Education policy

The motion was presented by Greg Hands, the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham. It was great to see the successes of the free school policy highlighted early on, with the MP stating “only 68% of state-funded schools were good or outstanding in 2010, that jumped to 89% at the end of August 2017.” He pointed out that high performing schools in Kensington and Chelsea demonstrated the benefits that free schools and academies bring to the system, but also acknowledged where the policy has faced difficulty, such as problems around finding a suitable site.

Firstly, there was the Labour Party Conference, where the Shadow Secretary of State said that she would ‘turn her back’ on Michael Gove’s reforms. She followed up on this by promising to bring an end to the free school programme in the event of gaining power. While obviously alarming to advocates of the programme, this is consistent with the Labour Party’s previous attitude towards the policy and isn’t a new development.

Since free schools first established their roots in the autumn of 2011, the programme has expanded and evolved. Comparing data from 2011 and 2018 highlights the changes that have taken place and what has remained constant.

As someone who founded and ran one of the first free schools, Bedford Free School, I tend to get geekily excited whenever I hear new research on the subject is being published.

The summer of 1988 - what a time to be alive! A booming economy. “Die Hard” at the cinema. The second “Summer of Love” and acid house. The Seoul Olympics.

And, of course, Kenneth Baker’s Education Reform Act.

As well as introducing a National Curriculum, it kick-started the move towards much greater frontline autonomy across the country.

‘Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.’ This quote is taken from Martin Luther King Jnr.’s 1947 article, ‘The Purpose of Education’, in which he states that merely imparting knowledge is an insufficient function of education.  He says that as well as developing intellect, education should teach children the necessary values for living together in society. This moral element, King argues, means that learners are knowledgeable, but crucially, they also deploy their knowledge and skills in the service of others.

Today many schools seem to be solely judged on the academic attainment of their pupils. On one level this makes complete sense, as the end result of education is to prepare pupils for successful lives. Unsurprisingly then, many colleges, universities and employers use academic attainment as the principal measure for determining whether an applicant has the required background necessary to succeed. However it is worth highlighting that in recent years, employers have started to bemoan a lack of essential non-academic skills in their new employees.