Time to Act – An Education Bill for the new Parliament

Over the last year the SEA together with our partners in the Reclaiming Education Alliance has been promoting seven key principles that we think should be at the heart of a new government’s education policies. We believe that they all need to be implemented if we are to build a school system that promotes high standards, fairness and equality across the country. As we approach the election, we have developed our ideas about how the principles can be put into practice.

To this end we have prepared a draft Education Bill which we will be presenting for debate at an open meeting at the House of Commons on 25^th February and publicising widely thereafter. The new bill will:

• Broaden the National Curriculum to include promoting the emotional well-being of young people;
• Establish a fully comprehensive system by ending selection by ability or aptitude;
• Prevent schools from manipulating the admissions system so as to get themselves a more favourable intake;
• Ensure that there is no discrimination against young people of any kind – those who have special educational needs or disabilities, those who have different ethnic or social backgrounds or because of their gender or sexual orientation.
• Establish a common funding system that applies equally to all kinds of school and meets the needs of all young people;
• Promote co-operation between schools rather than competition;
• Require inspections to be supportive and to promote improvement rather than being essentially punitive as is the case currently;
• Ensure that all teachers have qualified status and engage in regular continuing professional development.
• Return all academies to maintained status so that these proposals apply to all schools. All schools should have the same rights and responsibilities and the same level of autonomy.

We intend to promote these ideas as widely as possible in the hope of influencing positively the policies that will be followed over the next few years.

So we are asking all our supporters to join in the debate on Wednesday 25^th February at 7pm in Committee Room 12, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.

You can download the papers for the meeting from here

If you have not already booked your place, please do so now atcontact@reclaimingeducation.org.uk with your name(s) and contact details.