Relationship Education in Schools

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 16th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Nick Gibb]

The implementation guide will set out very clearly how to plan the curriculum, how to engage parents and the processes that schools need to go through to plan and develop the policy. As I mentioned in my opening comments, we have published the information in three separate languages to try to dispel myths, but the key message that I hope comes from this debate is that we will fully support and back headteachers who decide to teach LGBT issues in their school. As long as they have been through the process of consultation and they publish their policy on the school website, they will have our full backing.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

I am in awe of teachers like Gillian Marshall at Red Hall primary school in my constituency who has been providing an inclusive education for many years now. She has worked tirelessly and sensitively with the parents of the children in her care and were this guidance to have a stronger, firmer legal footing, that would not stop: she would still seek to work alongside and with the parents in her community. The Minister does not need to worry that schools will abandon working alongside parents if he gives more power to the school and makes that clearer to the parents.

[Nick Gibb]

Yes, and I pay tribute to that headteacher. There are teachers in thousands of schools up and down the country that are teaching these issues with no protests from any group outside their school gates. The hon. Lady should realise that this is the first time that we are requiring schools to teach about LGBT issues. That will not affect the school she referred to, but it will affect many thousands of schools up and down the country that will for the first time be teaching their pupils about the need to respect difference and to understand that families come in different types, including single parents or parents of the same sex. So this is a very important piece of legislation—a very important piece of statutory guidance. We should all be doing more to support and welcome it, as the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), who speaks for the Opposition, did in her response to this urgent question.

School Funding

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 4th March 2019 Westminster Hall

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to take part in this debate and to listen to my colleagues’ fantastic contributions. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) for introducing the debate, but I particularly thank the petitioners, without whom we would not be able to have it. It is a matter of regret that the Government have not seen fit to allow us time to debate the issue in the Chamber. Were it not for the fact that the petition was signed by so many people, we would not even be here today to discuss it now.

The message is crystal clear. I met chairs of governors in my constituency on Friday and I visit schools all the time. I have been a governor at several schools in my constituency. I went to school there and my children go to the same comprehensive school that I went to. I feel I have got to know many of the people who work in schools in Darlington well over the years. I went to school with someone who is now one of the headteachers, which makes me feel a bit old, I must say. I have never known the unhappiness among leaders in schools to be so great. I remember being a governor between 2002 and 2008, and there was sense of shared mission in the schools—that we could achieve something, narrow the gap, make sure that every child mattered and got what they needed, invest in buildings and the curriculum, and enrich the experience of school life for every child. There was a sense that we shared that common aim between us and were making progress. I am afraid that the shared mission now has become “How on earth do we make this budget balance?” That is not the mission that I want in schools in my constituency.

We have been talking about outcomes, and in the north-east we have the lowest achievement of English baccalaureate and the lowest number of young people gaining two A-levels. We have the highest number of young people with no job and not entering a college course at 16. Social mobility has stalled. My schools are not thriving, but struggling. Schools in Darlington are falling down the league tables. I should like to avail myself of the offer made on the Minister’s behalf by one of his party’s Back Benchers, who said he has an open-door policy. Perhaps he could indicate whether he would be happy to meet me to discuss school performance in Darlington. The regional schools commissioner is invisible. The levers to effect change that were once available to the local authority and to me as the Member of Parliament no longer exist in the same way. Who will decide what is going wrong and intervene to put it right for schools in Darlington? It is not working. Whatever is going wrong needs to be identified and put right.

My headteachers are not a belligerent, ideological bunch. I am going to end with a quotation from one of them, Pete King at Mowden School:

“School leaders have previously tried to shield parents from the difficulty but because the situation is not sustainable, we now need parents to know. There simply are not the savings to be made that can make up for the huge shortfall in our funding, and it feels very unfair to our children and our staff.”

That is the message that is coming from everybody. Government Members may have been very polite about it, but it is the same message. Something is going badly wrong. The results that are wanted may be possible today, but, as the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) said, I seriously doubt that they will be achieved in five, six or 10 years’ time unless we put things right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 6th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Anne Milton]

My hon. Friend is right that the procurement that was launched in July will ensure that there is good geographical coverage, stability of provision and high-quality apprenticeship training for small and medium-sized enterprises, but I accept that this has been an unsettling time. We are making £440 million available between January 2018 to April 2019 as an interim measure before employers get on to the proper apprenticeship system.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

The Social Mobility Commission recommends that the application process for apprenticeships should be made clearer and simpler, and be better co-ordinated across institutions, so applicants can see what courses are available and what their outcomes will be—a bit like what happens when applying for university courses. Do the Government intend to introduce such a scheme?

[Anne Milton]

We are looking at a number of measures. As the hon. Lady rightly says, clarity is very important. The long-awaited and eagerly anticipated careers strategy will set out some work on this, but a lot of other work is going on. We have to make sure that apprenticeships are easy to apply for and that it is easy to see exactly what they will give apprentices at the end of their apprenticeships.