"The hon. Lady has outlined some excellent best practice in schools. She mentioned “can do” and “can do better”, but the difficulty is whether schools want to do those things, as they clearly do in the case of her schools, rather than having to do them. The problem is schools …..." David Ward - View Speech
"I am somewhat disappointed by the motion, because it over-eggs the pudding to some degree. It does not recognise that this process was started by the previous Government but has been picked up and progressed by this Government. Labour Members began the whole process—I welcome that and have congratulated them …..." David Ward - View Speech
"The pilots have identified the best ways of getting the most people registered, although the system can always be refined and made better. There seems to be an assumption that the previous registers were perfect, but in areas of high fraud that was simply not the case.
"15. What steps her Department is taking to make additional resources available to schools in areas that experience high levels of in-year admissions...." David Ward - View Speech
"I am not sure whether the Minister has seen the figures for Bradford. If he has, he will know why I am asking this question. Recently, the Prime Minister said that
“there is no doubt that some communities face particular pressures… I think a fund that can more directly help …..." David Ward - View Speech
"My hon. Friend mentions the high number of pubs that have closed, but there is also the personal tragedy: a whole succession of tenants went into business with really high ambitions, and found that they simply could not make a living out of the existing model. That is a personal …..." David Ward - View Speech
"Will the Minister meet me to hear about the fantastic work and the effort being made in our Bradford schools to deal with the very large numbers of children of new-arrival EU migrant families, and also to hear about the incredible strain that that is putting on the provision of …..." David Ward - View Speech
"I welcome the recognition of what the Secretary of State has described as British values, which I would describe as liberal values.In the context of protecting people from extremist views, I am still concerned about the use of the word “extremism”. If what was taking place in the …..." David Ward - View Speech
"This is like a journey back in time. I understand the link between the Cantle report, British values and bringing people together, but is it not the case that this debate has been prompted by what is taking place in schools? The bigger issue that we need to decide is …..." David Ward - View Speech
"I accept that point, but the difficulty is in the definition of a secular school, which means that the meaning of “welcoming” is disputed. It is easier to say what “welcoming” means within a faith school, but in a secular school there will be parents who say, “This school, unless …..." David Ward - View Speech