Education: Design Subjects

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Wednesday 26th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am delighted that the noble Baroness has given me the opportunity to answer that question. Since I have been a Minister for the last four and a half years, 93% of free schools have been created in areas where there is a recognised need for new places. We are spending our money far more efficiently than the previous Labour Government. Despite inflation, we are building schools at least a third more cheaply than Labour’s profligate Building Schools for the Future programme. I constantly face bills from schools built quite recently under that programme, where I have to spend millions rectifying their very poor design.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, drawing attention to my interest as chairman of the William Morris craft fellowships, can I ask what my noble friend can do to encourage young people in our schools to follow the traditional crafts and to have more, proper apprenticeships available to them thereafter?

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend makes a very good point. We have a wide range of new apprenticeships. Employers will be at the heart of our design of these apprenticeships. We are keen that these lead to jobs. I will certainly take his point back and discuss what we are doing in this area.

Young Carers

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Thursday 23rd March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Baroness on child bereavement. I suffered from that myself and share the sympathy that she expresses.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, further to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, do general practitioners as a matter of course annotate their records where there is a child carer looking after a patient?

[Lord Nash]

I am afraid that I do not know the answer to that question but I shall talk to the Department of Health and write to my noble friend.

Grammar Schools

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Wednesday 7th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

To comment first on the noble Lord’s pun in his first statement, I can assure him that the leak did not originate from anybody in your Lordships’ House. I do not think I can add any further to what I have already said. However, we are not interested in any ruses and want the policy to be absolutely clear. The Prime Minister has made it quite clear that she wants a society that works for everyone and all children to have access to a good education. We are exploring our options for delivering this and we want all good schools to help us in this endeavour.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, as one who benefited from a grammar school education and who lives in a county, Lincolnshire, which has excellent grammar schools that do no damage to any children at all, I urge my noble friend to support our right honourable friend the Prime Minister if indeed she is inclined to increase the number of grammar schools in this country.

[Lord Nash]

My job, of course, is to support the Prime Minister. I am fully aware that most grammar schools do an excellent job. However, this is a long-running argument and there are strong views on both sides. I assure the House that we will not do anything without detailed consideration and consultation.

Schools: Religious Education

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Thursday 30th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

Because the decision was based on a very narrow point, and Dr Juss’s interpretation gives it a much wider aspect. It was a very specific case about the content of GCSEs.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, as we have heard from three humanists in a row, may I be allowed a word? Does my noble friend not agree that it is very important that children should have a good grounding in the faith of their country, or of their particular group if they are Muslims or Jews or whatever, because they cannot challenge what they do not understand? It is right that adults should have the proper opportunity to challenge, but if they are challenging on the basis of flimsy information, that is not very sensible.

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree with my noble friend. All children should be made aware of the basics of all religions as part of a broad and balanced education. It helps you to respect someone if you understand more about them.

Education: Academies

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Monday 9th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

As I have said, I accept that there are multi-academy trusts that are not performing, but we have ambitions to bring them up to the standards of those that clearly demonstrate that this model works. As far as a monoculture is concerned, we would say that we have much more diversity in the academy trust structure than under a local authority structure, whereby a school is stuck in one local authority because of a geographical accident. An academy can choose to convert, maybe on its own or as part of a small local cluster, or as part of a larger group. Of course, there are high-performing local authorities, and we encourage them to spin out and form multi-academy trusts, which some are discussing at the moment, or to subcontract out their school improvement activities.

As far as autonomy of individual schools is concerned, we have said a lot about how we would expect schools in multi-academy trusts to work together in local clusters. We think that is absolutely essential to their being intimately involved with their community. Ultimately, we are concerned with standards and pupils ahead of everything else.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his Statement. I was one of those breathing the collective sigh of relief referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland. I am delighted that the Government have withdrawn the word “compulsion”, but, since he has made his understanding of rural schools clear, I ask my noble friend to remember that in many rural schools—I had some 40 in my former constituency—parent governors play a particularly important part. Just as he will encourage schools to become academies, will he encourage all schools to maintain parent governors?

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree that parent governors play a very important part in all schools, particularly in rural schools, where, as we have discussed, they are so intimately connected with their local community. That is why we want parents to be more involved in their schools than they are at the moment. We want them to be intimately involved in all aspects of their child’s education, be that attendance at parents’ evenings or whatever. For the first time, we will create a new expectation that every academy will put in place arrangements for meaningful engagement with all parents to give all parents a voice. We will put in place a parent portal, setting out the key things that parents need to know about their schools. We will introduce more regular surveys of parental satisfaction and we will provide guidance on handling complaints.

Schools: Parent Governors

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Tuesday 26th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely. We want parents to be much more engaged in their child’s education. That is absolutely essential, as I think we all agree. As I say, we will put in place a clear expectation on academies to do that.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, is not the policy for compulsory academies nationalisation rather than privatisation?

[Lord Nash]

It is a consistent system. We feel that the academy system is the best way to give freedom to the front line and to enable heads to recruit, train, retain, develop and deploy staff. Many freedoms and other benefits come from being an academy and part of a family of schools in a multi-academy trust.

Schools: Funding

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Tuesday 22nd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We set out in great detail in the White Paper our thinking behind multi-academy trusts. Where schools are delivering educational excellence people deserve to be rewarded accordingly.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, from the dubious areas of Yorkshire to the elevated areas of Lincolnshire, surely all schools can benefit from having parent governors. Can my noble friend be a little more encouraging than he was in his answer on that subject?

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree with my noble friend that all schools can benefit from that, but we are trying very hard to focus governance on skills, so that people must have the relevant skills. But they may represent all sorts of different groups, and parent governors have a great deal to contribute.

Education: Henley Review

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Tuesday 15th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I have to take issue with the noble Baroness on this point. The percentage of pupils at state schools entered for at least one GCSE in the arts has actually gone up by 10% since 2011, while the numbers of pupils entered for GCSEs in art and design, music and the performing arts have all increased. Indeed, last year thousands more students took GCSEs in art and design.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

Does my noble friend agree that a great deal depends upon our cathedrals for the excellence of choral music in this country, and will he take this opportunity to acknowledge that? Also, can he say whether the Government have anything in mind to assist and encourage in this area?

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend makes a good point, and of course we have the Cathedral Primary School in Bristol, a new free school which opened in 2013. I am very hopeful that we will see more of such free schools.

Creative Sector: Educational Provision

Debate between Lord Nash and Lord Cormack

Wednesday 22nd July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I will go away and look at this further, but I repeat that the statistics are encouraging.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, I endorse very strongly what my noble friend Lord Baker of Dorking said. Will the Minister agree that in the 21st century no country can really claim to call itself civilised unless every pupil leaves school with a knowledge of music, the arts, and the history of the country?

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree with my noble friend.