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Political matters
Labour’s vision for education
Tristram Hunt, Shadow Secretary of State for
Education, says raising the standard of teaching will
be a Labour Government’s first priority in education
We are deeply grateful for
all the work that FASNA does
so effectively in campaigning
for freedom and autonomy in
our schools. Its diligence in
understanding the importance of
autonomy is second to none
Whether it be William Lovett’s
Chartist Schools, R.H Tawney
and the Workers Educational
Association, Anthony Crosland and
the Comprehensive Movement,
or Andrew Adonis’s Sponsored
Academy Programme; the belief in the
emancipatory power of schooling, its
ability to lift people out of poverty and
deliver social justice, has always been core
to the Labour movement.
And whilst the means and expression
of those values may have changed over
the decades, our end – of equipping
our young citizens with the freedom to
choose how best to live their life – has
remained constant.
Equally enduring is our commitment
to empowering schools with the
autonomy and freedom needed to
innovate and raise standards.
From David Blunkett ‘passporting’
school funding down to school level in
1997, to the code of practice for local
authority and school relations in 1998
and the dedicated schools grant in 2006,
our record in government when it comes
to giving outstanding school leaders
operational independence, is one of
which we are immensely proud.
Moreover, we are, of course, the
party that first created academies with
our revolutionary Sponsored Academy
Programme.
There can be little argument against
the importance of school autonomy when
you see the transformative effect of that
programme on challenging areas such as
Hackney, Manchester and parts of Bristol.
Of course strong leadership, school
34 | Summer 2014