House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee Diversity of School Provision Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 30 January, 25 February, 12 March, 7 May and 12 November 2008 and 27 April 2009 HC 432 (Incorporating HC 311-i to -v, Session 2007–08) Published on 5 May 2009 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Children, Schools and Families Committee The Children, Schools and Families Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and its associated public bodies. Current membership Mr Barry Sheerman MP (Labour, Huddersfield) (Chairman) Annette Brooke MP (Liberal Democrat, Mid Dorset & Poole North) Mr Douglas Carswell MP (Conservative, Harwich) Mr David Chaytor MP (Labour, Bury North) Mr John Heppell MP (Labour, Nottingham East) Mrs Sharon Hodgson MP (Labour, Gateshead East & Washington West) Paul Holmes MP (Liberal Democrat, Chesterfield) Fiona Mactaggart MP (Labour, Slough) Mr Andrew Pelling MP (Independent, Croydon Central) Mr Andy Slaughter MP (Labour, Ealing, Acton & Shepherd’s Bush) Mr Graham Stuart MP (Conservative, Beverley & Holderness) Mr Edward Timpson MP (Conservative, Crewe & Nantwich) Derek Twigg MP (Labour, Halton) Lynda Waltho MP (Labour, Stourbridge) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/csf/ Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Kenneth Fox (Clerk), Sarah Thatcher, (Second Clerk), Emma Wisby (Committee Specialist), Judith Boyce (Committee Specialist), Jenny Nelson (Senior Committee Assistant), Kathryn Smith (Committee Assistant), and Jim Lawford (Committee Support Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Children, Schools and Families Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6181; the Committee’s e- mail address is [email protected] List of witnesses Wednesday 30 January 2008 Page Dr Steve Gibbons, Research Associate, Centre for the Economics of Education, London School of Economics, and Dr Tom Benton, Senior Statistician, and Simon Rutt, Deputy Head of Statistics, National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Ev 1 Monday 25 February 2008: Academies Lesley King, Director, Academy Networks, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and Margaret Tulloch, Comprehensive Future/Research and Information on State Education Ev 17 Martyn Coles, Principal, City of London Academy (Southwark), Jean Hickman, Principal, Walsall Academy, Graham Badman, Managing Director, Children, Families and Education, Kent County Council, and Lucy Heller, Managing Director, ARK Schools Ev 27 Wednesday 12 March 2008: Faith Schools Rebecca Allen, Researcher, Institute of Education, London University, Professor Mark Halstead, Head, Department of Community and International Education, University of Huddersfield, Professor Audrey Osler, Research Professor, University of Leeds and Director, Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education, and Professor Anne West, Professor of Education Policy and Director, Education Research Group, London School of Economics and Political Science Ev 44 The Right Reverend Stephen Venner, Bishop in Canterbury and Bishop of Dover, The Right Reverend Patrick O’Donoghue, Bishop of Lancaster, and Peter Irvine CBE, Catholic Education Service Ev 53 Wednesday 7 May 2008: Links between Independent and Maintained Schools Professor Francis Green, Professor of Economics, University of Kent, and Chris Parry CBE, Chief Executive, Independent Schools Council (ISC) Ev 65 Patrick Derham, Headmaster, Rugby School, and Stephen Patriarca, Headmaster, William Hulme’s Grammar School, Manchester Ev 75 Wednesday 12 November 2008: Trust Schools Linda Doyle, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, John Clemence, Head Teacher at Sharnbrook Upper School, Phil Neal, Director of SIMS, Capita, Professor Ron Ritchie, Assistant Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the School of Education, University of the West of England, John Hayward, Principal Adviser: 11–19, Coventry City Council and Ken Tonge, Bothal Middle School and Strategic Head of Ashington Learning Partnership Trust Ev 84 4 List of written evidence 1 ARK Schools Ev 25 2 Professor Anne West and Rebecca Allen Ev 40 3 Francis Green, Professor of Economics, University of Kent Ev 63 4 Patrick Derham, Head Master, Rugby School Ev 83 5 James Rogers, Executive Director, Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) Ev 104: Ev 104 6 Rosie Chapman, Executive Director of Policy and Effectiveness, The Charity Commission Ev 104 7 British Humanist Association (BHA) Ev 105: Ev 107 8 Ron Glatter, Emeritus Professor in Education, The Open University and Honorary Professor of Education, University of Warwick Ev 108 Processed: 02-05-2009 14:54:20 Page Layout: COENEW [SO] PPSysB Job: 391906 Unit: PAG1 Children, Schools