Webchat with Tristram Hunt, Labour education shadow, MONDAY 27 April at 12 midday

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce that the first of our (three!) politics webchats this week will be with Tristram Hunt, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Labour candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central.

As Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram has been been involved in policy issues ranging from teachers’ qualifications, free schools, and partnerships between state and private schools, to vocational education and leadership in education. He also got into a spot of bother concerning nuns when on BBC Question Time recently.

Tristram is also a history lecturer at Queen Mary University London, and has published several books, as well as presenting TV programmes about the English Civil War and Isaac Newton.

Do join us on Monday 27 April at 12pm for a live webchat with Tristram or post your questions in advance on this thread. And please remember our usual webchat guidelines.

Thanks
MNHQ

@candlesAtDawn

Do you still think that parents who are involved in setting up free schools are 'Yummy Mummies', and would you agree that statement was incredibly sexist, patronising and ignorant given that many talented and committed parents, with or without professional qualifications, are already heavily relied on to run maintained schools and academies as unpaid governors?

Hi candlesAtDawn,

I do regret this comment because I am hugely in favour of yummy mummies and faddy daddies being closely involved in the education of their children. All the academic evidence shows that parents who are supportive of their children’s education can help them achieve so much more. I also agree that parents are a vital component in the running and broader cultural life of so many schools up and down England. However, the Labour Party is opposed to the continuation of the free schools programme because at a time of a school places crisis we think that building free schools in areas with no shortage of places is a misallocation of public funds.

@LumpySpacedPrincess

What is your opinion on TAs within the classroom? The current government seems to think they do nothing more than wash up paint pots. I feel they have a huge positive impact on the classroom. What's your opinion?

LSP - thanks. Often overlooked.
Teaching assistants are a really important part of the school workforce. As ever, great teachers and great teaching assistants thrive where there is great leadership in schools.
There’s a really important role for TAs in supporting teachers to tailor their teaching to the needs of individual pupils. I think there needs to be better recognition for TAs and I have committed to setting up a national negotiating body for TAs and other school support staff.

@BlueEyeshadow

You said you'd sack unqualified teachers. Would you also sack the brokers paid extortionate sums of money to bully schools into academy status?

In our zero-based spending review on schools we set out, quite clearly, that we would cut the academy brokers - saving around £3m a year.

Thanks for your reply Tristram. I have a follow-up question...

I agree with you that new schools should only be set up where there are shortages of places, but unfortunately there is no consistent definition of basic need. Would you agree that Local Authorities that deliberately plan for 0% surplus in school place provision, resulting in massive over-subscription and long waiting lists at popular schools, and significant numbers of families not getting any of their 6 preferences, yet which still claim not to 'need' more places because they usually manage to squeeze everyone in somewhere by September, are putting unacceptable stress on families and fuelling an exodus to the private sector, which is therefore profiting on the back of ruthless public-sector cost-saving strategies?

@AwakeButNotForLong

If it was up to you, would you abolish grammar schools? If not, why not?

Hi AwakeButNotForLong

The Labour Party position on grammar schools is what is has been for 20 years now: we will keep and work with all existing grammar schools, but do not intend to support the opening of new ones. More broadly, we want to see much deeper and richer collaboration between all different school types including our grammar schools. The real issue when it comes to social mobility and social justice in education is to invest in early years and ensure high-quality teaching in our primary schools.

Thanks for your response.

So, will all schools have wraparound childcare available or not? I accept that parents would have to pay, but the lack of clarity in your post troubles me. If I work, I need reliable daily childcare, not ad hoc clubs. You're conflating two separate issues, both of which are very important - access to quality enrichment activities (which will be paid for by parents, I assume - you skirt around the issue of how exactly voluntary and charitable agencies are going to provide good sports, music, arts provision for free?) and access to year-round, quality childcare delivered by qualified people (which will also be paid for by parents). I'm sure I am not alone in looking at independent schools' provision of wraparound care (which is pretty affordable tbh, school fees aside) and wishing that state schools provided the same service.

It's the funding that you're not properly explaining, so my follow up question is a request for you to be more clear on this, as parents have a right to know. What do you think is a reasonable amount for parents to pay for wraparound childcare, will there be any funding for it at all from the agency you are planning to set up, and will it be equality of opportunity across the country?

Was it a mistake for the last Labour government to set a high target for young people going to university and doesn't it undervalue those for whom a vocational education would be more appropriate?

Thank you for answering my question. My labour PPC for Sedgefield has shown his support to the Summer born campaign so I'm hoping his was more than just a personal point of view.

Hi Tristram, thanks for coming in.

