Education Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the Government. It is exactly the answer that I had hoped for and I look forward to it being applied in schools. I can think now of several that I shall be e-mailing when I get home to point out the URL of the new guidance. Perhaps I might say two things to the Minister. First, the brief advice given by my noble friend Lord Elton is absolutely crucial—parents should know what the school’s policy is. If my parents asked me what a week in school had been like, I can remember that I would say, ““Well, I got slippered twice and my maths teacher hit me over the head with a slide rule and drew blood””, and that they would then ask, ““Oh—what had you been doing wrong?””. In those days that was the policy. Parents will take what they have agreed to; it is if something happens by surprise that they get upset. Secondly, when the Minister gets back to the department could she please give a long hug to whoever produced this guidance and say, ““But you could have done even better if you had circulated this to the Committee when you published it””. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 74 withdrawn. Amendments 75 and 75A not moved. Schedule 4 agreed. Clause 14 : Abolition of the Training and Development Agency for Schools Amendment 76 Clause 14 : Abolition of the Training and Development Agency for Schools Amendment 76 Moved by