Education and Inspections Bill

In Plymouth, there is real enthusiasm for collaborative work, but the current performance measurement gives people little credit for doing important work that can achieve as much—arguably more—in driving up standards than any single trust or foundation school. All 17 secondary schools, including the three grammar schools and two further education colleges, are part of collaboratives that extend the curriculum pathways for 14 to 19-year-old students. The quality and extent of those opportunities has been complimented by Ofsted. Schools also collaborate on staff training and development, including the training of new teachers. We want to take that work forward in radical new ways that include all our schools, not only the high-performing ones. We are concerned that some of that will be limited by the Bill’s focus on the individual school as a unit of change and improvement. Personalisation and collaboration extend choice in the curriculum for parents and students, as well as driving improvement. Such work already addresses postcode selection by mortgage issue, and has the potential to do more—probably more than the White Paper proposals. It breaks down rigidities between grammar schools and the rest of the education community, up to a point, and could do much more in that direction to ensure that no child is ever made to feel that an 11-plus examination is a barrier to their progress. The significant personalisation money—£0.5 billion over the next two years—could work very well with the grain of that and help us to go as far and as fast as any education community in the country. I am among those who accept that we have much more to do. In response to my earlier intervention, the Secretary of State said that she would actively encourage such an approach, but I seek her assurance that she will ensure that the money for personalisation and other specific funds is allocated in a way that complements collaboration and ensures that the money can follow the pupil from primary to secondary school. Most importantly, will she quickly find a way of measuring and acknowledging—indeed, rewarding—success across collaborating education communities, perhaps in relation to clause 114(2) to (4)? My city is an ambitious city. We are ambitious for our children’s education and very forward-looking. We want every child to matter and every school to be an excellent school. If the further debate in Standing Committee could make it clear that what I have described is not only possible, but something that the Government will actively encourage and create a framework in which it can thrive, not just survive, then perhaps I, and probably others, could be a lot more confident that we can deliver what we all want for young people as thoroughly and as quickly as possible.