I think Ed Miliband has done a fairly good job of being less apologetic about the redistribution of wealth, but I'd like to see the Labour party stand up and say: "yes, some of you may not like it, but in order to look after the most vulnerable we're going to raise taxes in various ways, and that does mean people in London with big houses (who mostly just got lucky, not necessarily because they are more 'hard working') will be 'funding' people elsewhere in the country on the poverty line, because that's how we look after everybody."

It feels like he's on the cusp of being really quite radical, but shies away at the last minute. Will Labour ever be unapologetically socialist, or do you think there's just not enough appetite?

@woeface

Hello Tristram

The IFS has said that under a Labour govt, we'd have a £30 billion deficit at the end of the next parliament - and yet Labour claims that they will balance the budget.

Clearly Labour are only referring to the current account, and not the capital account - disingenuous, at best.

Can you address the disparity between the IFS and Labour's line? I think a 5% defiicit is not untenable and will mean less severe cuts - but I don't like the way Labour isn't being up front about it.

Hi woeface

I am very lucky to have secured a ring-fence for the entire Education budget: early years to schools to post-16 spending. But we have had to justify every single spending allocation and identify where the funds are coming from. Our commitment is indeed to cut the deficit every year and balance the books as soon as possible. But we are not interested in doing this with an extreme approach to public spending. The Conservative plans for early years involve a substantial cut to a part of the Budget which delivers the most in terms of challenging inequality and delivering real opportunity.

@MrsJamin

What are Labour's plans for Free Schools, particularly the ones open or approved to open in Sept 2015 or 2016 which are in areas of need for school places?

MrsJamin,
We’re going to prioritise spending for new schools and new places in areas of need. So we won’t continue the free schools programme. We will instead target spending at areas of need and use funding from the FS programme to cap class sizes at 30 for 5, 6 and 7 year olds. Watch my video on this here:

On free schools in the pipeline, we will honour those funding agreements. So those open and in the pipeline, will remain.

@sickofsocalledexperts

Would he consider a root-and-branch review of autism education in this country? It's all a bit lacklustre, delivering poor results for our kids and we lag behind the US 30 years eg in our use of behavioural methods like ABA, which are pretty mainstream over there now.

Hi sickofsocalledexperts

Thanks very much for this. We have just had a major review of Special Education Needs provision through the Children and Families Act, with its move away from statements to a more personalised system of Education Health Care Plans. I’m really keen to focus on the delivery of this new approach but I am open to your suggestion. I will happily take some guidance on it, particularly regarding new behavioural methods.

@BallroomWithNoBalls

Thanks for your response.

So, will all schools have wraparound childcare available or not? I accept that parents would have to pay, but the lack of clarity in your post troubles me. If I work, I need reliable daily childcare, not ad hoc clubs. You're conflating two separate issues, both of which are very important - access to quality enrichment activities (which will be paid for by parents, I assume - you skirt around the issue of how exactly voluntary and charitable agencies are going to provide good sports, music, arts provision for free?) and access to year-round, quality childcare delivered by qualified people (which will also be paid for by parents). I'm sure I am not alone in looking at independent schools' provision of wraparound care (which is pretty affordable tbh, school fees aside) and wishing that state schools provided the same service.

It's the funding that you're not properly explaining, so my follow up question is a request for you to be more clear on this, as parents have a right to know. What do you think is a reasonable amount for parents to pay for wraparound childcare, will there be any funding for it at all from the agency you are planning to set up, and will it be equality of opportunity across the country?

Hi BallroomWithNoBalls,

The truth is that the cost will be different in different parts of the country and will reflect the manner in which schools work together to organise it. I think the issues about enrichment activities and childcare are connected and it’s our ambition to provide some of the infrastructure and best practice to ensure a more comprehensive provision. Nonetheless, as you surmise, it will have to be independently and autonomously funded.

@Pottypourpianos

Tristram

Can you provide us with a definition of your ideological stance on education across age groups? What is your plan? Where do you see education and yourself in 5 years time? Are you prepared to be accountable for what you say to us today?

Hi Pottypourpianos

What really drives my education agenda is ensuring that those communities who are feeling left behind by globalisation - often coastal towns, former coalfied communities, some Shire counties - get the access to education and skills which is their only route to a prosperous future. And what is so exciting about the future is that the demands of the coming century in terms of the economy and society means ensuring a broad and balanced curriculum in our schools. The challenge for education policy is to ensure that innovation and creativity within a mass schooling system. That is what I hope to be held to account for.

It starts with a relentless focus on improving the quality of teaching in every classroom.

Tristram-this concerns me.

