A message for the new Education Secretary
I expressed serious criticisms about Bridgette Phillipson, the recently-sacked Education Secretary, so it was a relief when she lost the brief.
But my relief might be short-lived because her replacement, Lucy Powell, could be even worse.
Astonishingly, in an interview in 2019, she described the idea of spelling tests for primary school children as ‘draconian’.
She said that teachers should focus on ‘creativity’ instead.
Furthermore, she said that spelling, punctuation and grammar tests were ‘ridiculous’.
Our poor children.
One of the few things the Conservatives improved was education – England went up the rankings, while Scotland and Wales, which remained wedded to unproven progressive techniques, went the other way.
So I want to suggest a few things that Powell could do to improve the education of our children.
Reverse the pernicious and vindictive tax on private schools and return the situation to where it was before Labour came to power.
The number of children at independent schools has fallen by 30,000 since January 2025 when the policy came into force – cruelly introduced half-way through the academic year.
More than 100 schools have closed, and each pupil who moves to the state sector costs the taxpayer £8,500 per annum. This extra cost is measured in the hundreds of millions of pounds.
And, under Phillipson, the number of teachers actually went down. So there are fewer teachers to teach more children.
But will Powell take my advice? I don’t think so. In 2019, she argued that private schools should be taxed even harder.
Another cruel thing Phillipson did was abolish the Latin Excellence Programme for state school pupils – again, this was done half-way through the year.
The savings were minuscule, and it denied many state school pupils the joy of learning Latin and perhaps denying them a career in classics.
Her motivation? Pure snobbery in my view. Powell should reverse this.
Needless to say, the unions are agitating for more money. The NEU is to vote on strike action in the autumn, and this is despite large pay rises since Labour came to power.
Powell must take on these self-serving unions and stick up for the taxpayer. I won’t hold my breath.
Ofsted needs sorting out. When it came to power, Labour scrapped single-phrase headline grades and asked Ofsted to develop new report cards, which would explicitly measure inclusion.
The changes followed the sad suicide of a headteacher worried about her school’s inspection.
But it is vital that parents know how good a school is. This ought to be the priority of Ofsted. And if a one-word descriptor is the best way to do it, so be it.
Mobile phones should be banned in all schools. There is no need for them, and children learn better without them.
Finally, Powell should take a visit to the Michaela Community School in London, run by the inspirational Katharine Birbalsingh.
Despite the astonishing – some say miraculous – success of the school in educating some of the poorest children in society, Phillipson never bothered to visit.
Why? Because Birbalsingh is not a left-wing progressive. Her methods, therefore, are dismissed by the left despite the clear evidence that they work.
Powell should not only speak to Birbalsingh but to the pupils, the parents of pupils, and to the top universities that offer places to Michaela Community School leavers.
She must put evidence before ideology….
ends