Got a question for the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan MP?

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to tell you that later this week Justine will be sitting down with Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan MP to ask her Mumsnet users’ questions.

If you have a question you'd like answering, you can post it below. Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be limited for time so please do keep questions as short as possible so we can ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

We'll be closing this thread at 5pm tomorrow, so please do get your questions in before that - and watch this space to hear the responses. If you'd like a reminder of the format you can see our interview with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves here.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Will you be accepting the independent STRB pay rise recommendation for next year and will it be fully funded?

Why do you believe teachers who work in England deserve lower salaries than those in Scotland or Wales?

You’ve been very slow off the mark with guidance over the belief-based extreme gender ideology being taught in primary schools and hidden from parents. Why?

In 2002 the number of childminders was well over 100,000. According to Government data for 2022, there are now around 28,000. Last year, 10% of childminding settings closed their doors permanently.

Where do the remaining experienced and independent childminders fit in with Government plans for Early Years and how will you support them to continue their work?

How does the DfE reconcile abandoning all public health measures with the huge sickness absence rates amongst both pupils and staff and the ongoing impact on families when kids are sick, their parents or other caregivers then get sick? Have you understood the effect on access to education for clinically vulnerable families as a result of this idiotic choice not to mitigate/install HEPA? - as set out in this statistics heavy twitter thread Vulnerable kids deserve proper access to education.

Hello Gillian

I have a SEN child who recently received an EHCP. It has taken 18 months. We were one of the ‘lucky’ families who got support from the school and health professionals together due to DC’s very obvious needs.

Since the need for an EHCP was agreed by our local authority the LA have been utterly obstructive, difficult, frustrating and utterly shambolic. I’m currently on my third month of unpaid leave, unable to both deal with the LA’s incompetence, look after my DC who has been unable to attend school, and hold down a job. I fear I will now lose my job and speaking to other parents (all women in my experience) this is far, far too commonplace.

So my question is, what are you going to do about this utterly unacceptable situation? I need to work. My child wants an education. Neither of those things are happening and I would like you to explain what you will do to help families like mine.

What measures do you intend to put in place (other than an increase in salary) to ensure that recruitment secures the best candidates and that having trained, those teachers stay in the profession for more than completing ECT years.

The National Tutoring Programme has been very successful, especially for Pupil Premium children. Why can’t it continue at 65%+ subsidy? 25% is too low for most schools to make it a feasible option from September onwards.

Why is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check always done the week after half-term? This further disadvantages children from disadvantaged backgrounds as that week off sets their confidence back when they don’t read at home. Why can’t it be conducted later on in June?

Why don’t children who receive Free School Meals get free swimming lessons? Swimming is a potentially life saving skill, not a hobby like gymnastics or karate.

I would also like you to know that the inner city primary school I work in is literally falling to pieces. It is not a pleasant environment for the children at all. The playground equipment has all fallen into disrepair with no money to make it safe for the children to play on again. There is no general TA support. There is no money for trips or visits. There’s no art, design and technology or practical science seasons. Only those children who cannot swim 25m get to go swimming in Year 6 as the cost is astronomical. Teachers have had to provide tombola prizes and fundraise to provide curriculum basics such as materials for a design and technology project. The school dinners are barely edible and that’s pretty much the only food these children get.

There is a lot of news about AI leading to big changes in the job market. The rate of progress means the world our current year R graduate into will be very different. Companies are already announcing planned job losses due to AI, but also new areas of opportunity.

What are your plans to ensure our children recieve an education that allows them to take advantage of the opportunities?

Why do SEN children have to fail before they get an EHCP? There are too many children who could've stayed in mainstream with timely support but are now too traumatised to do so.

What is your strategy to deal with the retention crisis?

Bursaries aren't working. People don't want to teach (for a variety of reasons). How are you going to combat this?

You're seeing a generation of parents wakening up to the crisis hitting their children's school. How are you going to improve the working conditions of those in the education sector and encourage people to want to teach?

1.Gillian, we have heard so many distressing stories about the pressures of OFSTED inspections. How do you respond to the many many stories that are coming through of the intolerable pressure schools staff are put under during inspections? What will you do to make this better and to hold OFSTED accountable?

2.What is the DfE doing to support the value of humanities and Arts education, because from this side it looks like you are attempting to diminish and undermine the provision of arts, literature, creative subjects and humanities in HE. Do you agree that artists , creative thinkers , critical thinkers, linguists, filmmakers, writers and historians have much of great value to offer the UK?

