Education and Inspections Bill

I would probably have joined all my colleagues at the last election in proudly campaigning at every school gate that I could get at to hail the progress made in my local schools. The investment has gone in, and many of the reforms that needed to be made have been made. However, if we think that we have reached a point where we can relax, we are kidding ourselves. I say to my hon. Friends and to the Opposition that if they have any doubt about where we are and the road that we still need to travel, they should go to the Department for Education and Skills website, click on ““school performance tables”” and have a look, first at every school in their local area and its performance—the website allows that to be done very easily and shows a five-year period—and then have a little roam around the country. Members will see that there is a story to be told that is even more shocking than the 40 per cent. headroom that we still have to make as an average. There are schools that are bumping along, barely getting to 30 per cent, and they have done that for years. Derbyshire is a three-star authority and has done very well in supporting many of the schools in my constituency. Ten out of the 12 poorest schools fit into that category. If one looks more closely, there are schools that are achieving higher than that, but they are coasting. They are still going nowhere. One will also see some schools that are doing phenomenally well, reaching high levels of attainment and making that change very rapidly. The Bill is based on what we know works. We may not have all the evidence, but we have a lot of evidence about what works. We know that good leadership, good discipline, individualised learning packages, specialisms, partnerships, federations, high-performing local education authorities, sound governance and engaged communities work. The central part of the Bill, the most powerful change agent, is the role that we are giving to local education authorities to get in early, make the diagnosis, broker the changes that are needed to shift those schools that are failing so many of our children and to make the difference. The Bill is not just about children in poorly achieving schools and poor areas. It is also about high achieving children who are not being stretched. I say, look at the website.