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Category: Education

  • Michael Gove – 2010 Comments about Free Schools

    Michael Gove – 2010 Comments about Free Schools

    The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 18 June 2010.

    The most important element of a great education is the quality of teaching and free schools will enable excellent teachers to create new schools and improve standards for all children. This government believes that passionate teachers who want to make a real difference to education should have the opportunity. That’s why I am today inviting groups to complete a proposal form and enter a process to set up new free schools.

    Hundreds of groups, from teachers themselves to charities such as the Sutton Trust, have expressed an interest in starting great new schools. Just like the successful charter schools in the US, supported across the political spectrum, these schools will have the freedom to innovate and respond directly to parents’ needs. The new free schools will also be incentivised to concentrate on the poorest children by the introduction of this government’s pupil premium which will see schools receiving extra funds for educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    In this country, too often the poorest children are left with the worst education while richer families can buy their way to quality education via private schools or expensive houses. By allowing new schools we will give all children access to the kind of education only the rich can afford – small schools with small class sizes, great teaching and strong discipline.

  • Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on the Abolition of the General Teaching Council for England

    Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on the Abolition of the General Teaching Council for England

    The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 2 June 2010.

    This government trusts the professionals. That’s why we want to give teachers greater freedoms and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Since I have been shadowing education and more recently held the brief in government there has been one organisation of whose purpose and benefit to teachers I am deeply sceptical – the General Teaching Council for England.

    I believe this organisation does little to raise teaching standards or professionalism. Instead it simply acts as a further layer of bureaucracy while taking money away from teachers.

    I want there to be stronger and clearer arrangements in relation to teacher misconduct and I am not convinced the GTCE is the right organisation to take these forward. I intend to seek authority from Parliament to abolish the General Teaching Council for England.

  • Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Over 1,000 Schools Applying to be Academies

    Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Over 1,000 Schools Applying to be Academies

    The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 2 June 2010.

    I believe that headteachers and teachers know best how to run schools, not local bureaucrats or politicians. That’s why last week I wrote to every school in the country inviting them to take up academy freedoms if they wished to do so. The response has been overwhelming. In just 1 week, over 1,100 schools have applied. Of these, 626 are outstanding schools, including over 250 primary schools, nearly 300 secondary schools (over half of all the outstanding secondary schools in the country) and over 50 special schools.

  • Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Schools Becoming Academies

    Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Schools Becoming Academies

    The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 26 May 2010.

    The government is genuinely committed to giving schools greater freedoms. We trust teachers and headteachers to run their schools. We think headteachers know how to run their schools better than bureaucrats or politicians.

    Many school leaders have already shown a keen interest in gaining academy freedoms. They want to use those powers to increase standards for all children and close the gap between the richest and the poorest.

    Today I am inviting all schools to register their interest. It is right that they should be able to enjoy academy freedoms and I hope many will take up this offer.

  • Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Trusting Teachers

    Michael Gove – 2010 Comments on Trusting Teachers

    The comments made by Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education, on 26 May 2010.

    The government is genuinely committed to giving schools greater freedoms. We trust teachers and headteachers to run their schools. We think headteachers know how to run their schools better than bureaucrats or politicians.

    Many school leaders have already shown a keen interest in gaining academy freedoms. They want to use those powers to increase standards for all children and close the gap between the richest and the poorest.

    Today I am inviting all schools to register their interest. It is right that they should be able to enjoy academy freedoms and I hope many will take up this offer.

  • Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Teacher Salaries

    Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Teacher Salaries

    The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 26 November 2020.

    This is a kick in the teeth for dedicated teachers who have been working incredibly hard throughout the pandemic to ensure children continue to receive their education.

    The Government claims to be working to deliver ‘world class’ education, but it’s breaking its manifesto commitment to teachers. Real terms cuts to school funding and under valuing of staff risks driving experienced teachers from our classrooms.

