To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the number of pupils applying to attend Hendon school since it became a grant-maintained school.

I understand that applications for first-year places have risen sharply since the school became grant maintained in 1989. So far this year, there have been 348 applications, compared with 270 in 1990 and 200 in 1989.

Is my hon. Friend aware that in Hendon school's last year as a local authority school, 100 pupils applied? Is not the dramatic growth since then a vindication of Government policy and a tribute to the school's headmaster, staff and governors? Would not it be mean-minded and extreme folly to reverse the policy and ignore the wishes of parents and pupils?

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Any fair-minded individual who saw what had been achieved in Hendon in the past two years would recognise how entirely inappropriate it is for the Labour party to be determined to ignore the wishes of parents and, in effect, destroy an excellent school that has been turned itself round in a short time, thanks to our grant-maintained policy.

As one who, 60 years ago, was a pupil at Hendon school and has been deeply grateful to his teachers ever since, I warmly welcome the school's decision to opt for grant-maintained status. Is my hon. Friend further aware that when my right hon. Friend the Member for Norfolk, South (Mr. MacGregor) visited the school last year, he was met by an experienced member of staff who said, "Although I have always been a member of the Labour party, the school's decision to go for direct-grant status was the best decision that it has ever made"?

My right hon. Friend told me that, and I received a similar message when I visited the school. I am sure that pupils at Hendon school, and all hon. Members, welcome and recognise the considerable education advantages that my right hon. Friend gained from his time at that school.