SCHOOL RECORDS (Hansard, 6 November 1979)

§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennett (Stockport, North)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish a right of access by parents to their children's school records: and for connected purposes. The way in which school records are kept varies very much from school to school and from authority to authority. Their importance also varies from one area to another. In many areas school record cards and the information on them help to decide to which secondary school a child will go or in which stream or set he is placed if he goes to a comprehensive school. At a later stage record cards are often used to show to prospective employers, or a precis is made from them for reference to prospective employers. A school record may influence entry of a pupil to further education or his chances of obtaining a place in a college or university.

The school record becomes especially important if the child has to move from one school to another or if he gets into trouble and a report has to be prepared for a juvenile court.

School records contain a variety of information that again varies from school to school or authority to authority. Some concentrate on factual information, such as the child's reading age, mathematics attainment, and any tests or examinations that he has taken in school. They often contain useful information for the school to enable it to contact parents if there has been an accident at school or if the school needs to get in touch with a parent for any other reason.

Many school records contain much more information, much of which is based on the opinion of a teacher about a child's character or his behaviour in school. Records often contain information about the parents' behaviour or character. Although schools try hard to ensure that references are maintained accurately, it is obvious that with so many records, and especially when statistical information is contained in the records, it is easy for errors to appear. That is so even in schools of an average size, in which it is often found that there are two or three pupils with identical names. It is especially so in large 238 schools, in which it is often found that there is a handful of pupils who all have the same names. That is not confined to names such as Smith or Jones; it often applies to comparatively odd surnames within a large school. Wrong entries in records become more and more likely in larger schools.

In view of the importance of records and the possibility that mistakes can be made, parents and older pupils are naturally concerned that they should see the records and should be able to ensure that the information contained in them is accurate. They are anxious to see exactly what the school thinks of their children's attainment and behaviour.

A few authorities already allow parents to see their children's records. They seem to experience no problems. However, many authorities are not prepared to disclose the information contained in the records. The aim of the Bill is to produce a uniform system throughout the country to enable parents, as a matter of course and at any reasonable time, to see their child's record on request and to ensure that on attending for a parents' evening one of the documents that parents will automatically be shown is the child's record card.

The second aim of the Bill is to regulate who else is entitled to see school records. The irony of the present system is that although, very often, parents cannot see the records, they are kept in a rather casual manner and many others are allowed to see them. The records often contain confidential information provided by the parents.

I recognise that a difficult problem presents itself. If the school record is to be a useful record within the school, it must be freely available to the staff. However, at the same time it should not be shown to those outside the school. The promoters of the Bill have tried hard to deal with the problem and to ensure that records are shown to those outside the school only with the parents' consent.

It will be claimed by some that if the Bill is enacted teachers will stop recording information on record cards and will pass on information by word of mouth rather than record it. I hope that that will not happen if the Bill is enacted. Even if it did happen, it would be far better than allowing to remain on record cards much of the information that is now 239 given on them, which remains on them for the whole of a pupil's career.

An infant school teacher, for example, may suspect that a child has been light-fingered and has removed property belonging to another child or a piece of school equipment. If it is a serious problem, the teacher may well mention the matter to one or two other colleagues. For the next few months the teachers will keep a watchful eye to ensure that the suspected pupil does not remove property while receiving other lessons or when moving to another class. It is far better for that to be done verbally—once the problem has passed, it will almost certainly be forgotten—than for an entry to be made in the school record. Such an entry may stay with the pupil through junior and secondary schools. Indeed, it may be referred to when someone is producing a reference when the child leaves school. Verbal messages are much more likely to be forgotten, when irrelevant, than information placed on a record card.

If the Bill is enacted, I hope that teachers will not stop putting information on record cards. However, if that is the effect of the Bill, it will be better to ensure that rather doubtful information is not included. I know that the Conservative Party has made a great deal of its belief in a parents' charter for schoolchildren. One essential element would be to give parents the right to see what is contained in their child's school record.

I hope that the House will give me leave to introduce the Bill and will find time to allow the Bill to complete its remaining stages.