Michael Gove - Conservative Shadow Schools and Families Minister - live on Mumsnet this Thursday 29th, 1-2pm

[JustineMumsnet]

Michael Gove is the shadow secretary of state for children, schools and families and a key part of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet team, responsible for Conservative policy on education and child protection. He is the Tory candidate in Surrey Heath.One of the centrepiece's of the Conservatives election manifesto is allowing parents and other providers to set up schools with state funding, about which there's been lots of discussion on Mumsnet. Other pledges include 10,000 extra university places, allowing state schools to offer the International Baccalaureate and a moratorium on the closure of special schools.Born in Edinburgh in 1967 and brought up in Aberdeen. Before He's married to Times' writer Sarah Vine and they have a son and a daughter, both of primary school age.Please post advance questions for Michael here (and do please read our webchat guidelines if you're not already aware of them).Many thanks.

Re: Your proposal to enable parents to set up their own schools.

What are your plans regarding any negative impact on the nearest existing schools?

I've heard it said the new policy would force those nearby "unpopular" schools to "raise their game" - how would this be achieved?

If they're already vaguely unpopular, how would having a shiny new school nearby improve their chances of attracting pupils? Would the existing schools get any additional funding to compensate for loss of funding based on pupil numbers?

Mr Gove,

Your party has positioned itself as the party of 'the family' in its recent campaigning, and believes that "the relationships [families] foster are the bedrock on which society is built."

In his speech on 8th October 2009 David Cameron stated:
"If you want to raise a family, we?ll support you."

In the light of that quote, as Secretary of State for Families, please could you make clear your party's policy on the funding of IVF on the NHS for those people suffering from conditions leading to infertility and sub-fertility?

To echo a point made by singalongmumum above...

Is it true that you are proposing to allow nursery schools to charge 'top up fees' for free part time places for 3 and 4 year olds?

Without a free nursery entitlement that is genuinely FREE, hundreds of thousands of mums like me will find that it makes not financial sense to go back to work. And many 3 and 4 year olds from less well off background will be denied the chance to learn and play in nursery.

The papers say that you are thinking of doing this because you have been lobbied by nurseries who want to charge more than government currently pays. But many get on just fine on government rates so that sounds to me like provider capture at its worst. If you are serious about supporting families, and about improving social mobility please show us by pledging to protect the free nursery entitlement.

I'd like to add to Slug's post

I am not questioning your faith, but I do know you and Mr Cameron send your children to a very sought-after CofE school which happens to be nowhere near Mr Cameron's house.I don't know where you live but I'd be very interested to know if it is the closest school to your house and if not, why you feel it is applicable in 21st-century Britain for families who profess a faith to have access to a superior system than those who do not.

Thank you

Can you comment on the conservative policy to CUT free nursery places and places for 3 year olds?? This is a crucial piece of policy that seems to have slid past the majority of the mumsnet public.

Dear Michael, I think you may by now have realised that the idea of setting up one's own school is a no-no, no matter how loud Toby Young shouts in your ear about it. I am a school governor (umpteen hours a year, terrifically unsociable hours, very complex, legally liable - unpaid!!) and would be unwilling to even contemplate such a thing. How much less someone who has never tangled with the system? It's a typical patchwork borrow-from-here-borrow-from-there, don't-do any-of-it-properly British political solution. Give up the pseudo big ideas and just run stuff properly.
Also, I think all MPs should have to use the services that they are ultimately responsible for, that means your local state school...Maybe that would mean real improvement.

Mr Grove,

How are you going to fund those extra 10,000 university places for 2010? Oh, and the 100,000 college places over two years?

Didn't see any calculations in the manifesto ...

Hello Michael.

I teach MFL and have seen it sidelined enormously in the last few years since this government decided to allow schools to opt out of it as a compulsory KS4 subject. Do you have any plans to remedy this situation?

Thank you.

How on earth do you expect me to find the time and expertise to set up a school if I don't think my children are being educated properly?

Frankly it's as much as I can do to make a cake for the fete.

The idea of sitting on endless committees in endless meetings, trying to decipher endless paperwork makes me despair and I am one of your overeducated Mumsnetters.

It's really not the answer to our education system.

Will be keeping my beady eyes open for Mr Gove's response to smugmumofboys. State pupils are being put at a disadvantage because the majority of schools have dropped languages at GCSE.

here

and here

and with a google search, you can find something similar in that odious the daily mail.

Yes, state school pupils are being put at a disadvantage in the university application system in lots of subtle ways. No foreign langs, media studies instead of English, lower level science courses,diplomas 'worth' so many GCSEs,

Many top universities ask for a MFL at GCSE before they will even consider an applicant. So many pupils are ruled out of applying for certain courses (before they may even know they want to study Medicine/Law or another highly over subscribed course) because of the school they attend (and remember most people cannot afford to pay fees or live in a grammar school area.)

and following on from smugmumofboys MFL at secondary level issues, do you have any workable plans to resolve the amateurish and piecemeal provision of KS2 MFL? Are you prepared to commit funds to enable all primary schools to employ peripatetic qualified MFL teachers, instead of using non-specialists a few pages ahead in the textbook?

