasting schools from one of the people at that meeting who is an academic studying pupil referral units, and I think that the noble Baroness may be interested in this. To summarise, she says that schools must be able to progress learning, not just count the number of GCSEs that they have. She said:

“If coasting schools are to be defined by academic progress why would this not include 100% of pupils progressing 100% of the time? Measurement should therefore be based on progressing learning for all children and young people regardless of background, challenge or need; outcomes should be measured by engagement in learning and impact on all children and young people’s social and academic progress”.

That is what the PricewaterhouseCoopers report emphasises.

Education and Adoption Bill

Debate between Baroness Perry of Southwark and Baroness Massey of Darwen

Thursday 5th November 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)]

Briefly, I support what the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, has just said. It is practical common sense. We all know what we mean by a coasting school. At the heart of it, it is one that is simply not getting better; it is just staying where it is. My experience of good schools is that they always want to do better. They will be proud of and pleased with what they are doing, but they will tell you that next year they will do it better and make this or that improvement. The coasting school is one that has just stopped doing that and is sitting there, content with what it is, not brilliant and not below the bar, but not providing that stretching that a good school does for all its pupils.

We should not try to extend the definition, which is a very crucial part of the Bill, to a whole shopping list of all the things that we would like to see in a school. We could write a book on the subject—and many people have—of all the things that we would like to see in a school. My strong feeling is that all schools, by law, have to provide a broad and balanced curriculum and, if they are not doing so, they are failing. If they are not providing all the things that enrich and enhance the experience of their pupils, again, they are not just coasting—they are failing.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen]

Would the noble Baroness not accept that some schools do neglect sport, the arts and social skills? We know this—and that those skills often underpin academic success, so they need to be there. If they are not there, you will not get academic success, either.

[Baroness Perry of Southwark]

Absolutely. That is why we have Ofsted, which picks these things up. It is my firm belief that schools need looking at very regularly. I do not mean that they need a full Ofsted inspection but, as I said at Second Reading, they need somebody to go in to make sure that these things are happening and to make sure that the school then takes action on the deficit that has been identified.

We have a well-defined definition that is workable; it is not complete, and I do not think that the Minister will claim that it is, but it will flag up the need for further action. Let us get it clear at this stage of the Bill—because some of the amendments later seem to cast doubt on it—that nobody is going to force a coasting school immediately into academy status; it is going to be given an opportunity to improve by other means. After the kind of things that we have seen in the press this week, as if all coasting schools were suddenly going to be made academies against their will and without any consultation, let us just kill that myth among ourselves.