Live webchat with Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Thursday 18 December 11am - 12pm

[KateHMumsnet]

We're pleased to announce that Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities, will be joining us for a webchat on Thursday 18 December at 11.00am.

Nicky was elected for the Loughborough seat for the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election, and was appointed was appointed Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities on 15 July this year. She is married and a mother of one.

Nicky will be joining us on Thursday to discuss all things education-related, and in particular will welcome discussion of behaviour and bullying, mental health, character and careers. Of course, we will welcome questions from across the education spectrum and Nicky will reply to as many as she is able to between 11am and 12pm.

Please do join us live on Thursday, or post your questions in advance on this thread.

@neepsandtatties

We've just had another judged 'outstanding' teacher leave my local primary school. Governors gave her an exit interview and her response was that while she loves teaching and the children, the constant scrutiny, moving goalposts, overwork had 'sucked the joy out of the profession'.

You only have to look at the threads on Mumsnet to see that 1000s of excellent, experienced primary teachers are leaving the profession for these reasons. It seems to be a particular problem when the teachers have children - the profession is incompatible with family life. Our school is now over 50% NQT, who I expect will leave teaching once it wears them down/they have children.

Have you any thoughts on what can be done to retain good teachers?

Hi neepsandtatties. I visit many schools and meet many teachers and workload is definitely an issue mentioned very regularly. We have been going through a period of change and that does bring challenges and I would like to thank the profession without whom we could not deliver the changes which are leading to more good and outstanding schools and ensuring more young people are prepared to succeed. In October I launched the Workload Challenge and asked teachers to tell us what drives their workload so we could identify what changes we could make so they can spend more time actually teaching and makes their job feel more bearable. We have had an amazing response with over 43,000 surveys completed. We have now read through them all and plan to publish an action plan in the New Year. I am clear that this Plan must make a real difference to workload.

@trebuchets

Hello Nicky

Bit of a fan here

How have you found it working at the Department for Education? It's been a fairly controversial place over the last few years.

Hi trebuchets. Thanks. I've really enjoyed working in the Department so far. Very committed and passionate staff who all want the best for our young people. And officials there have worked really hard to deliver on my priorities such as mental health, character and careers in such a short space of time. And more broadly I've also enjoyed getting out from Westminster and visiting many schools and meeting teachers, other school staff and pupils to hear their experiences and views.

I agree that directly linking learning to careers helps all pupils, and especially boys, to see the bigger purpose. However, a lot of the problems stem from boys' attitude to literacy.

How can the government support schools in making effective whole school literacy matter to boys as reading is often seen as girlie?

@SedgehillDad

Will you allow Lewisham LA to impose an IEB on Sedgehill School based on 2014's flawed GCSE results and LA's desire to academise rather than allow this Ofsted-judged 'well led' (Oct2013) community school implement its comprehensive improvement plan that was dismissed outright by LA? Please help us only you can now #SaveSedgehill there no time left.

Entire community parents, students, staff are united behind current leadership and feel IEB is being forced through based on untruths (poor results, when A-Levels up 4 years in a row and GCSEs up 3 years prior to changed system & on track to get 65% GCSE 5+A*-C Eng&Maths; dropping admissions when actually highest Yr 7 intake in 6 years). The true facts speak for themselves.

Hi SedgehillDad. I know many people have contacted me and the Department about this matter. The local authority have made an application to the DfE for an IEB to be appointed. We will consider the application very carefully as we consider all such applications. No decision has been made. I hope this answers the many questions on Sedgehill this morning.

This webchat is very very slow!

@Magrats:

I agree.

What are you doing to attract the most talented teachers to the most difficult schools? At the moment it is a non brainer for a gifted teacher to work in a challenging school. Why risk career suicide working in an OFSTED inadequate school when you can get a job at a nice school with easy to teach (possibly brighter!) children (like Surbition High?)

My daughter's primary is OFSTED inadequate and there has been constant stream of newly qualified teachers who leave after a term because they cannot cope. How can we avoid schools that are in difficult circumstances having the dregs of the teaching profession?

I know this is a second question and against the rules -

but should touch typing be mandatory in secondary schools?

Would make web chats go a bit faster one presumes.

@magrats

sorry a bit bored now so thought I'd play with seasonal emoticons

made tea and still awaiting answer to my question & others.

PSBD

@Isitmebut

Hi Nicky

For a while now, I have expressed my concern on Mumsnet, that it appeared through the 2000?s and a periods of prosperity and jobs growth, our youth appeared to struggle to compete for UK jobs - as evidenced by the sharply upward trending unemployed 16-24 years olds ? over 500,000 in 2004, over 700,000 just before the financial crash/recession, pushing it even higher to over 900,000 by 2010.

It also appeared that many of our children were leaving full time education without even basic English, Science and Maths skills, as evidenced by various international surveys/tables and anecdotal employer reports.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/1990838-UK-education-what-is-the-REAL-problem

And even now, there seems to be many semi and skilled vacancies across the UK unfilled, that based on historic country economic cycles, reaching the ?mature? stage, if we are to create more ?value added? employment/jobs, it is worrying to me that we are already behind the skills curve.

Are you satisfied that the UK will be able to step up to the education challenge and our children are not just competing for jobs against those of the EU, but also the emerging nations as well.

