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.

Is she perhaps just not terribly bright?

"Is she perhaps just not terribly bright?"

Hmmn I went to the same school as her, but I am a lot younger than her. I do remember her as head girl. At school she excelled at everything and was very popular. She got straight As at everything and went to Oxford. However there is a difference though between being super bright and having common sense. Certainly her web chat did not show her or the coalition goverment in a good light.

She is far from stupid, but I do think she lacks experience of the everyday world. She has an amazing talent for making friends and getting on with people. She has very little experience of mixing with working class people. She has no understanding of what it is like to be poor or to experience bad education.

Nicky has never experienced distruptive behaviour in the classroom as Surbition high is an over subscribed selective school and can easily exclude remotely difficult children. She was taught in classes of 20 with the best facilites that money could buy at the time. The opportunities the girls have/ had there are truely unbelievable. Its a different world to the average state school. (I know what state schools are like from working in them!)

I think that Nicky's old English teacher Mrs Mason sums up the situation in the best way possible

*Asked whether she hoped Mrs Morgan would repair shattered relations between teachers and the Department for Education, Mrs Mason said: "I think it's a pity to have people in charge of state education who haven't experienced it themselves."

The coalition's schools policy saw “too much interference from the centre, too much imposition of a very old-fashioned curriculum," she added*

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/11340617.Former_Surbiton_High_School_student_named_as_Education_Secretary/

You can be sure that Surbition High will ignore the completely stupid parts of the new national curriculum.

We were led to believe that questions that weren't answered on the day would be answered at a later date. For the record, this was my questions. Happy to talk privately to Nicky Morgan if she needs further evidence on this issue.

springalong Thu 18-Dec-14 11:27:59
There has been some progress made over the last year for Flexibility for admission for summer born children, including new guidelines to LAs. It now seems as if this government is backtracking on enforcing those guidelines so LAs and schools spend large amounts of tax payers resources on declining flexible applications and then SEN resources on supporting many summer born children in school. There is confusion on what is being said to concerned parents and what is being said to LAs and schools. What SPECIFIC steps are you going to take to ensure that any parent has the LEGAL RIGHT to apply for their summer born child to start school in Reception at COMPULSORY SCHOOL AGE (ie 5)? (and to keep that year group through education). thank you

Hi, me again :) I am still hoping that Nicky Morgan will answer the outstanding questions and soon. Does she think we will go away? #singleissuevotersummerborncampaign