Education and Inspections Bill

I do not know whether the noble Lord will be able to answer the questions that I raise on the meanings of ““educational”” and ““potential”” and how they will be measured. If the noble Lord wishes, he can write to me, or I could raise the matter again on clause stand part. The reason I am interested in ““educational”” is that the Government have said that they want to raise the level of funding to that of independent schools. There is a different definition of education in independent schools from that in state schools. It is a much broader acceptance of what education means in the generality of independent schools. Indeed, within state systems there is a lot of variation between the old grammar school model, which is pretty narrow, and other, much broader schools, which to my mind are much more exciting. If the Government are putting a duty on LEAs, what is it? In measuring potential, we are getting into very sticky water with the introduction of contextual value added. In a way, it says that a kid of Afro-Caribbean background has less potential because of that thana child of Caucasian background. I feel deeply uncomfortable about that, and it is now being incorporated in the Ofsted definition of whether a school is fulfilling the educational potential of its children. I very much want to know where the Government stand on that and how potential will be assessed. I do not expect the Minister to go into absolute, crystal-clear detail, but I want to know what the Government think. What is their opinion; what is their ambition on these things? How do they see this changing and developing the educational system over the next few years?