The Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi) With
permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement on the publication
of the schools White Paper. Since 2010, we have been on a mission
to give every child a great education. We have made huge strides,
but we know there is still further to go on that journey, which my
predecessors began and I am proud to lead today. Too many children
still do not get the start in life that will enable them to go on
and make the best...Request free trial
The Secretary of State for Education ()
With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement on the
publication of the schools White Paper.
Since 2010, we have been on a mission to give every child a great
education. We have made huge strides, but we know there is still
further to go on that journey, which my predecessors began and I
am proud to lead today. Too many children still do not get the
start in life that will enable them to go on and make the best
use of their talents and abilities. Sadly, disadvantaged pupils
or those who have special educational needs are less likely to
achieve the standards we expect for them. Since 2010, we have
been rolling out many changes to our education system—changes
that have driven up standards, lifted us up the league tables
internationally and given us measurable evidence of what works.
We will now put that evidence to use and scale up what we know
will create a high-quality system for children, parents and
teachers.
We have an ambition that by 2030 we will expect 90% of primary
school children to achieve the agreed standard in reading,
writing and maths. In secondary schools, I want to see the
national GCSE average grade in both English language and maths
increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5. By boosting the average grade, we
show a real determination to see all children, whatever their
level of attainment, do better. A child who goes from a grade 2
to a grade 3, or one who goes from a grade 8 to a grade 9,
contributes to that ambition as much as a child on the borderline
who may go up from a grade 4 to a grade 5. So every parent can
rest assured that their child is going to get the attention they
deserve, however well they are doing.
It goes without saying that every child needs an excellent
teacher. This White Paper continues our reforms to training and
professional development, to give every child a world-class
teacher. The quality of teaching is the single most important
factor within a school for improving outcomes for children,
especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our vision
is for an excellent teacher for every child in our country, but
if we are to do that, we need to make teaching even more of an
attractive profession. To make sure that it is, we will deliver
500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by 2024,
giving all teachers and school leaders access to world-class
evidence-based training and professional development, at every
stage of their career. We will also make a £180 million
investment in the early years workforce. Teachers’ starting
salaries are set to rise to £30,000, as we promised in our
manifesto, and there will be extra incentives to work in schools
with the most need.
A world-class education also needs environments in which great
teaching can have maximum impact. Therefore, we will improve
standards across the curriculum, behaviour and attendance. Making
sure that all children are in school and ready to learn in calm,
safe, supportive classes is my priority. All children will be
taught a broad, ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum and have
access to high-quality experiences. We will set up a new national
curriculum body to support teachers, founded on the success of
the Oak National Academy. This body will work with groups across
the sector to identify best practice, deepen expertise in
curriculum design and develop a set of optional resources for
teachers that can be used either online or in the classroom.
These resources will be available across the United Kingdom,
levelling up education across our great country. We will continue
to support leaders and teachers to create a classroom where all
children can learn in a way that recognises individual needs and
abilities. In addition, we are going to boost our ability to
gather and share data on behaviour and attendance. We will move
forward with a national behaviour survey to form an accurate
picture of what really goes on in schools and classrooms and, of
course, to modernise our systems to monitor attendance. We will
introduce a minimum expectation for the length of the school week
to the national average of 32-and-a-half hours for all mainstream
state-funded schools from September 2023, at the latest.
Thousands of schools already deliver that but a number do not and
that needs to change.
Too many children, especially those who are most vulnerable,
routinely fall behind and never catch up with their peers. The
awful covid pandemic has made that worse. Even though I am
relieved to tell the House that the latest research on learning
loss and recovery shows that pupils continue to make progress,
there is still much more to do. That is why today’s White Paper
sets out a really ambitious plan for scaling up that recovery,
building on the nearly £5 billion of recovery funding that has
already been announced.
My children are the most important thing in the world to me and I
know that I am not alone in saying that. All parents want their
children to be happy and to grow up to a future that is full of
promise, so I am today making a pledge to parents; it is a pledge
from me and this Government via schools to all families. The
parent pledge is that any child who falls behind in English or
maths will receive timely support to enable them to reach their
potential. A child’s school will let parents know how their child
is doing and how the school is supporting them to catch up.
Tutoring has been a great success and that is making a
difference. It is here to stay and we want it to become
mainstream and a fundamental pillar of every school’s approach to
delivering the parent pledge. There will be up to 6 million
tutoring packages by 2024.
We know that the approaches that I have outlined make a huge
difference to pupils, so I have asked myself this. We have 22,000
schools in England; how do we ensure that these happen
systematically in every school for every child? How do we get
that consistency across the system? It has become clear from my
six months in the Department studying the evidence that
well-managed, tightly managed families of schools are those that
can consistently deliver a high-quality and inclusive education.
It is one where expertise is shared for the benefit of all and
where resources and support can help more teachers and leaders to
deliver better outcomes for children.
