Michael Gove
Main Page: Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)Department Debates - View all Michael Gove's debates with the Department for Education
(12 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con)
3. What his policy is on funding by his Department of schools in Northumberland; and if he will make a statement.
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
We plan to introduce a new national funding formula in the next spending period. It is, however, important that we introduce reform at a pace that schools can manage. As a first step towards a new formula, we are simplifying local funding arrangements from 2013-14, ensuring that more funding is passed to schools.
Guy Opperman
The decision on 24 May to grant Prudhoe community high school a rebuild was wonderful news and formed a great birthday present for its head teacher, Dr Iain Shaw. It was also a huge boost to a community that had been long neglected in terms of funding. May I invite the Secretary of State to visit this fantastic school when the rebuild is complete to see for himself the positive difference that it makes, both to the school and to the wider community?
Michael Gove
It is always a pleasure to visit Northumberland. I hope that I will have a chance, even before the school is rebuilt, to visit Prudhoe to congratulate it on the fantastic teaching that goes on there, and perhaps I shall take in Alnwick while I am there.
Mr Speaker
I should explain for the benefit of the House that as the Secretary of State has given what might be called a national answer, slightly opening up Question 3, for which I do not in any way excoriate him, the field is now open.
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) (LD)
I thank you, Mr Speaker, and through you the Secretary of State for his generosity. Areas such as Northumberland have sometimes lost out, as the Secretary of State has pointed out, through funding formulae that do not recognise deprivation that is more dispersed. I urge him to ensure that the review takes full account of that, so that areas such as Northumberland get their fair share of national funding and to ensure that the pupil premium continues its progress in tackling deprivation across the country.
Michael Gove
Since the days of the Venerable Bede, where Northumberland has led, the rest of the country has followed. My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Northumberland and Cornwall have similar challenges that will be taken into account in our review of funding.
Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) (Lab)
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for clearing the matter up. Is it the intention of the Secretary of State through the school funding reform proposals to threaten the future of 19 primary schools in my constituency that have fewer than 100 pupils on their rolls? If, as I hope, it is not, I would appreciate his proposals to avoid that disastrous consequence.
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising a concern that many Members have, which is that the funding reforms will call into question the position of smaller primary schools. It is not our intention to do that. We hope to ensure that there is a floor to provide a guaranteed sum for every school, which will ensure that good, local, small primary schools can continue to flourish.
Mr David Lammy (Tottenham) (Lab)
What about funding in the secondary schools sector? The Secretary of State has said a lot about free schools and competition in places where there are failing schools. What will happen to schools with good Ofsted reports in areas where there is no demand for a new school if a free school emerges that goes right through to secondary level?
Michael Gove
Under the funding reforms that we will introduce, more money will go directly to schools, including fantastic schools such as Woodside high school in the London borough of Haringey, which the right hon. Gentleman knows well and which is doing a fantastic job under its brilliant governors.
Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)
4. What estimate he has made of changes in the number of pupils taking science, language, history and geography courses following the introduction of the English baccalaureate.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
6. What steps he is taking to improve the status and quality of the teaching profession.
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
We are reforming teacher training to get more outstanding people into teaching, paying good teachers more and extending opportunities to teachers to start and to run their own schools.
Luciana Berger
Improving the quality of current teachers is vital to increasing the attainment of all children. It is equally important that those entering the profession are equipped with the necessary skills. Will the Government take forward the recommendations of the Education Committee and give a firm commitment to introduce teaching observation as a key part of assessment before the offer of a teacher training placement is made?
Michael Gove
The hon. Lady makes a very good point, and the report by the Select Committee made a number of good points. Last Thursday, we outlined new proposals to ensure that schools have more of a role in deciding which trainees are thought suitable for placements, and observation is a critical part of that. I would not wish to centrally prescribe how schools should operate, but the points made by the hon. Lady and the Committee are well made.
Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)
May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the new primary maths curriculum, which will compete with the best in the world? What steps are being taken to make sure that primary school teachers are trained up to be able to teach the new curriculum and that we get new teachers with the specialist maths skills that are needed to do so?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes a similarly acute point. One of the initiatives that we announced last Thursday was making sure that those with good degrees in mathematics and science subjects who choose to go into teaching receive an additional bursary in order to entice them into the profession. It is also the case that we will prepare new routes for specialist maths teachers in primary schools, and we will also incentivise the recruitment of high-performing graduates to go into schools in the toughest areas, to make sure that the children who need help most receive it.
