How has it already been over a week since Labour’s Keir Starmer won the general election and was appointed as the Prime Minister?
So much has happened already in this short space of time; Bridget Phillipson was announced as the new Secretary of State for Education, and plans to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers are (apparently) already under way.
As The Voice, Glue, and Bridge of North East schools, we seized the opportunity to write a formal letter to the new Prime Minister, on behalf of all schools in our region’s network.
As outlined in the beginning of the letter, recruiting 6,500 new teachers as part of Labour’s first steps for change is encouraging, as the decision recognises that the key to improving educational opportunities is recruiting the best staff.
However, the challenges facing schools in our region are not restricted to the crisis in recruitment and retention.
We wanted to welcome Starmer into his new position, but more critically than that, we wanted to ensure that he was made aware of every challenge that North East schools are up against – not just the ones we’ve seen in recent headlines.
Our manifesto must be utilised if we want to see long-lasting change
In the run-up to the general election, we published our 2024 Manifesto for North East Education.
Despite the previous emphasis placed by all political parties on the importance of education, policy proposals failed to properly reflect the concerns of North East school leaders and staff at the chalk face.
We wanted to make certain that the new Prime Minister sees our manifesto for what it is: a call to action for policymakers to take seriously the range of contextual challenges facing schools in our region, especially the impact of long-term deprivation.
By the end of KS4, students from disadvantaged backgrounds were 18.1 months behind their peers in 2019. In 2022, this had risen to 18.8 months. The gap has increased at all stages of education, with children from disadvantaged backgrounds 4.8 months behind their peers before starting school.
There needs to be a genuine sense of urgency to begin comprehensive efforts to address these issues within the next parliament.
In our letter to Keir Starmer, we refer to the new Education Secretary’s own letter to the education workforce.
We’re sure we can’t be alone in calling it ‘promising’, and we wholeheartedly welcome Bridget Phillipson’s ambition to reset the relationship between government and the education sector. At Schools North East, we’ve been extremely vocal in advocating for this, amplifying the voice of our network at every level.
But we know she can’t do it alone, which is why we’ve urged the Prime Minister to support her to the fullest in that ambition. Central to our manifesto was the necessity of establishing a period of stability for schools, and a ‘de-pressurising’ of the education system.
As Ms Phillipson develops her plans for education, it’s crucial that the government as a whole does not lose sight of the need to focus on how best to support and protect our school leaders, staff, and students. Achieving this requires recognition of their perennial contextual challenges, as well as the principles and recommendations, set out in our manifesto.
The regional challenges are not limited to long-term deprivation, nor are issues spread evenly across the North East. An incoming government must map and recognise ‘hidden’ poverty, as in rural or isolated areas, where access to services, transport links, and other opportunities are sparse.
Sometimes all we need is a fresh start
We look forward to working closely with the government to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all children, especially in our most disadvantaged areas.
We sincerely hope that Keir Starmer absorbs every word in our recent letter to him. He must take advantage of our ongoing strategic voice, as well as the key recommendations outlined in our 2024 Manifesto for North East Education.
Schools North East – the first and only school-led regional network in the UK – has provided the necessary tools to help him support a thriving education sector in the North East and beyond.