With that in mind, by 2030, we intend for every child to benefit
from being taught in a family of schools, with their school in a
strong—I underline the word “strong”—multi-academy trust or with
plans to join or form one. That move towards a fully trust-led
system, with a single regulatory approach, will drive up
standards. We also want to encourage local authorities, if they
think that they do well in running their schools, to establish
their own strong trusts, and we will back them. There will be a
clear role for every part of the school system, with local
authorities given the power that they need to support children.
We will set up a new collaborative standard requiring trusts to
work constructively with other partners.
I know from my experience in business and in rolling out the
covid vaccine that the hardest thing for any complex system,
whether it is health or education, is scaling up, but I have
faith both in the brilliant leaderships that we already have in
our school systems and in our educationalists to be able to
deliver on this White Paper. We want to spread brilliance
throughout our country, levelling up opportunity and creating a
school system where there is a clear role for every part of the
system, all working together and all focused on one thing:
delivering outstanding outcomes for our children.
Soon, everyone will see what we all know—that this Conservative
Government are busy making our schools the very best in the
world. We should be so proud of how far we have come and rightly
hopeful about where we are going next. For that reason, I commend
this statement to the House.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
4.19pm
(Houghton and Sunderland
South) (Lab)
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for advance sight of his
statement today. It has been a little over two years since
schools were closed to most pupils and almost 12 years since his
party came to power, yet among the many reannouncements that we
heard over the weekend, the big ideas were that three quarters of
our schools should carry on as normal, teaching the hours that
they already teach; that when children are falling behind,
schools will be there to help; and that the national tutoring
programme—described by providers as being at risk of catastrophic
failure—is the answer to all our problems.
Is that really it? Is that the limit of the Secretary of State’s
ambition for our children and for our country? He rightly
stresses the need to be evidence-led. Is that all he thinks the
evidence supports? [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. I expected good order to be kept during the Secretary of
State’s statement, which in fairness it was, and I certainly want
the same for the shadow Secretary of State. If somebody does not
want to keep good order, will they please leave now?
The Secretary of State rightly stresses the need to be
evidence-led. Is that all he thinks the evidence supports, or is
it all he could persuade the Chancellor to support?
The attainment gap is widening. Performance at GCSE for our most
disadvantaged kids was going into reverse even before the
pandemic. After two years of ongoing disruption, it is clear
enough where the focus should be. The Secretary of State says
that he has ambitions, but they are hollow—hollow because they
are wholly disconnected from any means of achieving them, hollow
because there is no plan to deliver them, but also hollow because
there is no vision for what education is for, what growing up in
our country should involve and what priority we should give our
children.
We are two years into the pandemic. Two years is a long time, and
an important time—half a lifetime for the children starting
school in September. We can all see the impact that the years of
disruption, botched exams, isolation and time spent at home has
had on our children, yet time and again the Government fail to
grasp the truth that time out of education for children and young
people means more than time out in the rest of their lives.
Instead, our children have been an afterthought for this
Government—a Government who showed their priorities when they
reopened pubs before they reopened schools, a Prime Minister
whose own adviser on education recovery resigned in despair, a
Department that closed schools to most children with little
thought for how it would repair the damage or reopen them
safely.
Labour listened to parents and young people and set out the
children’s recovery plan that our children need and our country
deserves—breakfast clubs and new activities, quality mental
health support in every school, small group tutoring for all who
need it. Our children have waited long enough. When will they see
a recovery plan that rises to the generational challenge staring
us all in the face? Only today, the Department published research
setting out that in reading in particular, pupils are falling
further behind and the disadvantage gap is widening.
It goes deeper than just the past two years. We see the value and
worth of every child. We see them as ambitious and optimistic,
with dreams for their future. We see the role of a Government as
one of matching, not tempering, that ambition. Education is about
opportunity; we want opportunity for every child, in every corner
of our country, at every stage.
We want childcare that is high-quality, affordable and available,
not a cost that prices people out of parenting. We want every
parent to be able to send their child to a great local state
school, which is why we would launch the most ambitious school
improvement plan for a generation, focusing on what happens
inside the school, not the name above the door. We want teachers
supported to succeed, not leaving the profession as they are
doing, which is why we have set out plans for career development
and for thousands of new teachers: because the success and
professionalism of our teachers enables the success of our
children.
We want to see our children not just achieving, but thriving at
school, with a rich and broad curriculum that enables them to
flourish. We want to give children and young people real choices
and see them succeed through strong colleges and apprenticeships.
That is why we would deliver work experience, careers advice and
digital skills for all our young people so that everyone leaves
education ready for work and ready for life. That is why today’s
White Paper represents such a missed opportunity.
However, for all the disappointment that we feel on these
Opposition Benches, echoed by school staff and school leaders
across our country today—and the Secretary of State, in his
heart, probably feels that disappointment himself—it is our
children, whose voices are rarely heard in this place, who are
the real losers today.
I was hoping for a plan, but none was forthcoming. The hon. Lady
spoke about schools being closed. Labour, dancing to the tune of
its union paymasters, wanted to keep them closed. If the hon.
Lady thinks that that is a plan, perhaps she should go and visit
one of those schools, as I did earlier today with the right hon.
