My Lords, before my noble friend does that, as I imagine that he may well do, I very much hesitate to speak in this debate. I have just been chairing a discussion on child development in schools. Attending it were head teachers, the former head of the TDA and a number of other experienced practitioners in the area that we have just been discussing. Unfortunately, I was four or five minutes late to this discussion so I hesitate to make any contribution to it. However, since the Minister referred to what is being done about the standards to ensure a better understanding of child development, which is very welcome, I should like to make two points.
First, in welcoming the effort by both the previous Government and this one in raising the status of teaching, and particularly in welcoming the advent of Teach First, we heard from the man responsible for Teach First in London. He said how successful the scheme is and that 30% of graduates were getting into the schools that needed their help most, so that really tough inner-city schools were getting these excellent graduates, particularly in science and maths. However, although he could speak only anecdotally, he said that he had met many of these teachers and they said they felt hopeless. They did not know how to manage the challenges presented by the young people they were working with. We need to get this right because otherwise we might lose the wonderful new crop of young teachers we are recruiting into the profession, who will make a huge difference to outcomes for young people.
The other point to arise from this meeting is that a generation of teachers has not learnt anything significant about child development. That means that head teachers and lead teachers today will not have learnt much about child development in their training. So, while I welcome what the Minister has said about the changes in the standards, the challenge presented by this issue should not be underestimated. I hope there will be
ongoing discussions about what we can do in this area, which is vital for the educational outcomes that we want to see for our young people. We need to retain our new, young, enthusiastic teachers on the front line, help them to understand why children sometimes behave so challengingly and enable them to engage with them effectively. I apologise to the Grand Committee for intervening but I hope that it has been helpful.