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)
May I, on behalf of my colleagues, offer our best wishes to all the young people—including my daughter, Siobhàn—who are sitting their A-levels today? Investing in teacher training is a very welcome measure, but recent reports suggest a drop of 15% in the number of people applying for teacher training, and teachers are reporting a sharp fall in staff room morale. Why is the Secretary of State having such a “chilling effect” on teacher morale?
Michael Gove
As Robert Burns, that great poet, once said,
“facts are chiels that winna ding”—
[Hon. Members: “Translate.”] The collapse of understanding of modern foreign languages under the Labour Government is something to behold, as is the Opposition’s disdain for an important part of the United Kingdom. But those of us who are Unionists, as well as lovers of poetry, know that recent statistics from the Teaching Agency showed that, among graduates who are contemplating entering the teaching profession, the estimation of the prestige and status of teaching has risen. Those are facts—statistics—that do not lie, unlike some of the press releases that have suggested that teacher morale has fallen.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
The public perception of any profession is normally based on the two extremes—the best and the worst practitioners—so what steps is my right hon. Friend taking to retain excellent teachers and to ensure that the incompetent ones are removed from the profession?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We have changed the capability procedures—basically the rules that govern whether underperforming teachers can be dealt with quickly—to ensure that a process that used to take a year now takes only a term. At the same time, we are liberating head teachers to pay good teachers more, because we want to send a clear and consistent signal that teachers, like lawyers and doctors, are professionals who deserve appropriate salaries for doing a great job.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
7. If he will review the guidance to academies and free schools to ensure they serve healthy food to their pupils.
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
Governing bodies will decide what food and drink are available at academies and free schools; we trust them to make the right choices for their pupils. Many academies use the school food standards as a benchmark and some are going beyond them, but, as in all schools, further improvement is still needed.
Alex Cunningham
At the Education Select Committee on 24 April, I told the Secretary of State that many children at academies were being let down by the poor quality of school meals. He said:
“I fear that they may be, but I do not have any evidence that they have been. I am not denying that it is a possibility, but…until I know, I cannot see.”
The School Food Trust has now provided evidence showing that some academies do not provide the healthy food our children deserve, with vast numbers selling food and drink banned from other state schools. Now that there is evidence, will he apply the same rules to all state schools?
Michael Gove
I thank the hon. Gentleman for reminding me what an open mind I showed in the face of his rigorous questioning. It is an open mind that is influenced by the facts, and, yes, the School Food Trust showed that some academies were not performing as well as they should, but many maintained schools are also not performing as well as they should, and there is no evidence that academies are performing worse at lunch time than other maintained schools.
Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)
I welcome the fact that 16 to 18-year-olds can still qualify for free school meals in academies and free schools, but they cannot in sixth-form colleges and further education colleges, which are the main provision in my area. When will the Secretary of State deal with this anomaly?
Michael Gove
As ever, my hon. Friend makes a good point. It is an anomaly with which we wish to deal, and we are talking to the Association of Colleges about it. Resources are tight, but he is absolutely right to carry on campaigning.
Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)
On the disgraceful scrapping of nutritional standards for free schools and academies, health and education experts are calling for a U-turn; 98 Members, including Government Members, are calling for a U-turn; and even Jamie Oliver is calling for a U-turn. How many more calls for a U-turn and reams of evidence do the Government need to hear before they do the right thing, put evidence ahead of dogma and ensure that all children get the benefit of healthy school food?
Michael Gove
The hon. Lady has been a consistent campaigner for the vital importance of health education in her schools, so I applaud her passion, as I do that of Jamie Oliver, but the facts show that there has been no deterioration in the quality of food offered in academies, and academies are not offering worse food at lunch time than other schools. All schools need to improve the quality of their food, and we will make an announcement shortly, not of a U-turn, but to build on the platform that Jamie Oliver has created.
Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
Today is the 80th birthday of the Oxford Professor of Poetry, Professor Sir Geoffrey Hill, our greatest living poet. I am sure that the whole House would like to join me in wishing him a very happy birthday, and thanking him for the fantastic work that he has done.
Sir Geoffrey was knighted in the new year honours. My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) was knighted in the recent Queen’s birthday honours, and I am sure that the whole House will also want to join me in congratulating him on his well-deserved elevation.