Member for East Ham (). If she had been with me at
Monega school in Newham and observed the brilliant leadership of
Liz Harris and her team, she would know that our reforms are
working. There is a family of schools in a high-performing trust
which is delivering for those children, 24% of whom are on pupil
premium. Great leadership and great teachers are being supported
by a fantastic teaching hub within the group that is part of that
trust, delivering great outcomes for children rather than playing
politics with our education system.
I seem to recall that it was the leader of the hon. Lady’s party
who wanted schools to remain closed—and, of course, wanted to
pause the whole vaccination campaign so that we would lose three
months before we could vaccinate teachers. Because we did not do
that, and because so many of the Leader of the Opposition’s Back
Benchers went against him, we continued to vaccinate, we
protected teachers, and we got schools open again.
The hon. Lady spoke about our standing in the world rankings. I
can share with her the information that England achieved its
highest ever scores in both reading and maths in two
international comparison studies, the 2016 progress in
international reading literacy study and the 2019 trends in
international mathematics and science study. In 2019, following
the introduction of the phonics screening check in 2012, the
proportion of year 1 pupils meeting the expected standard rose
from 58% to 82%, and the figure rose to 91% among those in year
2. That is a record of real delivery for young people of which
the Government are proud. Of course we have had a pandemic since
then, but the £5 billion invested in our recovery is making a
real difference.
The hon. Lady questioned that recovery, and questioned what the
national tutoring programme was achieving. We have just announced
that the NTP has delivered 1 million 15-hour blocks of tutoring.
It will meet its targets. School leaders told us that they wanted
a school-led pillar—as well as the other two pillars which are
also delivering—and we have provided that for them. Evidence that
we published today, to which the hon. Lady referred, suggests
that since the spring of 2021, primary school pupils have
recovered about two thirds of the progress that was lost owing to
the pandemic in reading, and about half in maths. That is real
delivery.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Select Committee, .
(Harlow) (Con)
I welcome the White Paper. I think that we are seeing the
beginnings of a long-term plan for education, especially given
tomorrow’s publication of the special needs review and the
publication of the care review. The Government have begun to
provide a washing line for all the clothes pegs of different
educational initiatives. The parent pledge and the catch-up plan
are also important.
The White Paper refers to a knowledge-rich curriculum. I am
thoroughly in favour of that, but what about a skills-rich
curriculum to sit alongside it? I see that the skills Minister,
my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (), is paying close attention.
Such a curriculum would prioritise skills including oracy and
financial, technical and vocational education, reverse the huge
decline in design and technology skills, and prepare students
better for the world of work.
What does the White Paper do for children from care backgrounds,
exclusion backgrounds and special needs backgrounds who
underperform in GCSEs to such an extent in comparison with their
peers? We know the grim statistics. How will this White Paper
help them? How will the curriculum better prepare pupils for the
world of work? Perhaps one of the most important priorities is
the 124,000 Oliver Twist ghost children, who are possibly on our
streets. What is he doing about those children who have not
returned since schools reopened last year?
I am grateful to the Chair of the Education Committee. He raises
a number of really important questions. He is absolutely right to
identify that the schools White Paper, with the SEND Green
Paper—which we will consult on and publish tomorrow and share
with the House—and the children’s social care review by Josh
MacAlister, will for the first time give us the ability to knit
together a system that delivers for all pupils, especially those
with SEND and those that are most vulnerable in the care system.
On financial education, the Schools Minister is looking at how we
can take that further and embed it in the education system. My
right hon. Friend will also know that I walk around the country
wearing on my lapel a TL badge, which stands for technical level.
T-levels are a fusion of A-levels and the great work we have done
on apprenticeships, and that is what we will do to ensure that
children have the runways that their career path can take off on.
He is right to remind us of the 124,000 children who are out of
education. That is why, for the first time in our country, we
will have a register to ensure that we know exactly where those
children are. There are many parents who deliver great home
education, some of whom are in my own constituency, but many
children are lost in the system and we have to make sure we know
where they are.
Several hon. Members rose—
Mr Speaker
Order. This has to finish by 5.15 pm, so please help each other
by being short and sweet with questions as well as answers.
(Stretford and Urmston)
(Lab)
It is good that the Secretary of State has clearly been listening
to the concerns of the profession, of parents and of young people
since he came into post, but I am afraid that his announcements
today are underpowered because of the funding pressures that will
continue in the system. Schools continue to face covid costs and
they continue to face rising salary costs, which are not being
fully funded by the Department. These include the increased
starting salary for new teachers, which is still on the horizon
and not yet delivered. Schools also face rising energy costs and
all the other pressures that organisations are facing. In
particular, the Secretary of State will know that there is
particular funding pressure in relation to pupils with SEND. What
is he doing to ensure that schools have the funds they need to
rise to the ambitions he has set out today?
The hon. Lady is right to say that there are many pressures on
schools at the moment. The funding we secured at the spending
review was £7 billion, with much of it—£4 billion—frontloaded to
this year and next year. Energy costs are rising—they are 1.4% of
the schools budget. A big part of the budget is obviously wages.