and Families Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the Children, Schools and Families Committee on Wednesday 30 January 2008 Members present: Mr Barry Sheerman, in the Chair Annette Brooke Fiona Mactaggart Mr Douglas Carswell Mr Andy Slaughter Paul Holmes Lynda Waltho Witnesses: Dr Steve Gibbons, Research Associate, Centre for the Economics of Education, London School of Economics, and Dr Tom Benton, Senior Statistician, and Simon Rutt, Deputy Head of Statistics, National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), gave evidence. Q1 Chairman: I welcome Dr Steve Gibbons, Dr That appears quite wide, but the number of schools Tom Benton and Simon Rutt to our session this at the top and bottom are quite small, and the share morning. Our topic, the diversity of school of variability and achievement that is due to provision, is one that the Committee particularly diVerences across schools is actually quite small. wanted to look at, because it is time to assess the Around 90% of the variability in achievement across eVectiveness of the Government’s policy in this area. pupils is within schools, not between schools. If you We do not have any hard and fast views, but we hope are interested in diVerences in achievement between to add value by pursuing this inquiry, and it is down pupils, the place to look is within schools, because to us to find out all the facts before making any there are big diVerences between pupils in the same decisions. I am not sure whether any of you would school that swamp the diVerences between the like to say a few words to start the conversation. I average pupils in diVerent schools. will turn to Dr Gibbons first. Steve, I will refer to you by your first name, if I may—this is not a very formal Q2 Chairman: What would you say to policy session. Tell us, in a nutshell, where you are in this makers who say,“Look, why do we have two schools work. with the same social composition, where one is Dr Gibbons: Over the past few years, I have been achieving all its targets—five GCSEs at A to C, or doing a range of research using the national pupil whatever they might be—and another, with a very database looking at questions regarding the similar social distribution, is not getting anywhere segregation of pupils into diVerent schools, where near that?” What would you say to someone who people are sorted into diVerent schools according to says that the whole job is to get the not-so-good their achievements, school competition, choice and school up there with the good school, and that it performance—a range of questions related to the should be possible, because they have the same sort issues that you are concerned with here. I have a of intake? range of diVerent areas of study. I suppose the kind Dr Gibbons: Generally speaking, achievement is very of thing I am being asked to speak on is the closely related to the composition of the school, achievement of kids when they enter secondary demographically and in terms of prior achievement. school. The story is that you get a wide diversity in terms of the average achievement of children who Q3 Chairman: Fool’s gold, is it? Basically, if you have entered secondary schools. know the social composition going into the school, Chairman: Order. We seem to be having some broadly you know what the result will be. trouble with the sound this morning, and the Dr Gibbons: It is a good guide. Clearly, there are acoustics in this room are bad. I ask everyone to schools that do well with a given intake and schools speak up. that do badly with a given intake, but in general Dr Gibbons: We looked at the ages and achievements intake will dominate performance in the end. I have of children from secondary schools, and compared not looked in great detail at what drives the those schools in terms of the average achievement of eVectiveness of schools. This is the holy grail, to try the children in them. We found that you get a wide to define what makes certain schools work better spread in terms of the achievement of children when than others. We are not really in a position to answer they go to secondary school. If you imagine a range that. The message from a lot of educational research of pupils, from the lowest achievers to the highest is that it is very hard to find the facts that make the achievers, the range of spread you get across diVerence to the achievement that you were talking community schools is around a third of that about—the value added, if you like. The factors distribution. In a range of achievers across all types people are looking at now are the leadership skills of of schools—including voluntary aided schools and the head teacher and certain qualities of the teachers grammar schools—it spans about 60% to two thirds within the schools.