Why do you think that parents wouldn’t be able to understand an Ofsted judgement that wasn’t a single grade? They seem to be able to grasp many more complicated issues. I’m sure they would be able to comprehend more nuanced reports.

Could you set a sustainable 3 year budget when you work to the tightest of margins and have no control over your income or biggest expenses?

GCSE specifications will soon be due for renewal. The last subject criteria underpinning courses were largely driven by Gove's agenda and his very personal interest in history and tradition. So much so, for example, that a GCSE in English Language involves reading nineteenth-century non fiction about various historical topics (medicine, nineteenth century schooling, employment, letters from wars etc) that would not otherwise be selected as 'literary' worthwhile texts for this subject to interest, read and challenge students of this age. So much of this learning is genuinely of little use or interest to the vast majority of 14-16 year olds.

• How are you going to address the update to these qualifications to consider providing a relevant and useful curriculum for those who are in the less academic end of the national cohort but still have lots to offer?
• How can you enable them to choose subjects and assessment methods that enable them to succeed? Much of what is on offer is not serving that cohort well and they are struggling through courses that are not only dull, but also yield them very little by the end of their secondary education since assessment is via written exam. What a waste of time and how disillusioning this must be for them! How can their different practical skills perhaps be rewarded? (I note the new T levels, for example, are being delayed again...)

How do you expect schools to maintain consistent, or any, attendance from suicidal children who don't meet a CAMHS threshold for treatment, still less teach them anything?

There is an ongoing commitment to train 203 educational psychologists per year (this has recently been increased from 160, which is great). Last year, 1103 people applied for those 203 training places.

However, local authority EPs are leaving public service in their droves, partly due to a significant real terms pay decrease over the past decade. We are still waiting on the outcome of our September 2022 pay negotiations.

Educational psychologists are needed now probably more than ever due to the fall out from the pandemic and worsening mental health in our children and young people.

a) Can you make a commitment to increasing the number of training places from 203? If so, when?
b) What can be done about our pay? It seems that unlike clinical psychologists, EPs have been left behind in pay negotiations.

I'm a TA in KS1 and KS2. My salary is pro-rata and by the time you calculate it out, I earn around £9 an hour. Today l have:

• carried out SEND intervention tasks with eight children

• carried out SALT intervention tasks with six children

• carried out small group reading interventions

• carried out small group maths interventions

• done pre-teaching work with some lower ability pupils ahead of new maths concepts being introduced to the class tomorrow

• dealt with a behaviour incident where a pupil bit another pupil

• cleaned up a child who vomited on themself

• repeated an English lesson with a group of lower ability pupils who did not understand or meet the lesson objective in order to help them achieve it

• gave first aid to three children

• gave medication to two children

• prepped 30 pieces of equipment for an IT lesson, set them up then afterwards packed them away and took them back to the resources room

• obtained Learner Views from four children having EHCP reviews soon

• taught a history lesson when the teacher had to step out to deal with an emergency

• prepped 30+ exercise books for tomorrow, putting in the learning objectives and copies of worksheets

• did workbook corrections with 20+ children to put right errors in their work

• carried out CEW practice with my phonics group

• carried out reciprocal reading with my reading group

• attended a staff meeting after work (unpaid)

Why aren't we paid, or appreciated, more?

What experience of working in education did you have prior to taking this role?

What do you think are the main problems facing schools in deprived areas right now and how do you propose to resolve them?

Why is this government so keen to push read, write inc as the best method for teaching phonics when the data doesn't back this up?

Oooh! I know I know I know!

It's because the founder and CEO of the company who produced Read Write Inc is a long-time advisor of the Conservative party and has been the beneficiary of various contracts and finding awards that are totally unrelated to her being their friend and supporter.

Totally. Unrelated.

What will happen to the many schools facing deficit budgets?

How long do you think the state system can continue to do everything you expect it to without enough money?

Hello Gillian,

I'd like to know what you're going to do about the TRA, as it's clearly currently unfit for purpose. There are so many education professionals who've dedicated their lives to this profession, yet they have not received a fair hearing as the agenda has apparently already been set. Vital evidence is not being either requested, heard or taken into account and witnesses are being allowed to fabricate evidence without it being questioned. This is a national scandal for the profession and you seriously need to act quickly on this, before you have more blood on your hands as well as poor Ruth Kelly!

When is the guidance for schools on dealing with children who have delusional beliefs about changing identity coming out?