Letter of the week: In the spirit of collaboration

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It was refreshing to read the rebuttal of Tory pearl-clutching over Bridget Phillipson’s modest school reforms (Cover Story, 20 February). Far from being “the most dangerous education secretary in living memory”, she is restoring balance so state schools work for every child.

After the Blair and Brown reforms, attainment gaps for low-income and minority pupils improved into the 2010s. That progress later stalled, despite claims Michael Gove’s reforms were an unqualified success. As a senior civil servant in the DfE at the time, it seemed to me the academies programme was driven by a want to weaken unions and local authorities.

In Lewisham, we took a different path: all schools, including academies, and the local authority working together for an inclusive local comprehensive system. The result? The Institute for Government reported last year that Lewisham’s secondary schools have made the fastest progress in England since 2019. That collaborative approach – schools that work for all – is what Phillipson wants nationally.
Councillor Chris Barnham, Lewisham cabinet member for children’s services, 2018-25

Post-Gove reforms

Pippa Bailey concludes that “if Phillipson can also drive through sustainable Send reform and reduce the attainment gap, she will have achieved more than any education secretary since Gove” (Cover Story, 20 February). However, given Gove’s problematic educational legacy, including the lack of convincing evidence of the success of his structural reforms in raising attainment, Bailey’s comparison is misplaced. If Bridget Phillipson were to achieve those changes, she would have achieved far more than any education secretary including Gove. She may still.
Colin Richards, Spark Bridge, Cumbria

Pippa Bailey’s feature on Bridget Phillipson explored the seeming contradiction between her “quiet radicalism” and her “modest” reforms. It is to Phillipson’s credit that she has managed to combine system change with pragmatic management skills. The scrapping of the English baccalaureate and further changes to accountability will be transformational. The right is frightened of Phillipson because she’s so effective. Elements of the left, while understandably wanting more, will increasingly value her clever and nuanced approach to the sector.
Chris Harris, media and publications coordinator, Fabian Education

There is just one flaw in Pippa Bailey’s otherwise excellent article about Bridget Phillipson. Implementing strategies to raise achievement are to be applauded, but without addressing the fundamental question of whether the yardsticks used to assess this achievement are appropriate for 2026, very little will change. The prevailing emphasis on GCSE English and mathematics suggests they are important measures of literacy and numeracy. But maths GCSE is not really about arithmetic, and Gove removed speaking and listening from English assessment, despite employers consistently stressing their value. What will raise achievement and reduce disengagement is a curriculum and teaching that embrace many more “intelligences” such as creative and interpersonal, and methods of assessment that place a value on them. We need school leaders to prepare young people for the world they are part of. We must not continue to allow outdated yardsticks to define so many young people as failures and waste their talent and ability.
Roger White, Bristol

Your cover feature on Bridget Phillipson was an interesting insight into the Education Secretary’s motivations, but risks giving readers a misleading picture. While attainment in England was affected by the pandemic, international evidence points to a more nuanced picture, with performance strengthening in the decade prior to Covid and proving comparatively resilient amid wider international decline. Any assessment of system performance should reflect both disruption and longer-term progress. The cancellation of the proposed Eton Star free school in Middlesbrough was presented as a sacrifice on the altar of Send pupils. It failed to mention that the same announcement approved two Eton Star free schools in Dudley and Oldham. It seems Eton Star Middlesbrough was sacrificed for local political expediency, rather than supporting children with Send – and its cancellation has denied pupils a potentially life-changing education.
Meg Powell-Chandler, director, New Schools Network

With Katharine Birbalsingh deriding her as a “Marxist” and the Mail calling her “the most dangerous education secretary in living memory”, Bridget Phillipson must be doing something right. I was a Send governor for nearly 20 years and one of my daughters is an educational psychologist, so I’m familiar with the present pressures. There is evidence that there is a “rationing” of support, and consequentially unmet need, in poorer regions. Reducing poverty may thus reduce the need for EHCPs and opportunities for “providers… who see vulnerable children as a means to a profit”. Meanwhile, Phillipson, if she manages to democratise education, could have a far more beneficial effect on it than Gove.
David Murray, Wallington, Surrey

Dunn Appreciation Society

Everybody seems to be thirsting over Will Dunn recently and I cannot help but join the choir. His clear-sighted and witty review of the parliamentary debate on Russia’s influence on British politics (The Sketch, 20 February) not only provided valuable insight into how Russian intelligence services operate, but also made me chuckle on the Jubilee Line. Few can do it like he can.
Vera F Gaal, North Greenwich

Based on what?

Ethan Croft suggests various reasons why “Based Labour” is struggling for influence (Inside Westminster, 20 February). Could there be another reason: that rather than drawing on Labour traditions, this group peddles the same anti-planning ideas that were adopted by the last government and singularly failed to get the country building?

The postwar Labour governments had an impressive record of building homes. They used the planning system as an instrument to achieve better outcomes. Rather than looking to Tufton Street, Britain Remade and other right-wing anti-planning lobbyists, this government should draw on this tradition.

But tackling the housing crisis and upgrading our ageing infrastructure will take more than planning reform. Solutions including lowering land values, improving skills, securing supply chains, achieving public consent, showing genuine gains for nature and much more. The real trouble with Based Labour is that it had one simple, free-market solution – sweep away planning – to a set of complex problems.
Shaun Spiers, Rochester, Kent

Yarmouth the Great

It was a surreal moment when I read the name Great Yarmouth in the first line of the Editor’s Note (20 February). I have lived in Great Yarmouth for the majority of my life. I am glad Tom has grown fond of it, but the epithet “down-at-heel” made me wince. Its residents may moan, but we will still defend it. Great Yarmouth has a first-class museum and a historically significant theatre. Perhaps it is more down-to-Earth than some of its “posh” seaside neighbours, but it has grit and a can-do attitude. So, less of the pathos, more of its seaside fun.
Judith A Daniels, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Generational divide

Thanks to Rachel Cunliffe (Future Perfect, 13 February) for shedding light on the double standards of the ruling generation in their treatment of graduates. As a head of sixth form, it concerns me that there does not seem to be a genuine discussion in Westminster on who should go to university, why they should go and how to pay for it. I would go one step further than Rachel, who says there is a “real dearth of economic understanding”, and add a lack of educational and social understanding, too.
Paul Aitchison, Manchester

Happy returns

I used to be a subscriber to your magazine, however as time went by I stopped reading. One day I was in my local newsagent, saw the New Statesman on sale and decided to buy it. I was surprised to find the magazine has been rejuvenated. I now look forward to buying it every Thursday.
Lee Bampkin, Northampton

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