Schools: Arts Subjects

Baroness Perry of Southwark Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am not entirely sure. I believe that it is next year, but I will come back to the noble Baroness on that.

[Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)]

Does my noble friend agree that the introduction of the new Progress 8 measure will enable every child to have a broad and balanced curriculum—much more so than in the past?

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely. We want every child to engage in a broad and balanced curriculum; Ofsted will inspect against that, and, as I have already said, many more options are now available through Progress 8. Previously we had what the shadow Secretary of State described as the “great crime” of the C/D borderline; we will now value many more subjects widely and will rate Bs to As and Es to Ds much more highly than we have in the past.