Education: Academy Chains

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Griffiths of Burry Port

Wednesday 15th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I share my noble friend’s sentiment entirely. I am fully aware of that. I am extremely grateful to him for his support of the academy programme and, as I said earlier, we should encourage more philanthropists like him to come into the system, rather than trying to score cheap points against them.

[Lord Griffiths of Burry Port (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that, while there is a full-blooded debate to be had about the relative merits of academies and schools that have some local authority involvement—a debate that I suggest will have its full import when we have rather more evidence from the academies than we have at the moment—it does not do anybody any good to castigate those schools that are not yet academies and whose results are manifestly brilliant and would hold any academy’s results to shame? Can we have some assurance that the language we use is not polarised in a way that damages schools in the public sector?

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Lord. Many schools that are highly successful are not academies. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, recently took me to visit Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, which is an excellent example of a non-academy, highly successful school.