Education and Inspections Bill — Requirements as to composition of governing bodies — rejected — 24 May 2006 at 14:30

Those voting No rejected a new clause^[1] for the Education and Inspections Bill. The Bill gives schools the opportunity of achieving 'foundation' status (see below). This proposed clause, if passed, would have meant foundation governors could not outnumber elected parent governors on schools' governing bodies. However, the amendment was defeated.

The main aims of the Education and Inspections Bill were to^[2]:

• Allow schools to achieve 'foundation' or 'trust' status - this gives governing bodies greater freedom to manage the school.
• Reaffirm the existing ban on selection by ability and proposes a ban on interviewing.
• Give local authorities greater scope to intervene more quickly in failing schools.
• Ensure local authorities provide free school transport for the poorest families.
• Enable nutritional standards to be applied to all food and drink on school premises.
• Allow staff to discipline children for bad behaviour even outside of school.
• Ensure parents are held responsible for excluded pupils.

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• [1] Sarah Teather MP, House of Commons, 24 May 2006
• [2] BBC Summary of the Education and Inspections Bill, 8 March 2006

Debate in Parliament | Source |