We are keeping an eye on what is happening to energy costs in
schools. On SEND, we have put in an additional £1 billion, so the
total budget now stands at £9.1 billion, plus an additional £2.6
billion to ensure that we deliver the specialist provision that
we need in the system, because there has been a lack of
confidence among parents as to whether their child will get the
right provision. Today’s White Paper supports mainstream schools
to all be great SEND schools as well.
(Wokingham) (Con)
How will the poorly performing schools get the brilliant teachers
and better professional development that the Secretary of State
rightly wants, because that is what they need?
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. We endowed the
Education Endowment Foundation when the coalition Government came
into office, and I have just announced a further endowment for
the next 10 years. It has evidenced the qualifications and
quality of teacher training that are required, whether in the
early careers framework, initial teacher training or later in
life in professional development, and we are following that
evidence and scaling up half a million teacher training
opportunities. That has never been attempted, certainly in my
time in Parliament; it is a huge scale-up of teacher training and
that is what we will deliver.
(Bristol South) (Lab)
When he was confronted on yesterday’s “Sophy Ridge on Sunday,”
the Secretary of State could not answer a question on the
shocking fall in per pupil funding, particularly compared with
private schools. My child, like thousands of children, started
school just before this Government came into power and they are
just about to finish. The Secretary of State talks about a parent
pledge. Will he apologise to the thousands of parents and young
people for what this Government have done to per pupil funding
over the last 12 years?
I am slightly puzzled by the hon. Lady’s question. As I
described, standards have consistently gone up because we have
introduced things such as the phonics screening check. We are
investing £7 billion in education, with £4 billion frontloaded
for this year and next year, to make sure that schools have the
funding they need. Andreas Schleicher of the OECD was in my
office telling me that, actually, the United Kingdom is in the
top quartile for investment in our school system. That is what
this Government are doing, and this White Paper takes the
evidence for what works and scales it for every child in this
country. I want to see every child have the opportunity I had to
achieve to the best of their talent.
(New Forest West) (Con)
Teacher training has often been part of the problem. By what
mechanism will my right hon. Friend prevent any return to the
half-baked theories that proved to be a disaster in the
classroom?
We will be evidence-led. We are also launching the Institute of
Teaching to deliver the high standards on which my right hon.
Friend rightly focuses.
(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
In Cumbria, we have some of the best schools in the country, but
we also have some of the smallest because the communities they
serve are often half empty—homes are not lived in because they
are owned by second homeowners. Does the right hon. Gentleman
agree it is right to tax second homeowners at least twice the
rate of council tax and to use that funding to make sure rural
community schools have the support they need to do the job at
which they are so good?
We are supporting small rural schools through the national
funding formula to make sure they have the funds they need.
(Sevenoaks) (Con)
I welcome the White Paper, particularly its ambitions on literacy
and numeracy. Will Ofsted reinforce those ambitions through
data-led interventions where they are not being met?
Ofsted’s 2019 framework has, in many ways, helped schools both to
focus on literacy and numeracy and to have a knowledge-rich
curriculum, from which this White Paper does not deviate. We are
working in lockstep with our colleagues in Ofsted to make sure we
deliver the highest-quality outcomes for children. If we focus on
outcomes, we will not get it wrong.
(Lewisham East) (Lab)
I am not convinced that the Government are listening. They do not
have the support of the National Association of Head Teachers,
the Association of School and College Leaders or the National
Education Union for this White Paper. If the Secretary of State
is really listening, headteachers are telling me that they need
the classroom support teachers who have been so drastically cut
over the years by this Tory Government.
I remind the hon. Lady that there are now 217,000 teaching
assistants in classrooms, a 6,000 increase since 2010. I speak to
ASCL and the other unions to share evidence and to share our work
on the White Paper, and they have been engaging with us. The
Education Endowment Foundation, which provides evidence in other
areas, has an excellent review of how best to use teaching
assistants. Every school should look at that review.
(Winchester) (Con)
I had my latest session with Hampshire County Council on Friday
to go through every school in my constituency. The Secretary of
State will be pleased to know that every single one is good or
outstanding—the last one will be there very soon.
I am concerned about access to child and adolescent mental health
services, as children cannot learn if they are not in the right
place mentally. I am also concerned about small rural primaries.
The heads of such schools in my constituency will take some
convincing that being part of a large multi-academy trust is the
answer to their problems. Given what the White Paper says about
all children being in an academy, can the Secretary of State
convince me of why the evidence says that is the answer?
My hon. Friend asks a number of questions, which I will try to
unpack. We will say more on our work with the Department of
Health and Social Care in the SEND Green Paper tomorrow. Suffice
it to say that local evidence, the dashboard and that
transparency will lead to much better outcomes for families and
children. He is right about rural primaries; I have similar
high-performing rural primaries in my constituency. My message to
them is that they do an excellent job and, if they feel that they
want to get together with other rural primaries, we will support
them in setting up a multi-academy trust. Alternatively, where
local authorities think they do a great job supporting their
schools, they can set up trusts. With the White Paper, I am
trying to ensure that we take everyone with us on this journey
because, ultimately, if we all remember what we are in this
for—to deliver better outcomes for every child at the right place
and the right time for that child— we will do the right
thing.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
Order. I just need to reiterate that we need one question each,
so that the Secretary of State does not have to answer a number
of questions, and the questions need to be brief, not with long
statements beforehand. will lead the way in how to
do that.
