Education and Inspections Bill

My girls are being educated at a state comprehensive, but I cannot allow the comments of the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Mr. Willis) to go unanswered. The hon. Gentleman, who has chaired the Education and Skills Committee, was educated at a selective grammar school, while I, a junior conservative Member, was educated at an inner-city secondary modern. My girls have not always been at a comprehensive school. They have also been educated at private schools, and I have never seen anything in a private school that could not be replicated in a state school. I was particularly impressed by Ampleforth, a Roman Catholic boarding school that follows the rule of St Benedict and has an ethos based on realising the potential of every child, regardless of ability. It takes an holistic approach to children and is not obsessed with league tables. Father Gabriel, the head, does nothing that could not be replicated in any other school. It is not necessary to have grand buildings to achieve culture, ethos and identity. What is necessary is parental preference and involvement. A school must be responsive to its community or, dare I say, market, and it definitely needs freedom. The Bill takes the first wimpish steps towards liberation of state schools from the asphyxiating control of local education authorities, and removes the remote governance of this place. By giving schools freedom, it will enable our children who are educated in the state system to benefit from the kind of education from which those in private schools benefit. We are all different. If that were not the case, we would all be sitting on this side of the House. Why, then, do Labour Members want to homogenise education? They want to keep it all at the same level, and ensure that everyone is taught in the same schools. We do not want that. We want parent power, and believe me, if a parent talks to the head of an independent school, the independent school jumps. Parents need and want that kind of power in the state system. Surely we should welcome the emphasis on personalised learning. After all, it is another thing from which children in fee-paying schools benefit while children in state schools do not. I speak very much with a mother’s hat on. I wholeheartedly welcome the emphasis on nutrition in school and the work done in that connection by the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh). I have an interest in special needs. I hope that trust schools will have the ability and the power to ““velcro”” the funds provided by the statementing system to children’s special needs, and that some trust schools will specialise in that and will really benefit. I wholeheartedly support the Bill.