Academies Bill [HL]

My Lords, it is a privilege to speak in this debate for a number of reasons. The first is that it is terrific to welcome an education Minister back to the Government Front Bench after the rebranding and renaming of that department. It states quite clearly what the department is about. It is great to have an education Minister and an education Bill. The second is that the Academies Bill is clearly focused. It has just 16 clauses and two schedules. It is an outstanding example of what legislation should be. It is clear and focused, which is significant because it reduces the potential for reams of Department for Education guidance and other edicts to interpret what the Minister said or should have said at Second Reading, in Committee or at Third Reading. It allows clarity about what is intended from the Bill. I also welcome my noble friend to the Front Bench because of the skills he brings. He has significant experience of government from the inside—the Civil Service end. That will be important because there needs to be a sense of urgency about what the Bill is trying to achieve with its two-pronged strategy. We will improve education overall in the country by doing two things: by freeing people at the top to be able to excel and improve beyond what they are currently doing and by directing attention to the bottom to try to raise standards there. I shall return to Clause 4, which particularly refers to academy orders, the main focus of the Bill. It is also a great statement for this new coalition Government to have an education Bill as the first Bill to be considered in this House. I am particularly proud that it is starting here and that this coalition Government are putting education at the heart of what they are about. Much has been said about what goes into making a successful school and academy. People have rightly focused on the fact that outstanding teaching makes a major contribution. However, there are other elements. There is discipline within the school. I know that in a cosy world we do not like to focus on it too much, but if children in the classroom are prepared to listen and teachers do not have to spend their time on crowd control but can deliver their lessons, the chances of success are increased immeasurably. There is also the added value of the leadership that comes from the sponsor. I found the speech made by the noble Lord, Lord Harris, inspiring because of what has been achieved in the schools, academies and city technology colleges that he has set up. It brought in one of the most critical dimensions: the importance of expectations. I grew up in an inner-city comprehensive school in Gateshead on Tyneside. There was a world of expectation there, not for the academic side, but about football matches. There was an expectation that people would succeed and that the school would perform well in a sporting capacity. Not surprisingly, the school produced many great footballers, among them Paul Gascoigne. What would happen if you shifted the same expectation on to academic standards in maths, English and science? What could you achieve? A lot of people at that time took the view: "Be careful. If people are from a tough background, they cannot necessarily achieve or excel". The reality is that whatever you expect is often what you get. If you go in expecting academic excellence, and expect people to compete for places at Oxbridge and at Russell group universities and to go on to be scientists, professors or partners in global law firms, that is what you will get. If you go in expecting them not to do that and to fail, that is what you will get. Expectations are critical in this area. I will focus on two elements. I very much enjoyed the contribution, as I always do, from my noble friend Lord Baker, who initiated this process with the city technology colleges, which were a huge success in Gateshead, where I was. The performance of that local education authority took it from being about 115th out of about 116 in the country at one point to being 10th in the country. That was an outstanding performance. The city technology college—the Emanuel City Technology College, of which I had the privilege of serving as a director for some time—was a beacon of excellence. It was outstanding to see what it achieved. My noble friend the Minister might like to consider another element: catchment areas. This has not necessarily been touched on yet, so I will introduce it as a concept. The city technology colleges had wide catchment areas. You were allowed to apply to go to one from a broad area, so parents and children had to choose seriously to go to a given school. That act in itself made a huge difference to the school and the atmosphere in it. Immediately the school was filled with people who had one thing in common; they all wanted to be there. That makes a difference. Currently, you go to the school that is nearest and no thought is given to which school is best for your child. When people shop around for a car, a fridge or a flat screen TV, they do not just go to the shop that is nearest to them; they shop around seriously. When it comes to a child’s education, which is one of the most important things that can ever be provided for, it behoves them to look at different options and to find a school that will be suitable and bring out the best in their child. My final point relates to the definition of a failing school and the circumstances in which the Secretary of State may issue an academy order. Clause 4 refers back to the Education and Inspections Act 2006, which stipulates in Section 60(3) that a school is eligible to be considered for that intervention if, ""the standards that the pupils might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to attain"," were low. That does not have the clarity that I enjoyed in the Bill. There is a need for an objective standard, which could be what Ed Balls set out as Secretary of State almost two years ago to the day when he said that there should be 30 per cent A to C grades, including in English and maths. He said: ""We don’t want to see excuses about poor performance, what we want to see is clear plans to raise standards in every school with a clear expectation that if by 2011 there are still schools stuck below 30 per cent ... and there’s not been a radical transformation at that point, our expectation will be that the school closes and reopens as a national challenge trust or academy"." There seems to be remarkable cross-party consensus here. I would say to my noble friend the Minister that that was a clear statement from the previous Secretary of State—why do we not take it as read? He was referring to potentially 635 schools which failed that test nearly two years ago. We should say to those schools in those areas, "You have had your chance and you had your notice from the previous Government. If you fail to reach that standard by next year, you will be handed over to another education provider"—which I hope will be very much like that led by my noble friend Lord Harris.