(Huddersfield)
(Lab/Co-op)
Thank you for those kind words, Madam Deputy Speaker. The
Secretary of State knows I have admired him in the past as a
manager and a man with passion, but this is not much of a plan.
Any plan needs people to lead and deliver it, but we now have
weak local authorities, a weak central Government Department for
Education and a weak Ofsted. If he really believes the leadership
will come just from academy trusts, I do not think we will
achieve very much.
This White Paper will define the role of each of those
stakeholders that the hon. Gentleman just described in the
system. With that clarity, and the support for good leaders in
local government, good leaders of multi-academy trusts and—to
push back slightly, with respect—the great leadership in Ofsted,
we will deliver for those children that we all want, and I know
he wants, to see delivered for.
(Basingstoke) (Con)
I welcome the White Paper and my right hon. Friend’s real focus
on excellence in our schools, but we can only deliver world-class
numeracy and literacy if schools are safe places to learn. The
Government’s own inquiry last year pointed out that every school
should assume that its students experience sexual harassment and
online abuse at school, so will he include as central to his
plans the culture in our schools and the roll-out of
relationships and sex education?
My right hon. Friend is right to highlight that issue. I was in
the Department when we rolled out relationships education and
relationships and sex education in the curriculum, teaching young
people what healthy relationships are like and how to identify
unhealthy and abusive behaviour. That is a priority for me and it
is in the White Paper under paragraph 80.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
The Secretary of State speaks about levelling up opportunity. In
some of the most disadvantaged areas, including my own
constituency, we have the excellent Hull and East Yorkshire
Children’s University, which provides a rich source of
experiences and support for pupils and schools. Will he say
something about his plans to harness the expertise of
organisations such as children’s universities and give them
sustainable funding so they can get to work on that levelling-up
agenda that the Government talk so much about?
That is exactly what this White Paper will do and it is why the
issue of teaching is so important to our plan. I will certainly
have a look at the children’s university the right hon. Lady
mentions. Anyone who wants to join us on this journey is most
welcome, and we want everyone to come along because, if we
deliver for every child, we will have done something great for
the future of our country.
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend on his White Paper and
thank him for the fact that Stoke-on-Trent is now an education
investment area priority, which comes with additional investment
for our local area. I also thank him for the fact that the
levelling-up premium to recruit and retain some of the best
teachers across the country has been adopted from the Onward and
New Schools Network report that I did on levelling up education.
Most importantly, we want some of the best multi-academy trusts,
which for too long have been clustered in the south, to come up
to Stoke-on-Trent. How does this White Paper enable that to
happen?
My hon. Friend has always been a great champion for his schools
and speaks with real experience as an accomplished teacher in his
own right. He is right that we need our best, highest-performing
multi-academy trusts to lift their ambitions. This White Paper
will deliver that, including additional funding of £80 million to
get that momentum going again. We are about to announce our
10,000th academy and we have 22,000 schools in England. I am
ambitious for every part of the country, and we will deliver that
ambition in Stoke-on-Trent as well as in other parts of the
country.
(East Ham) (Lab)
I congratulate the Secretary of State on his choice of Monega
Primary School for his speech this morning.
Some multi-academy trusts are a bureaucratic mess at the moment.
I welcome the proposal to allow local authorities to set up and
lead trusts. Does he also have plans, as has been reported, to
allow schools to exit MATs that do not suit them and to increase
the accountability of trusts to local authorities?
Yes, we do. The White Paper speaks to this. We will consult on
the regulatory framework around trusts so that the
best-performing trusts have the confidence to join us in making
sure that we get that framework right.
(Wimbledon) (Con)
Some 15% of children have special educational needs and
disabilities. How does my right hon. Friend intend to ensure that
any conclusions on reforms from the SEND review are aligned with
and implemented alongside the White Paper?
That is exactly what we have done. I hope that we can demonstrate
in today’s work, but also in tomorrow’s Green Paper, the knitting
together of how we deliver support to parents of children with
special educational needs in our mainstream education system,
because every mainstream school should be a great SEND school.
There is also the work we are doing on alternative provision. We
will set out more details tomorrow.
(Twickenham) (LD)
With the first schools White Paper in six years coming on the
back of a pandemic that was so brutal for our children and young
people, this really feels like a missed opportunity for children,
parents and school staff up and down the country. Where is the
ambition in this? This is a unique opportunity to broaden the
offer in terms of the academic achievement and broader life
skills that parents and employers want, as well as wellbeing. Has
the Secretary of State had his hands tied by a Chancellor who is
more focused on his own ambition than the ambitions of our
children and young people?
