Clause 5
Education and Inspections Bill
11:00 am
John Hayes (Shadow Minister (Vocational Education), Education; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
Challenge is important, but it must be based on a good understanding of the issues faced by schools. That is critical. It is important that school improvement partners retain a degree of empiricism—they should be objective; they should be an “honest friend”, as someone described them earlier. Yes, there should be challenge, but it must be in the context of supporting schools’ work in the areas where improvements need to be made. The nature of that challenge will, to some extent, depend upon the scale of the tasks faced by schools and their school improvement partners. None of that, however, alters the essence of my argument that school improvement partners should be of the highest quality. To make the challenge that both the hon. Lady and I seek, school improvement partners must have the respect of those whom they are challenging and advising and with whom they seek to work.