Written evidence to be reported to the House
Education and Skills Bill
12:00 pm
Brian Lightman: The numbers in that category are very small. In my experience as head of a large school, the majority of students already do stay in full-time education until 18. A very small proportion—well under 10 per cent.—go outside education at that stage. In my experience, those youngsters are very needy young people who lack self-esteem and need a much higher level of personal support from a very early stage in their education. That is the key to keeping them in education. That is where the individual advice and guidance part comes in. We need to do a lot there.