  • Wes Streeting – 2020 Comments on NAHT Report

    Wes Streeting – 2020 Comments on NAHT Report

    The comments made by Wes Streeting, the Shadow Minister for Schools, on 18 November 2020.

    Labour has consistently called for proper support for school leaders and a system of accountability that genuinely improves the learning experience for children and young people. We will only get the best out of our pupils if we get the best out of our teachers, support staff and school leaders which requires good quality training and professional development.

    Even before the coronavirus pandemic, progress to close the gap between pupils from the most and least disadvantaged backgrounds was not only stalling under this Government, but slipping into reverse. The Government must urgently refocus its attention on tackling educational disadvantage to prevent an entire generation of children from being left behind.

  • Kate Green – 2020 Comments on the University Admissions System

    Kate Green – 2020 Comments on the University Admissions System

    The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 13 November 2020.

    The Government appears to be finally ready to listen to Labour’s repeated calls to reform the university admissions system.

    University admissions must be transparent, fair, and widen access to higher education. The current system simply fails to do this and must be overhauled.

    This consultation announcement is a welcome start, but the Government must also look at the wider factors universities should consider when making offers to students from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure the system is genuinely fair to all.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2020 Comments on Nurseries and Childminders

    Tulip Siddiq – 2020 Comments on Nurseries and Childminders

    The comments made by Tulip Siddiq, the Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years, on 30 October 2020.

    Labour has been warning for months that the childcare sector is on the brink of collapse.

    Today we learn that this collapse is now imminent and set to begin just as families enter the toughest winter for a generation. As ever, this will hit the most deprived communities hardest.

    Urgent action is needed by the government to save the nurseries and childminders that working parents and children rely on. It is now or never to save the childcare sector, and it has to be now for the sake of our economy.

  • Jonathan Gullis – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    Jonathan Gullis – 2020 Speech on Free School Meals

    The speech made by Jonathan Gullis, the Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, in the House of Commons on 21 October 2020.

    Unfortunately, I will have to start by referring to the comments made by the hon. Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy). I have high regard for her, but I found her moral superiority quite distressing. I spent eight years of my life working as a secondary school teacher, the overwhelming majority of which was as a head of year, working in some of the most disadvantaged parts of London and Birmingham, seeing the impact of child poverty and child hunger but also of not having a stable family and good role models and of crime and drugs in a local community. I refuse to be lectured by Opposition Members who have not walked in my shoes and seen the things that I have had to witness in my career. I hope the hon. Lady will reflect on those remarks. [Interruption.] I will not be lectured by those on the shadow Front Bench who have not worked in the schools I have worked in or seen the things I have seen. I refuse to be shouted down and treated in this manner.

    Let us be very clear about this extension. This is not a one-off extension—this is about free school meals being permanently provided outside of school time. First, who is going to fund that—the school or the state? Do schools provide the meals on-site, or do they have to deliver food parcels? If so, do they have to renegotiate their contracts? Have the unions supported that? Is there understanding of the voucher system, and are they being used in an appropriate and responsible manner? I have had supermarkets, parents and schools contact me directly to say that they have grave concerns about the way in which those vouchers have been used.

    This Government have done remarkable work on holiday programmes. I want to mention the Hubb Foundation and its “Ay Up Duck” campaign, run by Carol Shanahan, the co-owner of Port Vale football club, and Adam Yates, a former professional footballer. The Hubb Foundation is providing thousands of meals across the city and providing hundreds of children and parents with the opportunity to participate in activities that not only improve their physical and mental health but ensure that they are fed and that the local authority and schools have health and wellbeing checks done on a regular basis over the holiday.

    If we were to have a serious discussion about how to tackle this issue, one way to do that is to reduce the summer holiday from six weeks to four weeks. Childcare costs £133 a week on average. If we redistributed those two weeks, with one in the October half-term and one in the May half-term, we could bring down the cost of the ​summer holiday for parents and help them to be better able to access the food that they need. Free school meals are indeed important, but it is the role of the school to educate, not to be the welfare state.