Children and Families Bill

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Warnock

Monday 11th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Warnock (CB)]

Can the Minister answer the point made by my noble friend Lord Listowel about the ways in which teacher training could concentrate on this area that I roughly think of as moral teaching? There is no requirement that this should be taught in any particular way. I quite agree with the noble Lord about the futility of making lists but the point is that teacher training does not concentrate sufficiently on it simply because it is not part of the national curriculum. Can he say what he thinks about my noble friend’s point?

[Lord Nash]

We have great concerns about the quality of teacher training in this country, which is one of the reasons why, frankly, we do not think qualified teacher status is essential. If teachers were trained for many years, like doctors, vets or lawyers, it might be different, but they are not. In ITT colleges, somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of training is in schools. We are expanding in-school training and have substantially beefed up, for instance, behaviour management training. I will look at this and write to the noble Baroness, as well as talk to Charlie Taylor about what more we can do in this regard.

Schools: Academies

Debate between Lord Nash and Baroness Warnock

Thursday 14th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We have a number of proven successes. I was delighted to see that Eton College is going to sponsor an academy. There are many other independent schools, and we are keen to involve as many as possible.

[Baroness Warnock]

Can the Minister tell the House whether any research is going on to monitor the progress of children with special educational needs in academies and free schools?

[Lord Nash]

Like all schools, academies have a clear duty to use their best endeavours to meet the needs of children with SEN, and they can go further with their freedoms. Special academies are at the heart of our programme.