I am slightly surprised by the hon. Lady’s question, because I
briefed her personally on the details of the White Paper.
Nevertheless, if she reads the White Paper, she will see that we
are ambitious for a knowledge-rich curriculum but have also made
it very clear that we will have a strategy for everything from
sport to music to culture, because the evidence is that
everything from extra-curricular activities to pastoral care and
behaviour makes the real difference in providing the
high-performing school standards that I want to see in every part
of the country.
(Don Valley) (Con)
This is great news for the young people of our country.
Specifically, it is good news for the people of Doncaster, as
Doncaster is now a priority education investment area. That will
give my young constituents the boost they need to level up their
opportunities. My only concern is that while I welcome the half a
million teacher training opportunities, will this not result in
more teacher training days and therefore more days out of school
for our young learners?
No.
(Gateshead) (Lab)
As a member of the Education Committee of just short of 12 years,
I have to say that an evidence-led policy would be a welcome
departure for this Government. On teacher recruitment and
retention, there is a bit in the White Paper on aims to improve
the workforce, but not on the “how” and the “what with”. There is
no involvement by teaching universities in the Institute of
Teaching. With recruitment and retention continuing to pose
enormous challenges for many schools, particularly in
disadvantaged areas, the White Paper pays scant attention to how
schools in those areas will be able to recruit and then retain
specialist teachers in, say, maths or physics.
We are making sure that, especially in education investment
areas, teachers in subjects like maths and physics have an
incentive, with £3,000 tax-free. Many of them will want to go to
those areas if they feel they have the support in place. That is
why we want a strong family of schools working together in
high-performing multi-academy trusts to offer the support that we
saw so visibly during the pandemic.
(South Ribble)
(Con)
I thank the Secretary of State for the focus on outcomes, which
is so important for the children of South Ribble. Three of my
constituency’s primary schools have joined with two primary
schools in South Ribble borough to form the Axia Learning
Alliance, a co-operative trust, which I confess to knowing little
about. Will the Secretary of State and his Ministers consider
such trusts as part of his future proposals?
It is through the multi-academy trust—that family of schools that
is tightly managed and high performing—that we think we can
deliver the greatest outcomes for children. I will happily look
at what my hon. Friend’s schools are doing, but outcomes are
delivered through schools being strongly held together and really
well managed, as well as through the sharing of evidence.
(Sefton Central) (Lab)
The White Paper says that it
“marks the start of a journey”.
Quite why it has taken 12 years to start a journey to raise
standards will be beyond the understanding of most parents, staff
and children. If the Secretary of State wants to learn from the
evidence of successful and sustained improvement in schools, will
he apply the lessons of collaboration and support from the London
challenge, which transformed education standards in the capital
and did not involve a name change on the badge above the
door?
I will look at any evidence and learn from it. The hon. Member
speaks about what we have done. I remind him that in 2019, 65% of
key stage 2 pupils reached the expected standard in all of
reading, writing and maths, and we want to go much further—to
90%—but the 2019 figure was a seven percentage points increase in
reading and a nine percentage points increase in maths since
2016. That is what we have done.
(Cleethorpes) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement and, in particular,
the focus on multi-academy trusts, of which we have some
successful ones in northern Lincolnshire. However, education,
like the rest of the public sector, finds it difficult to attract
the best quality professionals to that part of the country. Will
he reassure me that there will be focus on that and that he will
work with schools and councils to achieve that?
Yes, very much so. You will know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the
most valuable resource on earth is human capital, and that is why
we are flexing the system towards education investment areas and
priority education investment areas. We will deliver
high-quality, highly qualified teachers so that schools in those
areas get the same benefit as others around the country. I do not
believe that people are less talented in Knowsley than in
Kensington; the difference is that they do not have the same
opportunities. I am absolutely passionate about ensuring that we
deliver on that.
(Denton and Reddish)
(Lab)
Education is a big passion of mine, and I thank the Secretary of
State for his recent announcement that Tameside will be an
education improvement area. With that, the focus on skills,
outcomes and opportunities is key, but that is not possible in
substandard education buildings. It would be remiss of me not to
mention Russell Scott Primary School in Denton, which has been
dubbed Britain’s worst rebuilt school and for which a bid is in
to the Department for Education. Can we have the new school that
those kids so desperately deserve?
I know that the hon. Member is passionate and appreciate that he
wants to work constructively. I know that the bid is in—the
Minister for School Standards is looking at all bids—but he makes
a powerful point, and I will happily work with him, because I
know that he will care about the evidence; unlike, sadly, his
Labour Front-Bench colleagues.
(Dudley South) (Con)
Having married into a family of teachers, I know how talented and
passionate many of our teachers are. However, many teacher
training courses include very little content on learning
difficulties or speech and language conditions. Will my right
hon. Friend ensure that all teachers receive the special
educational needs and disability training that they need through
initial teacher training and continuing development to give every
child the best possible start in life?
My hon. Friend raises a powerful point. We are considering a
national professional qualification for special educational needs
as well as early intervention. He will hear more about that from
me tomorrow in the Green Paper announcement.
