School Places
Many local parents will have experienced the distress in recent years of failing to get their child into the school of their choice.
A growing population in the constituency, especially in the city (often driven by more and more housing development) will only add to the pressure on school places meaning a radical new plan is needed. Conservative leader David Cameron and Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove, have outlined plans to open up the system to provide all parents with the sort of choice currently only enjoyed by the rich.
The party has looked to Sweden which has introduced a new system that has allowed the creation of many new high quality state schools that are independent from political control.
Prospective MP for the new Winchester & Chandler’s Ford constituency, Steve Brine, says the proposals will be very welcome locally. “The education of our children is one of the most important things we do and I am regularly in contact with parents for whom the current system is just not working. If we win the election we will institute a long-term programme to dramatically increase the number of good school places within the state system in order that we can meet the demand from every parent who lost their appeal for their first choice school.”
“We will allow good schools to expand, and we have many here in Winchester including Kings School which recently received the highest possible Ofsted mark and Thornden in Chandler’s Ford which regularly tops the league tables in many ways. But we will also allow educational charities, philanthropists, existing school federations, not-for-profit trusts, co-operatives and groups of parents to set up new schools in the state sector and access equivalent public funding to existing state schools.”
More information ...
Download the Conservative draft Education Manifesto here.
A great amount of detail surrounding Conservative plans for education can be found in a policy paper called Raising the bar, closing the gap. It can be downloaded in ful (as a PDF file) here.
Pictured above; Steve Brine with Shadow Schools Secretary, Michael Gove MP.
