Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Amendment 108, with which I am going to speak to Amendments 109, 110 and 111, strikes the Bill in Clause 44 at page 27 and it is intended to raise an idea in the mind of the Government—it is very much a probing amendment. It arises from my still slightly painful memory of being a teacher in a 1,500-boy comprehensive school and being responsible, in part, for teaching in the lower-ability streams and encountering the growing conviction of pupils throughout that stream, in their last year, that they ought to be out in the world doing something quite different, and that what they were doing in school was not very relevant. It was not just me; more gifted teachers than me came across this difficulty as well. It intensified when word spread that the school leaving age was going to be raised by a year. Fortunately, I moved to a college of education and taught teachers to teach before that happened. However, I was well aware of the sharp distinction in the minds of many pupils of average ability—some were above and many were below average ability—who considered that school was a preliminary to real life. Anything outside the school was challenging, exciting and probably grown up, whereas anything inside the school was boring, tiresome and, to many of them, however hard we tried, not particularly relevant. It seems to me that the Bill could capitalise on the fact that moving out of one institution into another can give a considerable boost to the engagement of the pupil concerned. This factor is even more important where one sibling decides not to continue with education or training beyond the compulsory age but a younger sibling decides to embark on that course and the elder then decides to follow. This will seem to the latter a great diminution of his stature. We are all familiar with the idea of rites of passage. Leaving school is one of them. I hope that occasionally it can act as an incentive to making more profitable use of a student’s time. That is why I have suggested that education be offered at a school other than the school previously attended by a person, because that is going back to the juvenile in his or her view. If it cannot be offered at another school, it had better be offered at another sort of institution. There are two pairs of amendments which deal with core and additional entitlements, but the message is the same. I have not explained it very well but those who have taught will know exactly what I mean. I beg to move.