Do you think British Sign Language should be added to The National Curriculum as a language option for students??

Hello Mr Gove.

Please can you state the Conservative policy on allocation of school places to multiple birth children i.e. can you confirm that the Conservatives will not enact a policy that means that multiple birth siblings will be allocated places in different schools? Having multiple birth siblings in different schools is impossible for parents logistically (how can you do 2 school runs in different places at the same time) and research has shown that it can cause long term damaging effects on the children themselves.

This allocation of places in different schools to twins, triplets and higher order multiples has happened under the current government. After a campaign by TAMBA (Twins and Multiple Births Association) on behalf of multiple birth families, and an investigation by the Schools Adjudicator, Ed Balls has confirmed that a change to the primary school admissions code will be made so that multiple birth siblings will not be split across different schools, even where this means an exception has to be made to the class size rule to enable all multiple birth siblings to be given a place at the same school. He has also indicated that primary schools and local authorities should already be taking this indication into account in allocations. Please confirm that the conservatives if elected will honour this pledge and the School Adjudicator's recommendations.

In addition, once school places are allocated, please confirm that a Tory government would support parents of multiple birth children (and the children themselves) being allowed to choose whether their children are split into separate classes or remain together at school. At present some schools enforce a policy either always to separate multiple birth siblings or always to keep them together, even where this may not be in the interests of the individual children concerned. TAMBA and its members have campaigned for each family's needs in this respect to be dealt with on an individual basis.

A further issue for parents with multiple birth children is that many experience an inequality of access to services. For instance, getting onto public transport such as buses is more difficult and sometimes impossible with a double or triple buggy. Allocation of places in playgroups and pre-schools, and finding sufficient childcare places, are issues. Swimming is also very problematic meaning that these children are denied access to learning a life skill whigh is very important (especially if like us you live in a town with 3 rivers and a canal so there is open water all around).

I look forward to hearing your policies on these issues.

sorry just seen how long my question ended up, apologies Mumsnet as realise it should be brief

Mr Gove,
The first crisis you will have in education, assuming you are given the appropriate role to dow ith education, is that of the SATs boycott, the week after the election.
The DCSF, via Ed Balls have put out a wholely unacceptable document that effectively just drops the problem in the laps of the school governors, without giving clear direction. The outcome is likely to be a shambles the week after the election.
What do you intend to do if the conservatives are elected to resolve this before SATs week starts?

Hi Michael,

Both the Guardian and Independent have had articles recently about the conspicuous absence of women MPs on the election trail and I wanted to know why the Tories have so few female MPs. Aren't you just cosying up to the women vote by appearing on Mumsnet, without actually walking the walk and including more women candidates so we're more equally represented in parliament.

Hello Mr Gove, thank you for coming to answer our questions

My oldest child is in Y6 and therefore taking SATS in a couple of weeks. He has been doing revision work since Christmas and since the Easter holidays has been doing 3 practice papers a day and 2 more pieces of homework each night. This is because the school have been put under huge pressure to raise their standing in the league tables i.e. this is nothing to do with the children themselves (indeed, all our local secondary schools completely ignore the SATS results and retest the children as soon as they arrive). Please tell me that a Conservative Govt would address this issue and make the final year of primary school as fun, engaging and downright interesting as it used to be.

Free schools sound like a very dodgy idea to me. If you don't like the state system then you should pay for an alternative. Public resources should be spent on making the state system the best it can be and making it open to everyone ( comprehensive in fact). Free schools reek of people trying to set up little clubs full of 'people like us' ( or as D Cameron says 'people who do the right thing'). How on earth are we meant to encourage diversity and mobility if this drawbridge building mentality is going on?

As for faith schools ? Again,if you want it - pay for it but don't expect the taxpayer to fund it.

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Following on from David Cameron's encounter with Mr Bartley, the father with a special needs child the other day - could you please confirm or deny (and make very very clear) what the Tory position is on inclusion of special needs students in mainstream school.

As was made very clear by that encounter and the manifesto, the Tories are more biased towards special needs school and exclusion. DC wanted Ivan to be in Special Needs education and it seems presumed that others do also.

Would you please clarify the position. Many many many parents do not want their children excluded from mainstream school and there to exist a culture of bias towards exclusion (which eventually leads there to be prejudice in mainstream schools and hence reinforcing the exclusion from mainstream), and many many parents want the important and valuable work that has begun with inclusion to continue.

Will the Tories continue to provide funding for inclusion into mainstream schools at the current levels?

Is there a cultural bias in the Tories of exclusion to special schools?

Also - would you like to comment on bigot-gate.

Would you say the lady in question was a bigot?

If Nick Griffin uttered the words about flocks of immigrants, would you consider him to be a bigot, or just a 'normal middle aged man'?

Please detail why you think more faith schools is a good thing? Captin Nancy's question

Why more faith schools? What happens when you don't do faith and don't want to do faith but want a good education for child?

Actually IvyKate has a point. Why do we think that an education based on something unprovable is inherently 'better' than one where the basis is logic and science?

welcome to Mumsnet Mr Gove (why am I feeling the need to call you that instead of Michael? Does this happen a lot?)