(Bedford) (Lab)
Schools in Bedford and Kempston, like those everywhere else, have
been through the most difficult period of disruption, and have
had to do so on reduced budgets. Not once in any of the
conversations I have had with heads, teachers or parents, who are
desperate for support, has anyone asked for more targets. If
targets were not being met before the pandemic, why does the
Secretary of State think that increasing them is going to do
anything but create more stress for children and drive more
teachers from the profession?
I hope the hon. Gentleman was listening when I spoke about
England rising up the international league tables around the
world. That is because we are so focused on making sure that we
back our teachers, train them well and then, of course, target
our efforts, including on such successful programmes as the
phonics screening check. I respectfully disagree with the hon.
Gentleman: we need targets. That is why the primary target of 90%
for achievement in maths and English and the GCSE average grade
target going up from 4.5 to 5 are so important.
(Rugby) (Con)
The Secretary of State and I both have excellent Warwickshire
grammar schools in our constituencies; will he say a little about
the role of grammars in the raising of standards?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for
that question. I have in my constituency three grammar schools,
all of which are high performing. We want to spread the DNA of
grammar schools across the system. There are 165 grammar schools
in an education system with 22,000 schools. Many grammar schools
have already joined and are leading high-performing, strong
multi-academy trusts. I want more of them to do the same, and
they will join us on this journey.
(Cambridge) (Lab)
I am concerned that the Secretary of State may be underestimating
the damage that has been done to some children by the isolation
during the pandemic—that is certainly what I hear from schools in
Cambridge. That damage can be addressed through more
interventions and more resources; is there anything in the White
Paper to address that in a county such as Cambridgeshire, which
remains one of the most poorly funded in the country?
Mental health is one of the areas we have been looking at with
the Children’s Commissioner, including through her very good “The
Big Ask” survey of half a million children. In May last year, we
announced £17 million of investment to build mental health
support in education settings. We have invested further to make
sure that the mental health leads in more than 8,000 schools and
colleges have the necessary support and knowledge to support
young people.
(Runnymede and Weybridge)
(Con)
I welcome the White Paper and thank my right hon. Friend for his
passion and drive to deliver the best possible education to all
children throughout the country, no matter whether they live or
what their background is.
This morning, I caught up with some of my local school leaders,
as I do regularly, and although they were interested to hear
about what was coming up in this announcement there was naturally
a bit of trepidation about further change on the back of the
covid pandemic. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to
make sure the changes are streamlined so that they cause as
minimal an amount of disruption for school teachers as
possible?
My hon. Friend raises a really important point. The frontline—the
461,000 teachers and 217,000 teaching assistants—and the support
staff and leaders in our education system have gone above and
beyond to make sure that schools reopened, stayed open and dealt
with omicron. We have looked carefully at the evidence, which is
why one of the things we have not done is change the curriculum.
A knowledge-rich curriculum is important to make sure we deliver
the outcomes we so passionately want to deliver for young
people.
(Eltham) (Lab)
If the Secretary of State is to deliver on this package, which
has been announced 12 years into a Conservative Government, he is
going to have to fund it. If we want decent teachers at the front
of classrooms, we are going to have to pay them, so where is the
funding for decent teachers in this package? If we are to improve
schools, they need the resources; is anything in this package
going to increase per-pupil funding?
We are investing £7 billion, with £4 billion front-loaded this
year and next year, and there is £5 billion for recovery. That is
the investment. That is the commitment that we make when we
speak, as I did this morning, to great school leaders like the
great head at Monega. She will tell the hon. Gentleman that this
is doable. The team at Monega has turned the school around in
five years and it is now an outstanding school. We want to spread
that good practice and quality leadership across the system.
(North East Bedfordshire)
(Con)
I thank the Secretary of State for his ambition and for making
Bedfordshire an education investment area, but I draw his
attention to a particular point in his White Paper, which refers
to work
“to scrutinise and challenge off-rolling”
from schools. He will know that, unchecked, off-rolling can
undermine trust, even in the best systems, so will he pay
particular attention to that?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and in knitting together a
system between our White Paper and the SEND and AP Green Paper, I
have the opportunity to make sure that such behaviour no longer
happens and that alternative provision is not seen as a sort of
warehousing for forgotten children, because high-quality
alternative provision has a place and a role to play in our
education system.
(Oxford West and Abingdon)
(LD)
Education is the joint top sector affected by long covid—joint
with social care, and above healthcare—but I have not yet seen
anything from the Department on how MATs will help teachers with
long covid. For example, I am aware of a headteacher who has
chosen to take early retirement because they kept getting written
warnings from the MAT, rather than being supported. That is not
going to help workforce retention. Would the Secretary of State
meet me to discuss how we can support teachers and heads who have
long covid?
I will happily meet the hon. Lady.
(Buckingham) (Con)
The ambition for all children that shone through my right hon.
