Education: Advanced British Standard

Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate Excerpts

Tuesday 17th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Clearly, we will not do the latter. It is incredibly important that we design this in such a way that we have the right offer for children with special educational needs and disabilities, those who have been in local authority care and those who have come from particularly disadvantaged homes. That is a clear commitment from the Government.

[Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate (Non-Afl)]

Perhaps the noble Baroness can help me. My wife is Polish, and she read in the newspapers recently that Polish is being offered at secondary school level, alongside Latin, as a second language. She was very surprised, and said, having been taught Latin as well as Polish at school, that Polish is more difficult to learn than Latin and just about as useful, which surprised me. Could the noble Baroness advise me on how I should respond?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Maybe it would make sense to talk to the school in question to understand its decision to offer Polish.