Sir Tony Baldry
I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind comments. Is he aware of the work being done by the Oxford diocesan board of education in setting up a unit to give full support to Church of England primary schools that wish to become academies, and does he share my hope that other diocesan boards of education will do likewise?
Michael Gove
The Oxford diocese is doing a fantastic job. The Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard, has been a very effective voice for the role of the Church in education. I know that there is a new diocesan director of education in Oxford, and we look forward to working with him.
Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op)
Opposition Members support a national curriculum that combines high expectations for all students with freedom for teachers to innovate. Does the Secretary of State agree that curriculum reform should be based on evidence, not dogma? If so, why is his own expert panel so unhappy with his latest proposals?
Michael Gove
As Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven once said, advisers advise but Ministers decide.
Stephen Twigg
The Secretary of State appointed four advisers, three of whom are deeply unhappy with his proposals. Professor Andrew Pollard described them as “overly prescriptive”, Professor Mary James said that they
“fly in the face of evidence from the UK and internationally and… cannot be justified educationally”,
and Professor Dylan William said
“"If you don't have a set of principles for a curriculum it just becomes people's pet topics”.
Is this not yet another example of an out-of-touch Government not listening to expert advice, concentrating on their pet projects, and preferring their own dogma to the evidence of what actually works, here and in the rest of the world?
Michael Gove
That was beautifully read. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should have learned it by rote: had he done so, we might all have had the benefit of his being able to look the House in the eye rather than reading out those quotations.
The truth is that the international evidence from Hong Kong, Singapore, Massachusetts and every high-performing jurisdiction specifies that we need to do better in maths, English and science. The quality of grammar, spelling and punctuation fell as a result of the curriculum over which the hon. Gentleman presided. We have brought back rigour in primary schools and aspiration in secondary schools. A few professors and some individuals seeking to curry favour in Ed Miliband’s Labour party may disagree, but parents and teachers who believe in excellence are united in supporting these changes.
Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)
T2. If Britain is to be competitive, apprenticeships need to be a route to higher skills and to a much more highly skilled work force. How many young people are now taking advanced A-level equivalent apprenticeships?
Mrs Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab/Co-op)
T3. Why has Moorside school in Halifax not been included in the latest round of funding for new schools, despite the fact that it did everything it could to meet the criteria for that funding for its much-needed new build? Will the Secretary of State reconsider that decision?
Michael Gove
I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for raising this case. More than 500 schools applied for refurbishment under the priority schools building programme. We were able to guarantee refurbishment and rebuilding for more than 200 schools, many of which had never been included in the old Building Schools for the Future programme, but I entirely agree with the hon. Lady that that does not begin to meet the need for repairs and refurbishment across the school estate. One of the problems is that, under the previous Government, a comprehensive survey of the state of our schools was abandoned and the amount of money available for new school places for primary children was cut.
Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)
T4. What further steps will the Minister of State take to induce small and medium-sized businesses to create apprenticeships? In that context, I draw his attention to the excellent work of West Suffolk college, which is at the centre of my constituency and is now very much on board with his brilliant initiative for making vocational education “front of house” when it comes to improving the chances of our young people.
George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect)
New Labour in Bradford has achieved the seemingly impossible by presiding over secondary schools in the city that are even worse than they were when the Conservatives ran them. In the youngest city in England, we are the eighth worst in the country—eighth out of 150. What special measures can the Government take these schools into to save the youngest city in England from the perdition of ignorance?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that case. I know that during the by-election, which he won, the state of education in Bradford was one of the issues on which he campaigned. I offer him the chance to meet me at the Department for Education, where we can discuss some of the initiatives that we have in mind.
Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)
T5. What action are the Government taking to ensure that our vigorous vocational education at our university technical colleges leads to apprenticeships?
Stephen Pound (Ealing North) (Lab)
I do not wish to distract the House in celebration of today’s birthday of one of our greatest living poets, Sir Paul McCartney. However, may I say that the Secretary of State is no stranger to the Twyford Church of England high school in Acton, which is well known for its inspirational head teacher? An insanitary cordon of fast food outlets rings that school, selling congealed, deep-fried lumps of mechanically extruded neo-chicken sludge, thus fatally undermining any attempt at a healthy eating regime. Will he speak to his colleague in the Department for Communities and Local Government to consider whether any linkage can be brought to prevent those foul premises from springing up around some of our better schools?
