Schools White Paper

My Lords, that is very reassuring, and I look forward to studying Hansard on that point. Our belief was that, as the noble Baroness’s counterpart in the House of Commons said in an article in the Evening Standard last week, academies would be able to change their admissions criteria to introduce selective admissions criteria. It would be good if that could be confirmed; we still see it as a fundamental division between us. As I was saying, the city technology colleges were introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Baker. In the legislation is a requirement that they must have all-ability admissions, and we have stuck to that. I shall now address some of the specific issues raised. I was asked whether parents’ councils would replace governing bodies or whether they would be in addition to them. They will be in addition to them. Many schools, including academies, have parents’ councils at present, and they find that a worthwhile reform. But there will be a requirement to have parents’ councils only where a trust chooses to appoint a majority of the governors to ensure that there is a sufficient voice for parents in those schools. I was asked whether trust schools would be able to own their own buildings and land and whether they would be able to employ their own staff directly. The answer is that they will be. The noble Baroness asked whether they would be able to opt out of national agreements. They will be able to innovate and seek to differ from national agreements, where the Secretary of State is prepared to accept that. We intend to use that power in an open-minded way. However, the noble Baroness herself said a few moments later that we should not tamper with the national curriculum lightly because it was an entitlement for pupils. We agree with her. The entitlement—established, again, by the noble Lord, Lord Baker—to the range of the national curriculum is important in our education system, and we shall look very carefully at proposals that would depart significantly from that. We see it as an entitlement that applies to all schools, regardless of their autonomy in management. The matter of bussing to meet arbitrary admissions targets was raised. There will be no bussing under the proposals. The issue is not one of bussing pupils and their parents to schools that they do not wish to attend; the issue facing us is how we can enhance access to schools that parents wish to choose on a wider basis than is available at present. The school transport proposals in the White Paper would extend the availability of school transport to parents who wished to choose a school other than the one nearest to them. There are other points to which I shall reply, but I want to say that when the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said that what was important was what happened in the classroom and that that was the ultimate test, I could not have agreed with her more. Ultimately, what matters is what happens in the classroom. Certain new types of school are popular with parents. They include academies; specialist schools, which have been expanding in number markedly in recent years; and faith schools, where they are well led and there is a big demand from parents in many areas to establish new ones. Those schools are popular with parents not because there is any great attachment to the principle of Diversity with a capital ““D”” but because they are good schools with good teaching and learning in the classroom, teachers who are highly motivated and high standards, and therefore parental support rises accordingly. The test of the reforms will be whether they produce more good schools, emulating the good and successful schools that we already have in the system. That is a practical test. It is one that we believe is met in the reforms that we have introduced in the past five years, and the White Paper seeks to enhance that process further.