The Labour Party: what their policies on education should be

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I am worried about the Labour Party. They still don’t seem to have many ideas about policies for education.

Would it help if we write some for them?

Here’s mine. Fix the leaks.

Bridget Philipson visits schools around the UK with leaking ceilings.

She talks to headteachers about their experiences of moving buckets around their classroom to catch the leaks.

She talks to ‘little Jimmy’, who likes to work and enjoys his lessons, but struggles to concentrate because of all the drips.

Labour write a policy into their manifesto to fix the drips in classrooms. The ‘Just Another Brick in the Wall’ campaign.

I agree with you. Education is massively important, powerful and changes lives. But there is so much wrong. I want to see experienced people at the top. I want to see understanding of reality. I want to see kids thrive and it isn't about plonking an assistant with a difficult kid. It's about understanding their lives, understanding what they need. Sometimes it's an arm on the shoulder, sometimes it's a big telling off, showing them you care. But education like a lot of things follows a tick box, procedural process. Kids aren't a procedure, they've human beings. Education is full of "guidance" and quite simply a load of "stuff" that doesn't work. What are Labour going to do? I really don't know.

Previous governments have improved outcomes for children and young people.

New Labour invested in Sure Start, improved workload conditions for teachers, improved recruitment and retention of teaching staff, literacy and numeracy hour etc.

This government also made radical changes quickly because Gove and Cameron spent many years as shadow Secretaries of State for education - they had a huge network who were informing their policies, so that they hit the ground running as soon as they got in.

Who is Bridget Philipson talking to? MAT heads? OFSTED? Initial teaching training? Subject associations. The unions, even?

None of Labour’s policies seem to be informed by any expertise at all. This wasn’t the case with Blair or Cameron.

Reduce primary curriculum by 10%. Gives us chance to breathe.

compel private schools to have ofsted in and do sats. Equality of opportunity right there. Easy.

boldly back teacher and head teachers! Say it loudly I trust my headteachers. Will make parents feel better and increase confidence.

yes fix roofs.

create units between several schools where the v anxious (secondary) and the tricky characters can go. Not prus. Not bad behaviour. Move specific kids into gcse English and maths and other skills, involving local businesss. At 13/14.

@PrimaryTeacher123 and @GoodStuffAnnie yes to all of that.
I'd like them to be really radical and overhaul Ofsted properly. I remember the days of local authorities and some excellent advisory teachers and inspectors who did far more for schools than Ofsted have.
And I'd put a speech therapist in every school and a SaLT assistant too. There's an underlying crisis of language processing difficulties in schools that has a terrible effect on children's life chances.