Mr Speaker
Order. That was an immensely witty exchange, but we must hear Andrea Leadsom.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
Joseph Leckie school in my constituency has now for the third time been refused funds for repairs under the priority school building programme. Will the Secretary of State meet me and the head, Keith Whittlestone, to see for himself and to say what can be done to access funds to repair that vital building?
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
T9. Will my right hon. Friend congratulate the head teacher of Wilnecote high school, Stuart Tonks, who is not only entering into a foundation school arrangement with five local primaries but pursuing academy status for his own school? May I meet Ministers as quickly as possible to work out how those two laudable objectives can be conflated?
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)
Of the 25 local authorities facing the highest demand for extra primary places, 12 are in London. Given that London has lost out in the most recent funding settlements, what assurance can Ministers give me that future funding allocations will reflect the need in the capital?
Michael Gove
The hon. Lady makes a very good point, but London has not lost out. London received more than 50% of the additional money made available for primary school places in the last two rounds of additional funding. I should emphasise that we have increased the amount of money spent on primary school places, whereas the previous Government cut it.
Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)
T10. The number of apprenticeship places in Sherwood has risen from 640 to 990. That is excellent news, but what can the Minister do to ensure that the quality of those apprenticeships rises at the same time?
Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)
Month after month, I ask the Secretary of State for Education about the need for a new school at Tibshelf, and month after month, he gives the impression that “It is a good case, but…” Whatever has happened to the plans for Tibshelf school? He has not left them in a pub somewhere, has he?
Michael Gove
First, may I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on the interview he gave in The Guardian today? In it, he pointed out that the quality of education that he received was a tribute to the grammar schools of the past. What a pity it is that a past Labour Government did such damage to the education system that allowed him to become such an effective advocate for the people of Bolsover. It is thanks to the election of a Conservative county council in Derbyshire that Tibshelf school will be rebuilt. Something that the Labour councillors of Derbyshire were never able to achieve, the Tories of Derbyshire are at last achieving. I hope that as the hon. Gentleman mellows with age, he will realise, like me, that true blue Derbyshire is achieving far more than it ever did when it was as red as Ed.
Mr David Ward (Bradford East) (LD)
An earlier question linked aspiration and universities. Does the Minister agree that we need to avoid the situation in which those who do not go to university are regarded as failures and that the key thing is creating and supporting high aspirations in all young people and then giving them the opportunity to achieve what they aspire to?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend is absolutely right and although we should always insist that young people’s aspirations should be raised so that they can consider university when they come from communities where that has not been an option in the past, we should also emphasise that there are high quality vocational and technical options that are every bit as demanding, impressive and likely to lead to the individual concerned fulfilling themselves. My hon. Friend’s words are absolutely correct.
Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)
May I ask the Minister whether it is the case that the further education sector is being asked to find a cut in funding of up to 5% in the next year, or to give an idea of its possible impact? If that is the case, what has been the response and will he resist any cuts to the further education sector, which will impact disproportionately on my constituency?
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
What advice would the Secretary of State give to parents of summer-born four-year-olds who, for very good reasons, wish to defer their child’s entry to school to next year, but feel coerced by the local authority to let them start this September?
Michael Gove
Our changes to the admissions code have been intended to ensure that schools have a greater degree of flexibility in this area. I am disappointed to hear that the council has not perhaps been as sympathetic as it might be. I look forward to hearing more from the hon. Lady and talking to Dorset or, as it may be, Bournemouth or Poole council in order to try to ensure that this situation is addressed.
Mr Speaker
At this late hour and in the hope that it will bring a smile to the hon. Gentleman’s face, I have pleasure in calling Mr Rob Wilson.
Mr Rob Wilson (Reading East) (Con)
Thank you so much, Mr Speaker. Does my right hon. Friend agree with the chief inspector of Ofsted that young people from challenging homes would benefit from a boarding school education?
Michael Gove
I must be brief because, as Shakespeare said,
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.”
The answer is yes.
Mr Sheerman
If the Secretary of State believes in trusting professionals and autonomy in schools, why is a centrally directed Department for Education forcing teachers to teach reading through synthetic phonics alone? What is wrong with all the other methods, which we know and the evidence suggests are just as good?
Michael Gove
I take a simple view on these matters. Children need to learn to read before they can read to learn.