Free Schools and Academies

Lord Hampton Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hampton (CB)]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Evans of Bowes Park, for enabling this vital debate. As ever, I declare my interest as a teacher in an academy in Hackney. As the noble Baroness said, this debate is in response to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, on which I shall have much more to say at Second Reading.

I have only ever taught in academies. I trained in a Catholic academy, despite the fact that I am not a Catholic. You will hear some people say how terrible academies are—that they are just fortresses of weird ideas and legalised ritual bullying. Near where we live is one of the original academies, Mossbourne Community Academy, which has a reputation for strictness and superb results. When my son was at primary school in year 6, we thought that he had no need for a strict school—but gradually, through his year, he became more and more frustrated that there were two boys in his class who were causing disruption. The teacher struggled to contain the behaviour, and the learning of the whole class was compromised. Often, the teacher would get so frustrated that he would punish the whole class for something that perhaps only one or two had done.

We were lucky enough to get our son into Mossbourne, where, because the behaviour is so good, he could actually learn his lessons; he could express an opinion and not get laughed at and he could get on with his studying in peace. There is nothing creative about background noise when you are trying to concentrate, whether it is in maths, product design or art. I was so impressed with the school that I joined it a year later, and I have been a teacher there ever since, alongside the other three of our children. There have been accusations of systemic bullying within academies, and specifically within my school, which I do not recognise. It is one of the top-performing non-selective schools in the country for value-added results. Our children are succeeding, and no child succeeds when they are unhappy.

After a similar debate, I took the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, and the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, around the school. The noble Earl and the noble Lord have been effusive in their praise of the school ever since.

The previous iteration of the school, Hackney Downs School, when it closed, had a 5% pass rate for either maths or English GCSE. Last year, 85% of our PP students achieved a grade 4 plus in both English and maths GCSE. Hackney is still one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, and 54% of our year 11 cohort last year were pupil premium. Tragically, one of our pupils, Pharrell Garcia, was stabbed and killed at the end of last year.

It is within this gloom that academies such as Mossbourne and the remarkable Carr Manor Community School in Leeds shine brightly in very difficult circumstances. They are a massive success story.

We have a Richard Rogers-designed, wooden-framed, stunning building that offers a varied and interesting curriculum, including courses for future medical and architectural students. My daughter does rowing in year 9, as part of her PE. So why are we trying to destroy this?

The noble Lord, Lord Moylan, described the buses Bill as

“statist and anti-enterprise. It is also mildly nostalgic and backward-looking—a sort of return to the Attlee Government”.—[Official Report, 8/1/25; col. 783.]

I would say: right sentiment, wrong Bill.

Perhaps I may end by quoting what my head teacher, Rebecca Warren, says about these plans: “It’s a disaster for disadvantaged pupils, a condescending lowering of standards that will reverse the strides made in education over the last 20 years and ruin those children who need rigour and aspiration the most. My blood is boiling. I feel a mixture of heartbreak and anger, but with a feeling of terror thrown in”.