Webchat with Conservative Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, TUESDAY 28 April at 11.30am

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

We're pleased to announce the second of our three politics webchats this week with Nicky Morgan, who was Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities until Parliament dissolved earlier this month. She will be joining us for a live webchat on Tuesday 28 April at 11.30am.

Nicky is the Conservative candidate for the Loughborough seat. She has done a couple of webchats with us before; in one of them she made some headlines after saying that 'no option is off the table' when questioned about whether the Conservatives should consider all-women shortlists to improve women's representation in Parliament.

Since becoming Secretary of State for Education, Nicky has been perceived by some as taking a less combative approach to teachers and the education sector than her predecessor, Michael Gove. She has emphasised the importance of 'freedom' for schools, and has said that tackling unnecessary workload is a priority. There has been some controversy about her vote against the Equal Marriage Act; she has also announced plans to include issues like consent in sex education lessons.

Do join us at 11:30am on Tuesday 28 April to talk politics, education and other important issues with Nicky. As ever, if you can’t make it then, do leave a question for Nicky on this thread. And please remember our webchat guidelines.

Thanks
MNHQ

And this one also. It may help you understand where as parents we are coming from. Thank you for your time.

summerbornchildren.org/2015/03/19/education-committee-recommendations-miss-the-mark-2014-dfe-code-and-advice-are-the-problem-so-why-recommend-further-implementation/

Re Durham Free School, as parents have found to their cost, you have repeatedly fobbed them off when it comes to answering their questions and I'm painfully aware you are running out of time on here too. Are you going to tackle the questions on here before this webchat ends?

IceBeing, I am a fully paid up member of the C of E and even I don't think faith based schooling is appropriate in the modest age. I would have a fit if my kids were allocated to a Seikh school or RC school, for example.

on the RS point faith schools are exempt from teaching beliefs other than their own....great way to promote integration...I'm sure.

Regarding the Durham Free School, the Ofsted report said that improvements had already started to be made under the new leadership.
You have not answered why you did not let the monitoring inspection take place by announcing closure the previous day.

That should have read modern. I am on my phone on an underfunded train on the line that time forgot.

@BoffinMum

Plus I think we would all like to know of anyone who has been Secretary of State for Education or aspires to the post ...

Did you ever think of training to be a teacher? If not, why not?

I've run out of time to address the rest of your question, but on teaching. I have huge amount of respect for those that do teach, my mother in law and brother are both teachers. As a Member of Parliament, and Secretary of State, I go and speak to a lot of schools and spent last year shadowing in school. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see a lot more in the coming months.

Thanks everyone for this chat I've really enjoyed it. Hopefully MNHQ will invite me back soon to do some more.

Do you agree that Free Schools should be able to set admission policies that exclude students from the local area and give priority to students who live in areas further away?

Reminder of our webchat guidelines - do please be civil/polite, folks. Thanks.

Very odd in the case of the Seikh school as the notion of having a school like that is v anti-Seikh.

Which projects have you introduced which support building of character, resilience, and grit Nicky?

I support such aims as crucial for our teenagers.

My dd heard last night that she's been awarded her bronze DofE - taking part in this has been brilliant for her

Although she's been able to do this through school it was an extra which unfortunately not all children who applied were able to access

Haven't been deleted in ages

Sorry Rowan.

However I was attempting to speak truth to power.

Hello,

That wraps up this one. Thanks to everyone for their questions, and thanks to Nicky for doing.

Hi. Its very clear that the last Government were very Academies minded and sought to change as many Local Authority schools into them as possible during their tenure. However, as a parent with a daughter at a Forced Academy and a son at the last Local Authority High School in our city (Norwich), I have dedicated a HUGE amount of time to researching this area of education and evidence shows that its NOT a one-sized fits all method of running schools, many are failing and other alternatives are better proven ways to administrate the teaching of our children. Why then are you failing to allow that choice to families. If I choose NOT to have my children educated in an Academy (and we do live in a democracy after all) then my son and daughter would both have to travel miles to an alternative. Why are you continuing Gove's work in bulldozing this approach through? Please have a mind of your own before its too late for all our children! Thank you.

Evidence on forced academies is that they do worse than when local authorities turn them round.

Thanks Nicky

RowanMumsnet why were some posters allowed to ask more than one question that were answered? E.g. ReallyTired had two questions answered. I thought that was against the rules of this webchat.

Thank you for answering, however yes, I do disagree with you and quite tellingly, several education experts who have visited the school do as well. All you have done is to repeat the statement you made when you decided to close the school.

With regards to children's best interests, now we are seeing children suffering bad homophobic bullying in their first day at new schools who just want to come back to the school they loved and felt safe at, not to mention excelled in and won awards in. How is that a failing school?

We feel we have been used as a political football in the run up to the election and have been sacrificed for political gain. Other schools with far worse ratings and 'failings' have been given intervention, yet that wasn't even an option and the school was treated very unfairly, whatever its problems.

You have lost my vote and that of many other parents.

If you're in Norwich South I hope you might think about voting for my friend Lesley Grahame, Tina? - Standing for the Green Party. She would be awesome and so deserves the opportunity

well I just don't really know what to feel.

7% of british people are regular church attenders
33% of schools are faith schools, making them exempt from the Equalities Act.

I wonder how long education secretaries will be able to be perfectly happy with religious discrimination in education?

Quite, IceBeing.

I think Mr Hunt won that round on MN really. Imvho.

And considering his answers that's a depressing thought.

IceBeing asked good questions about discrimination. Pity NickyMorgan didn't see fit to respond.

Well, at least she made Tristram Hunt's web chat yesterday look good!

I'm really annoyed I missed yesterday's webchat and couldn't ask Tristam the same questions.

I doubt the answers would be much different to be honest.

Part of the westminster privilege bubble.

Education is one of the most important issues for me in the upcoming election as it is for many parents. This is the first time I have taken part in a Mumsnet discussion of any sort.

Nicky didn't answer my question. Maybe it was too long but I suspect it is because there is nothing she can say as Tory policies are set and they obviously don't trust parents, and think they own our children.
However thanks Nicky and Mumsnetters. Some of the questions were great. This was a really interesting discussion but as I felt very few of the questions were answered with anything other than excuses it hasn't given me much hope that voters' views are actually being considered and that things will improve under the Tories should they be in Government again. The government need to look closely at countries like Finland, the system there works, with much less testing, more learning through play, less hours and more freedom.