Friend’s statement is to be warmly welcomed, but at the start of
his statement he rightly acknowledged that children with special
educational needs are less likely to achieve the ambition we all
want for them. In my constituency, time and again I hear too many
heartbreaking cases from families, where one of the causes is the
length of time it takes for an EHCP to be signed off. Can he give
me an assurance that the action coming from this White Paper and
tomorrow’s SEND review will tackle that barrier?
Yes, I can.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. The parent
pledge that the Secretary of State delivered today is ambitious
and entirely necessary. A report in Northern Ireland has shown
that children are eight months behind where they would normally
be. The White Paper today is for England and Wales, but the
problem is UK-wide, so the solution must also be UK-wide. What
discussions has the Secretary of State had with devolved
counterparts to ensure that this is the approach in every area of
the United Kingdom?
The hon. Member will know that education is devolved, but we
happily share all the evidence. We share our strategy with our
colleagues in the devolved Administrations, and in the spirit of
collaboration I am happy to continue to share the evidence.
England has in many ways been evidencing what works, and we are
happy to share that.
(Stoke-on-Trent South)
(Con)
I very much welcome Stoke-on-Trent being announced as a
prioritised education investment area, which will help to
continue the significant work being done to improve standards in
education that teachers have been working on in Stoke-on-Trent.
Does my right hon. Friend agree that improving standards of
education is absolutely vital both to levelling up standards and
to unleashing the real potential of places such as
Stoke-on-Trent?
I thank my hon. Friend, and I absolutely agree. I am the
beneficiary of great education, of which the greatest determinant
is having a great teacher or an inspirational teacher in the
classroom. That is why much of the focus of this White Paper is
about backing teachers, and making sure that they get the
qualifications and the professional development that they need to
do their job properly.
(Penrith and The Border)
(Con)
I very much welcome the positive and progressive statement from
my right hon. Friend. I pay tribute to the pupils and teachers in
my constituency of Penrith and The Border for all their
resilience and tremendous hard work throughout the pandemic.
However, can my right hon. Friend reassure my constituents that
pupils will receive all the targeted and tailored support and
tutoring they need and, more broadly, the mental health and
pastoral support they need?
My hon. Friend raises two excellent points. The work we have done
on the national tutoring programme has allowed us to make the
parent pledge, because I saw the evidence of how, when an
individual child has gaps in their knowledge, the focus on
engagement with parents makes a real difference. Of course, his
point on mental health I addressed earlier.
(Penistone and Stocksbridge)
(Con)
As a parent and a former teacher, I wholeheartedly welcome this
White Paper. It is ambitious, but it is also a common-sense
approach. I particularly commend the use of common-sense, plain
English in the White Paper, which is very accessible to parents.
Perhaps my right hon. Friend could pass on some tips to other
Departments. I want to pick up on a phrase that is mentioned a
couple of times in the White Paper, which is that
“the quality of teaching is the single most important in-school
factor in improving outcomes for children”.
I completely agree with that and I welcome the reforms to teacher
training, but does my right hon. Friend acknowledge that children
spend most of their time at home, rather than in school, so can
he set out how this will work alongside the Government’s
programmes on strengthening and supporting families, because that
will have just as important an effect on improving outcomes?
My hon. Friend raises a really important question. I have focused
the Department on skills; the skills Minister, my hon. Friend the
Member for Brentwood and Ongar (), and the Minister for
Higher and Further Education are both on the Front Bench. Later
today, we will vote through what will then become, I hope, the
revolution in the skills landscape that this country so badly
needs and deserves.
From skills to schools: the schools White Paper delivers on what
we want to achieve—making sure that every child has the
opportunity of a great education in the right place and at the
right time for them. Then there is family: families are
important, whether in mainstream education or when it comes to
children and the social care system. My hon. Friend will hear
more from us about the family hubs that we will deliver in half
of England’s local authorities.
(Burnley) (Con)
Since 2010, the number of good and outstanding schools in Burnley
and Padiham has increased. We can see in pupil attainment the
impact that has had. That is not just numbers on a page, but life
chances improving in our local communities. That is why we need
to drive even harder, because education is the heart of levelling
up. Will the Secretary of State set out what the White Paper will
do for pupils who need targeted intervention in individual
subjects, to help drive them forward?
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question. He will, I hope, see
in the annex to the White Paper the evidence that strong, high
performing multi-academy trusts really do deliver the best
outcomes. That is my vision for the whole country.
The parent pledge, yes, is about children who fall behind in
English language and maths, but teachers who I have seen in those
high performing multi-academy trusts also look at other subjects
as well as pastoral care and curriculum work. That makes the
difference.
(Bassetlaw) (Con)
I thank the Secretary of State for his excellent statement today.
I also endorse the words of my right hon. Friend the Chair of the
Education Committee on the importance of oracy skills in schools;
I went to see an excellent initiative in Serlby Park Academy in
Bircotes, in my constituency.
The Government have a commitment to getting 90% of primary school
children up to reading, writing and maths standards by 2030. Does
my right hon. Friend agree that driving up those standards in
primary schools improves outcomes not only at that stage, but
throughout a child’s and young person’s entire educational
journey and beyond?
The wise words of a great teacher and a great headteacher.
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