Public Schools: Charitable Status

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Tuesday 28th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

My noble friend is absolutely right: 87% of ISC member schools are in some form of partnership with the state sector, and that often takes more than one form. For instance, 991 partnerships focused on sport, 848 on academic subjects, 616 on music, 571 on drama and 892 on other aspects, such as the governance of state schools. We should encourage our schools to work together to deliver the best for all young people.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, some of us have been actively encouraging partnerships between independent schools and the state sector. Does the Minister agree that best practice is excellent but that, sadly, there is a long tail of independent schools where the practice is not so good. Those schools need active encouragement to provide public benefit that justifies charitable status in terms of serving the broader local and national community.

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

The noble Lord is right: we want to encourage partnerships. That is why the ISC’s 2016 census has included an expanded set of questions about partnership. These data will be shared in aggregate and non-attributable form with the Charity Commission, which over the summer will carry out research into independent school engagement with partnerships, working across sectors, so that we can learn from best practice and see exactly what is going on.

Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design

Debate between Baroness Evans of Bowes Park and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Thursday 3rd December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

As I have said, this is not a matter for government. But I am very sure that the university will take note of what has been said this morning.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that music teaching in schools is a very important part of building resilience and self-confidence and improving self-discipline, and that cutting state schools’ provision of music—the number of music teachers is currently going down—is a major step back for precisely those state schools that need to build all those qualities in their pupils?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I entirely agree with what the noble Lord says about the value of music and the enjoyment that pupils can get from it. But as I have said, in 2015, GCSE entries for music were in fact 3% higher.