Schools White Paper

My Lords, I apologise to the Minister for attempting to stop him. That is not a good example of the kind of co-operation that I want to offer him from the Church of England. We welcome every opportunity to play our part in improving education for all. On the basis of long experience, we believe that it is possible to have schools that are both distinctive and inclusive. We have a recent history of seeking to strengthen our contribution to secondary education—44 new secondary schools and 53 under discussion have Church of England attachment. Does the Minister accept that there are real possibilities for serious partnership in the field? Will he further accept that on the basis of experience we might assist in the Government’s aim of improving opportunity for all through diocesan trusts, which might provide just the environment needed for some of our schools struggling to reach acceptable standards of education? The test will be whether between all of us involved in education we can sufficiently improve the education experience of the bottom 25 per cent of our school pupils and attract and keep the best people in the hugely valuable and meanly rewarded teaching profession.