Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Evans of Rainow Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Laws]

I think I have good news for the hon. Lady, because not only have this Government been considerably more generous than our predecessors in the allocation of basic need funding for our school system, but we are now allocating basic need funding for new school places for three years. In January, we will make another announcement of funding for basic need for 2017-18.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

12. What recent assessment she has made of the performance of free schools.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)]

The performance of free schools is continually reviewed as more and more are inspected by Ofsted. Based on the inspections undertaken so far, the majority of free schools are performing well. With 24% rated outstanding, they are more likely to be rated outstanding than other state-funded schools.

[Graham Evans]

In Weaver Vale, I am proud to have worked with the founders of the Sandymoor free school, which has grown from strength to strength since it opened in 2012. Will my hon. Friend join me in applauding the school’s achievements, including its first Ofsted report as a good school with outstanding leadership?

[Mr Gibb]

I am delighted to join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the governors—I understand that he is one—and the staff at Sandymoor school. The school’s motto is “Ordinary people. Extraordinary achievements.” That is right in one respect, in that it is extraordinary to secure a good grading from Ofsted within the first two years of opening a new school, but there is nothing ordinary about the head teacher, Andrew Green-Howard, or his staff at a school where, to quote Ofsted, the

“majority of students are meeting or exceeding…ambitious targets…in mathematics, English and science”,

and behaviour “is very impressive.”