Education: School Leavers

Baroness Heyhoe Flint Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

Of course the arts are of particular importance. We touched on this in Questions and debates earlier this week. The Government fully support this, and there are various funding streams going into support of the arts. The issue seems to be that they do not appear in the EBacc, but of course not all schools do the EBacc. In any event, there will always be 20% to 30% of the timetable for such things as creative subjects, which are so vital to individuals and the country.

[Baroness Heyhoe Flint]

My Lords, is the Minister able to confirm that any future Statements on the school curriculum, including the English Baccalaureate, will include a greater emphasis on the provision of physical education? The current derisory agreement is that there will be a minimum of one hour per week of physical education. The CBI’s aspirations that school leavers be grounded and rounded may otherwise have different connotations when one realises the serious obesity problems with school beginners rather than school leavers.

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My noble friend makes her point in her own inimitable way. Of course, PE is an essential component of the school timetable. The amount of time that is spent on it is, again, a matter for schools to determine for their pupils and circumstances. However, particularly following on from the tremendous Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, we would not wish to see the initiative for sport lost.