Speeches by Hinds.

“HAF is the holiday activities and food fund. We should spell that out for the benefit of everybody here.”

“For my last question, I want to go back to the question about the drop-off in girls’ participation in sport. Notwithstanding whatever the gap may be at age five, we know that in the teenage years, there is quite a substantial falloff. Stephanie mentioned concerns about mental health, and so on. These things are becomin…”

“You have teed me up for two other questions I was going to ask. It was an interesting question about all these extra sports that are available now that did not used to be. Dodgeball is a big thing for kids at the moment. Also, lots of girls play cricket, football and so on. One big question is to what extent that then …”

“That would be the opposite of what a lot of people would think. That is worth dwelling on. Do you want to say more about why it might be important to separate boys and girls for some of the time?”

“But with writing skills, we have figured out that in the early years foundation stage, we need to have a real focus on writing. It is more about holding the pencil and so on. Is that the issue when we talk about the skills gap, or is it more about stuff at home and cultural things? What is the combination?”

“Can I come back to girls? Stephanie, you mentioned the skills gap even at Year R. What do you do about that?”

“Who is “you”? I suppose that is the question: who does it? Who spots that fact that middle-aged men playing football is fine and will always get funded but kids playing some minority sport will not? There may not be an obvious answer—in which case we can say in our report, “There is not an obvious answer, but this prob…”

“Are there any particular sports the provision of which has shown to reduce the drop-off in schools?”

“For my last question, I want to go back to the question about the drop-off in girls’ participation in sport. Notwithstanding whatever the gap may be at age five, we know that in the teenage years, there is quite a substantial falloff. Stephanie mentioned concerns about mental health, and so on. These things are becomin…”

“You have teed me up for two other questions I was going to ask. It was an interesting question about all these extra sports that are available now that did not used to be. Dodgeball is a big thing for kids at the moment. Also, lots of girls play cricket, football and so on. One big question is to what extent that then …”

“That would be the opposite of what a lot of people would think. That is worth dwelling on. Do you want to say more about why it might be important to separate boys and girls for some of the time?”

“But with writing skills, we have figured out that in the early years foundation stage, we need to have a real focus on writing. It is more about holding the pencil and so on. Is that the issue when we talk about the skills gap, or is it more about stuff at home and cultural things? What is the combination?”

“Can I come back to girls? Stephanie, you mentioned the skills gap even at Year R. What do you do about that?”

“Of course I do, Ms Furniss. The different parts of Government that the new body will deal with include the Migration Advisory Committee, which is a well-established part of the machinery of Government but takes its commissions from the Home Secretary. This is a quote from gov.uk: “The MAC bases all recommendations on w…”

“In encouraging the Minister to write to him about the effect of the level 6 and level 7 restrictions, will my hon. Friend also ask her to comment on the potential effect of those restrictions on schools—the sector for which the DFE is responsible—and in particular on the postgraduate teaching apprenticeship?”

“Hear, hear.”

“I rise to speak in favour of the new clause in the name of my hon. Friend the shadow Minister. He is right; of course, we have just voted on something quite similar, and that vote was lost by the classic 11 to four margin, with which we have become familiar. But that does not mean the Government cannot do this, and ind…”

“The Minister may be about to come to this, but what will be the relationship between LSIPs, and whatever strategies they draw up, and Skills England?”

“Go on then.”

“The question is how.”