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Give Michael Gove 100% and an A*

Kate Hoey heaps praise on Education Secretary Michael Gove.

By Kate Hoey

5 Oct 2011, 20:00

I was very proud to see Greg Martin the Head of Durand Academy in my constituency addressing the Conservative Party conference this week.  Greg took over Durand primary in Stockwell when it was a failing school. He set out with a vision of what could be achieved and he has succeeded despite all the difficulties he faced over the years from a local authority - Lambeth - who did everything possible they could to thwart and denigrate him.

I have a file at least 3 foot high in my office which chronicles all the ups and downs. The battle with Lambeth was always over who made the decisions about how best to improve the school.   Having had to opt back in to local authority control following the Labour Government changes, the school still retained some extra power to run themselves missing from other primaries.

That benefit enabled them to use their funds wisely and create  facilities which are used by local people when the school is not needing them.  An excellent swimming pool, a multi use sports area and gym equipment are in constant use.  Greg was passionate about the quality of teaching and fell foul  of the local authority when he challenged the Lambeth policy that no trainee teacher ever failed.

Durand were not prepared to have failing teachers arguing that not only was it bad for the children but not sensible for a young person to be allowed to continue in teaching if they were not up  to the job.  Lambeth hated this - and so did the local NUT. Time after time they tried to use the tribunal method of attacking the school and time after time they would eventually lose in court.

Some local Councillors over the years were supportive of the school and some weren't but even the supportive ones found that the culture within the education department and under its former Head of Education, Phyllis Dunipace (now advising schools on whether or not to become Academies) was such that truth didn't matter - Durand was to be seen as a pariah school.

Throughout all  this the school functioned as a peaceful haven with excellent results in a learning environment that celebrated academic excellence for all. Other schools too in Vauxhall-like Archbishops Sumner  had excellent results showing that leadership mattered and one size doesn't fit all.

The problem was that bright motivated 11 year olds would  leave Durand and a few years later would have lost their motivation and their confidence that they could achieve.  Something happened to them when they went on to secondary education.

In Tony Blair's  book The Journey he referred to the Achilles Heel of the State School system, secondary schools in the cities, and (2) to wanting to swap the extraordinarily debilitating and often politically correct interference from state or municipality in favour of (wait for it) something shaped not by political prejudice but by simple commons sense:  what will make the school excellent?  He left office with the revolution in secondary standards underway but incomplete. Much of what Michael Gove is doing is very much in that tradition.

So the idea of becoming a middle school - allowing the children to stay in Durand until 13 and then offering a Monday to Friday boarding element was drawn up.  With the funds they had the school  aquired an empty former private school in Sussex.  As did then Labour Ministers, Michael Gove visited the school long before he was in Government, and he realised that this was an opportunity to break the cycle of deprivation . With his support the school drew up its plans and a few months ago were given permission from Government to go ahead.  So now the children will have an all through education from nursery to University.  The advantages of weekly boarding are many - lots of quality time for homework, school sports and arts activities just for starters. Many of the children live in over crowded homes and the Mums and Dads have been enthusiastic.   No longer that dreadful filling in of forms for the lucky dip allocation to a secondary school.  Certainty of a brilliant education is there from the age of 4.

As a former Grammar school girl - I experienced a wonderful education, and I want all children to have that privilege, not just a few.  The right to be stretched and motivated. What name the school is called is irrelevant - it is the leadership, quality of the teaching and the belief that every child really matters which counts. It is taking away the power of a local authority to impose its idea of what is good and giving it to the school that has allowed Durand to flourish.   But that kind of motivation and belief has to be right at the top of the education system and that is where Michael Gove gets a 100 per cent mark.

I think the Labour Party should be delighted that a Government full of millionaires and privately educated people is listening to and acting on what inspirational Heads like Greg Martin say.  Education should be a national crusade. It need not be Party Political.  That is why  Michael Gove should be supported. As Nelson Mandela said "it was not the lack of ability that limited my people, but the lack of opportunity".