Look out for how MPs of different political colours vote in parliament tomorrow. That’s when we’ll be debating the next steps in Labour’s transformation of our education system in the children, schools and families bill.

Largely opposed by the Conservatives, our bill sets out progressive and radical reforms which are only possible because of the revolution that’s taken place in our schools over the last 12 years.

Building on the progress we have made, we can now set out guarantees to pupils and parents including one-to-one and small group tuition for children falling behind in the 3Rs and a place in education, training or apprenticeship for all young people up to 18, whether the strengths are practical, academic or both.

There will be stronger discipline through tough home-school agreements. And our new school report cards will give parents more information about the performance of local schools – including pupil progress, behaviour and the views of other parents – and better reflect all the achievements of a school than the narrow picture presented by the traditional league tables.

But one of the boldest and most progressive reforms will be to make our curriculum where we will make personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) compulsory for the first time.

It will help ensure that children and young people get the knowledge and skills they need to deal with a range of issues they face as they grow up – from avoiding harm from drugs and alcohol to learning about personal finances; from advertising and body image to careers education.

And, having listened to the clear views of young people and parents, it will also mean that comprehensive sex and relationships education (SRE) will, for the first time from September 2011, be compulsory in every state school.

The bill makes clear that, as now, schools with a religious character will be free to express the views of their faith and reflect the ethos of their school but cannot suggest that their views are the only ones. And the bill also makes clear that all schools must teach PSHE and do so following three key principles.

First, information must be presented in an accurate and balanced way. Second, it must be taught in a way appropriate to the age, religious and cultural backgrounds of pupils and reflect a reasonable range of religious cultural and other perspectives. And third, it must be taught in a way promoting equality, encouraging acceptance of diversity and emphasising rights and responsibilities.

These principles apply to all schools. It means all schools have to teach about contraception and the importance of stable relationships, including marriage and civil partnerships, and it will not allow the teaching of homophobia.

So while, for example, a Catholic school can explain to its pupils what their faith says about contraception or homosexuality, it cannot present these as the only views, deny young people the information they need about contraception or say it is acceptable to discriminate on the basis of someone’s sexuality.

There is no place for discrimination or bullying of any kind in our schools, which we have reinforced in the last two years with new guidance for all schools on tackling in all its forms, including cyberbullying and homophobic bullying.

Some campaigners have, deliberately or otherwise, misunderstood what we are setting out in the legislation – or have only read parts of the bill in isolation to the others. The only two changes from the status quo are that no state school and no faith school can fail to teach SRE and the age up to which parents can withdraw their children from SRE lessons – exercised only by a tiny minority – will be lowered from 19 to 15.

So what will happen tomorrow? On the issue of extending educational opportunity and our guarantees to pupils and parents that require investment to make them a reality, I expect the Tories to continue their opposition. They know they cannot vote for catch-up tuition for children or guarantee apprenticeship and training places for young people when they would cut rather than protect its funding.

But on sex and relationships education, I’m still hoping we can have cross-party consensus. In the debates on the bill to date, the Conservatives have said they want to water them down by exempting academies and keeping the parental opt-out up at the current age of 19. They should think again.