It's the current constant scrutiny of teachers that is making them quit the profession in droves! Observations, book scrutinies, learning walks, climate walks etc

Your suggestion of 'relentless focus on teachers' does not seem to be ending this.

What do you propose in practice? I've been an Outstanding teacher for nearly 20 years and want to resign on May 31st-I have simply had enough. What will you do, to make my day to day life in the classroom better? Can you convince me to stay?

@noblegiraffe

Schools don't like having poor teachers on their staff. If they do, it's usually only because there's no alternative, either due to lack of funding or lack of availability of decent teachers.

Given that teachers are already regularly observed, have their results scrutinised, are Ofsteded and performance-managed to within an inch of their lives, what do you think a Teacher MOT will really achieve apart from cause even more good teachers to finally have enough of it all and leave the profession?

Hi noblegiraffe

I would never use the phrase ‘teacher MOT’, but what I am hugely passionate about is creating an architecture for the continuing professional development of teachers. The most important variable in education is the quality of teaching and our mission in Government is to ensure that year in , year out we support teachers to develop their pedagogy, deepen their subject knowledge, and stay abreast of new advances in teaching and technology. We at the Labour Party are highly supportive of the plans for a new College of Teaching, as this could be exactly the right vehicle for supporting teachers’ CPD.

Thank you all very much for the questions – it’s been great. Apologies to anyone I didn’t have time to respond to. I’m off now to campaign in Hastings for Sarah Owen, our excellent candidate, so if any of you are in the area please do say hello. Otherwise, don’t forget to vote Labour on 7th May! Bye.

I very much appreciate your response Tristan and thanks for taking the time.

In essence though, you're sort of advertising wraparound childcare with no guidance for schools on how to deliver it. That's 8-9 and 3-5.30 or so daily, so about 20 hours a week that schools have to conjure up out of nowhere to meet their obligations to look after children. I see this as a non policy and in no way a solution. As a teacher and a parent, it frustrates me immensely that politicians put our children - and our ability as women (because it invariably is women) to continue to work after parenthood, at the bottom of the funding pile, every single time. There is no funding for wraparound childcare - therefore it will not happen. Not to the quality that you've hinted at with wonderful provision - it will continue as it currently does, unreliably across the country, with children bored and crammed into halls with rota'd and unpaid staff supervising them. Shame.

That was actually really depressing.

It looks like Labour will up the ante on horrendous observations, micromanagement and scrutiny for teachers. That will cause the teachers who have fled the profession over the last 3 or 4 years to come rushing back, I'm sure.

Then wraparound care offered to parents but it'll be run by voluntary charities.

Brilliant.

My dd was at primary school under the last Labour government and they were promising more wrap-around child-care then - they didn't deliver.
dd is now in her GCSE years and I am concerned about post 16 education. The only policy Labour seem to have is reversing A level changes and am still no wiser as my question wasn't answered.

Agree Redlock with your comment, if anything TH is going to put more pressure on teachers and subject them to MOTs, further demoralising the classroom at a time when our population is growing and class sizes are increasing - but Tristram will be OK because he's not ruled out sending his kids to an independent school. The double standards of some in the Labour party can be breathtaking.

I agree that he just doesn't seem to get it.

It was me who asked about what he could do to combat the stress levels and attrition of teachers and to go on about relentless focus on teaching standards shows he's just another politician who has no idea about the area he's been put in charge of. Scary.

As a parent I don't want decent teachers leaving in droves because of relentless pressure.

I want it to be easier for heads to be able to kick truly shit teachers out. I want the other 99% of teachers to be left to get on with the job.

All sounds like more of the same doesn't it.

Could I sound a note of warning about that 13:07 post about teachers' continuing CPD? As a librarian, that sounds crap. We've already had all that from our own pro organisation, CILIP - the invention of 'chartered status'. It was supposed to 'put us on a par with other professions', thereby 'raising the profile of the profession', 'ensuring consistency of practice' and other bullshit. In the event it merely created more hoops for us all to jump through. It does not guarantee increased pay. How could it ever raise a profile of a profession noone knows about outside. Job losses have increased since its invention - no connection, except that it did nothing to stop it either. The people who jump through thehoops are not more skilled than those who don't, except perhaps politically - they're just more stressed. Waste of time.

What's needed is real appreciation of the job professionals do, the autonomy to practice, and the freedomof local officials to take real action against those who are obviously not suited to the work no matter how many special tricks they can perform. And of course funding and energy redirected to the real work, not the micromanagement- speak.

What exactly will the college of teaching offer us?

I was actually going to vote Labour until I read this thread!

Nice work, Tristram.