Schools White Paper

I am glad that my hon. Friend brought that school to my attention. I was very impressed with what I saw there, and I hope that she will send my best wishes to all its staff and pupils. She is right to say that it has a curriculum for excellence in sport, and that it is excellent at working with excluded pupils through the pupil referral units. The White Paper’s approach to hard-to-place pupils is that schools should work together in collaboration to plan the necessary provision for those difficult pupils. Special learning support units or specialist off-site provision might be needed, but schools should have those pupils on their rolls, where appropriate—unless they are excluded—so that there is a clear incentive to drive up standards in the pupil referral units as well as in the schools.