HiIsitmebut. A key reason for our reforms since 2010, and the pace of them, has been that we could see our education system was not preparing our young people for the world of work, the qualifications people were getting were not always valued by universities and employers and the UK was falling behind other countries in terms of our young people's achievements. For this reason we have introduced more rigorous academic standards, focused on how to improve teaching in key academic subjects, worked hard to ensure more of our youngest children leave primary school able to read, write and add up. And, of course, we have seen more apprenticeships created and much more of a focus on the importance of vocational and technical education. We often talk about needing to compete in the global race which can sound a bit overwhelming but I think it is important and that is at the heart of your very good question.

Past well it can't be lack of questions as my question regarding the place of religion in schools has not been addressed yet.

magrats my apologies, I didn't see you had asked the question first.

Ah Mag I feel for you

fair question....

and I'd be interested to hear the answer.

I missed the boat on world cup emoticons MN - but I'm getting into this themed emoticons thing.....

PSBD

@PuffinsAreFictitious

Ms Morgan,

Given how ridiculously few specialist places there are for children with ASD and how horrifically bullied my son was in 2 separate MS schools, can you say why your govt offers no help whatsoever to parents who, in order to help their children to actually learn, decide to home school them? Luckily, my DH was in the Army, so we were able to send DS to an excellent school, where he attained good grades. If we hadn't been able to, the LEA had stated that there was no option but for him to continue in a school where he had been bitten and beaten up, because there were no more specialist places for 'children like him'. Coincidentally, this is the same area as your high school, so a very naice area.

My question... Why does your Govt care so very little for children with SEN/disabilities that it forces them to live with truly dire educational outcomes and what do you plan to do about it?

Hi PuffinsAreFictitious. I am so sorry to hear about your son's experience. However, I must disagree with your belief that we don't care because we absolutely do care and Edward Timpson is an excellent Minister who has led the way on the Children and Families Bill and the introduction of the new education and health care plans. We are funding local organisations to provide support to families as they go through the new plan process. Many parents are already telling us this change is working for them but if that isn't the case for you or anyone else on the thread then we would like to hear about it.

Jeanette I wish there were 100 people on here asking the same question, a couple of us are easy to ignore :)

Past I tend to bugger up the emoticons :)

Hello everyone, Nicky's typing for herself ; we'll get through as many questions as we possibly can.

Hi Jane @ MN:

Is Nicky MP leaving at 12? or 12:15?

I've taken my lunch hour early - but do need to get back to work....

Thanks janemn :)

Is there any justification for schools that are funded by the public being allowed to select on the basis of religion?

@LowSlungBaubles

Oh yes. Was coming on to post something else but I'd really like to hear what Nicky thinks about compulsory SRE. It's so important for girls' safety. And boys too of course.

Do you understand why lots of non-religious parents are very cross that their taxes pay for faith schools that their children don't have a hope of getting in to? Would you consider at least removing the religious qualification aspect from faith schools' entry criteria?

Hi LowSlungBaubles. Hope you saw my earlier answer on SRE. On faith schools - we have a huge range of schools and many outstanding non-faith schools. Of course many faith/church schools take many pupils who have no faith or church connection. And new faith free schools can only set aside 50% of their places based on faith. I do think our faith/church schools do a fantastic job which is why they are popular and the best of them work with other local schools. My priority is ensuring every young person has access to a good local school and to do that I want to see more of our best schools expand as well as creating more schools.

Hi,

Nicky will be able to stay for the full hour, so will be answering Qs until a little while after 12 before she heads off to catch a train. Thanks for taking an early lunch.

@PastSellByDate

Hi Jane @ MN:

Is Nicky MP leaving at 12? or 12:15?

I've taken my lunch hour early - but do need to get back to work....

@Nicky Morgan MP

Come clean - are you hunting & pecking as you type?

I get that other people probably do this for you - but do you think this would be easier if you'd been taught touch typing at school?

If faith schools are allowed to set aside 50% of their places based on faith are there any requiements made on the proportion of school funding that needs to be provided by the religious organisation involved?

Hi, Nicky.
Thanks for your response.

Can you tell me if all aspects of Sedgehill School & its situation will be taken into account, including:
-- School's response to IEB;
-- School's own comprehensive improvement plan with Change Partners & outstanding Hayes School;
-- its recent history of improvement since current Head Ken Mackenzie took over;
-- its high % of children receiving Free School Meals;
-- fact that many Councillors appear mis- or uninformed over situation until they heard from parents;
-- the current range of outstanding opportunities it offers like partnerships with Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) & Fulham FC;
its character- & esteem-building activities like joining award-winning urban choir Vocalize that was chosen for Royal Albert Hall's Christmas video e-card ()
-- the way Sedgehill uses Vertical Tutoring to provide positive role models for younger children and raise their aspirations;
-- passionate, committed teachers who give up their holidays to work closely with children to make sure they achieve their goals re: exams & more;
-- tremendous community response (covered by BBC, ITN, LondonLive TV, The South London Press, The News Shopper,The Daily Mirror, The Guardian) which has been united behind current Head, Leadership Team & Governors;

-- and how not just the current upheaval caused by threat of IEB but, if upheld & committed, popular leadership being ousted (i.e., the heart ripped out of Sedgehill) will impact the children's mental health?
Thanks.