Schools: Curriculum

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

The noble Lord implies that casual equals laissez-faire; we do not accept that. As I said, we accept that most schools should do what all good schools do, which is to have an active programme of promoting their children’s interest, including drugs education, which they must be taught about in science classes anyway. Often, the best way to engage those pupils with those difficult issues, such as forced marriages or gangs, is not for teachers to do that—they often will not open up to their teachers—but for outside agencies and charities with skilled people in those difficult areas to talk to them about that.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, will my noble friend confirm that the overwhelming majority of free schools have been rated good or outstanding in Ofsted inspections? How does that compare with the performance of schools as a whole?

[Lord Nash]

Under the recent new inspection framework for Ofsted, which is more rigorous, 64% of non-academies are rated good and outstanding as opposed to 75% of free schools. This is after only two years of them being open.