Free Schools and Academies

Lord Harris of Peckham Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Peckham (Con)]

My Lords, I am very disappointed with this new Bill. When, 34 years ago, Margaret Thatcher and the noble Lord, Lord Baker, came to see me to open a CTC school, I did not know much about them. I went to see the school and thought I could not do any worse. In five years, that school was twice the most improved school in the country, going from nine to 54, and 54 to 92. It was great. Then Tony Blair created academies and, with the help of the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, and Michael Gove, we opened about 30 more academies. Today, we have 55 academies, with 45,000 children. One in 40 children in London goes to our academies, and we have free schools as well. Those schools were all failing when we took them. Today, 73% of our schools are outstanding, against a national average of 14%. Academies are working.

We first took on schools in the primary sector about 12 years ago. We found it very important because, from looking at the records, if a child gets a good education at primary level they are likely to do better later in life. We have 22 primary schools, 18 of which are now outstanding and two are good. These are giving children a better education and a better chance in life to go on to secondary education. I must tell you about two schools. One was a primary school in Croydon. It was in special measures for 10. We took it over three and a half years ago and within two and a half years it was outstanding, with 70% of the same children in it. The inspector said, “This is one of the most improved schools I have ever seen so quickly”. We have to make sure that we give every child in this country the best education possible. With the academy group and other schools working together, we can do it. Because a child gets only one chance of getting a great education, we have to make sure that we give it to them.

I will tell you about another school, Downhills. Everybody in the Labour Party was against us, I am sorry to say, including David Lammy, who led a petition against us. He also let children come into one of our stores in Tottenham—60 children stood in that shop with banners, “Don’t let Harris have this school”. It was terrible. I went there with my wife and we were threatened that, if we went back again, something would happen to us. We put signs up outside but they took them down. They actually put concrete signs there, which cost us money to get rid of. Now that school is outstanding and oversubscribed. The Telegraph this weekend said how good it was—I promise you, none of that information came from us. The parents want their children to go to those schools, and we have to make sure that every child in this country gets the best education possible.

We have three schools in Tottenham. The two I talked about are outstanding primaries and we have a large, 1,500-pupil secondary school, sixth form and primary, which has also become outstanding. Tottenham is one of the hardest places in this country for schools and everyone who goes to one of our schools there has an outstanding education.

Interestingly, 61% of our disadvantaged sixth-form students went to university last year, and 15% of them went to a Russell group university. What a great thing that we are getting disadvantaged children into universities. The school just over the road, with which we had a lot of problems, has 600 students. It was the seventh-best school in the country, beating schools such as Eton. These are free schools—40% of the children who go to that school are on free school meals. It is the teachers and people there who make them work. They come and work Saturdays. They want to get on in life and be motivated. We have to make sure we continue that.

We need a small number of unqualified staff at our schools—for sport, music, dancing and science. We want to keep them. They are good. You are not going to get a 55 or 60 year-old man who does sport or dancing teacher qualified. We have won lots of competitions for dancing and singing—and “The Voice” and “Britain’s Got Talent”, which people have won. It is very hard to keep science teachers, and we have to make sure that we do.

Failing schools are letting people down. We have to make sure we do not let our children down. We want more academies. We want better schools for everybody. Together, we can make it work.