School Curriculum: Creative Subjects

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Thursday 14th July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am sure the noble Lord will agree that what is absolutely key for all young people is to have a solid grounding in the basic academic subjects of English and maths. That is something that this Government have been focusing on, and we make no apology for that. But as I said, we believe that children should have a high-quality creative education. We have put a lot of funding into encouraging programmes and, as I have said, we believe the new Progress 8 measure will help to raise the status of creative arts subjects.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

Would the noble Baroness acknowledge the research that shows that there is a key relationship between academic subjects and creative arts? The link between maths and music is well known, and many schools now use creative ways of teaching financial management that links into maths. All this will help with the academic subjects. Should good schools not be linking all these things together?

Young People: Mentoring

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Monday 25th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I said, mentoring and providing advice and support for young people is clearly a priority as we are putting £20 million into mentoring. We are trying to make sure that excellent schemes that have been proven to have a real impact on young people’s lives are able to access new funding so that young people can fulfil their potential and get the support, help and guidance from inspirational mentors that we know can make a significant difference.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

I welcome all that the Government are doing on mentoring, but what are they doing to ensure that the quality is monitored? The expansion is large and rapid, which can sometimes cause serious problems with quality. How is it to be measured?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I said, this new fund will be about scaling up proven mentoring schemes, so quality will be at the very heart of ensuring that young people get access to the kind of schemes that make the most difference for them. However, we also need to make sure that these schemes are available in areas where provision is patchiest. The analysis that I talked about earlier, identifying areas of the country where real support is needed—and needs to be improved—means that we can encourage proven schemes to expand into those areas, so that all young people have access to that kind of support.

Personal, Social and Health Education

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Wednesday 10th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I am always happy to see a victory for the noble Baroness, Lady Massey. As I said, this is an important area. We are pulling together a group of head teachers who will be producing an action plan and publishing a comprehensive toolkit which will help schools plan and develop their curriculum and access learning and impact, and set out how PSHE can be part of a broad offer to all pupils and parents.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

My Lords, the police are dealing daily with more incidents of domestic violence and child abuse, and social workers are overwhelmed with case loads where there is harm in the family. Does the Minister not agree that PSHE classes present an excellent forum to give young people an increased awareness of how to protect themselves and indeed how to respect each other? As programmes have already been prepared by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and the NSPCC, we would not be starting from scratch.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I agree with the noble Baroness. PSHE can be a very important element of a young person’s education. It can help them develop resilience and manage risks but also focus on the skills and attributes that can help them lead fulfilling lives. It is extremely important, and there is a lot of good practice in evidence out there which we want to help bring together to make sure all schools are delivering high quality.

Education and Adoption Bill

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Thursday 5th November 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland]

My Lords, I take a slightly different view. I shall be brief. I am quite sure that the Government cannot intend that when this process moves forward there is no communication between the school and the other stakeholders, in particular, the parents. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Watson, that I am no education expert, but I know a great deal about children and children’s advocacy. My great worry is that often we worry about the status and needs of parents over and above those of children. I come from a pretty tough working-class background, and if my school had not, if you like, overridden my parents on occasion, I would not be standing here. As we are into personal anecdotes, I am giving one.

I think that both things need to happen. There has to be quick action when a school does not meet the needs of children. You cannot spend a long time discussing matters with parents who may be comfortable about what is happening, although it will not benefit their children in the long term. However, I do not think that that prevents good communication, and I cannot believe that the noble Lord, Lord Nash, and his team intend that.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord was right when he noticed that I would be responding to this amendment. I shall allow him and the Minister to continue their debate next week, when no doubt we will cover these issues in more detail, and I will focus on the amendment.

Amendment 4 proposes that a governing body must inform parents that a school has been notified that it is coasting. We firmly believe that, once a school has been notified that it is coasting, we should trust the governing body to engage parents as they see fit, exactly as the noble Baroness said. That is what we would expect of a school. In practice, we envisage that where a school meets the coasting definition, the governing body will voluntarily inform parents. Issuing a communication to parents is already the normal approach taken by schools following the publication of exam results or Ofsted inspections. In fact, schools are not required to notify parents of Ofsted judgments but they do, and we would expect schools to adopt a similar approach in this situation. We would certainly expect governing bodies to be as open as possible with parents.

In the modern day and age, with social media and the availability of lots of websites, we would also—

School Journeys by Car

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Baroness Howarth of Breckland

Monday 12th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Lord is right that this is a priority, and it is important that we encourage people to be as healthy as possible. As he says, this is an area in which local authorities have a responsibility to work closely with schools to ensure best practice across the system. I shall take back his suggestion to the department.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

I am sure the Minister agrees that what is often possible in urban areas is not possible in rural areas. Will she say something about helping children in urban areas who have to travel great distances to get to school so that parents do not feel that they are being stigmatised and are doing the wrong thing? I entirely agree with encouraging walking and running and certainly our rural school helps with that when the children get there. However, some children have to go by car.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. For instance, many local authorities charge young people a flat fee for bus passes. Particularly in rural areas we find local authorities encouraging buses to pick up children from other points so that they can access public transport. Again, it is the responsibility of local authorities, but they are very well aware of their responsibilities. Many are doing what they can to ensure that young people can access the good school that they need to in their local area.