Like 93 per cent of children today, I was fortunate to have a good state education under the stewardship of dedicated teachers and developed a thirst for knowledge instilled with an ethos to have an inquiring mind.
It is this which has shaped my perspective and caused me to have unease that because parents have means, they can purchase the privilege that the small classes that the independent sector may provide, widening inequalities.
Labour is monetarising this by charging VAT at 20 per cent on such advantage. Choice has to work for all, or it is no choice at all. But choice clearly doesn’t happen with a segregated education system, further, I truly assign that the state can provide the very best to all. It’s what makes me a socialist.
So Labour’s policy works, that is, until we examine who was attending the independent schools in York. I believe that the policy should be phased, it could be introduced prematurely, as the state is under-resourced, and for now, there needs to be a more nuanced approach.
I have met with the school heads and leaders across the four independent schools in the city – St Peter’s School, Bootham School, the Mount School and York Steiner School. All so different. Besides other issues, it is the story of children with SEND, anxiety and mental health challenges, and children who have care experience that have really stuck out. I have met with the parents too.
This has become particularly pertinent as hostile behaviour policies combined with the complexities of Covid lockdowns, has caused a generation of young people to struggle even more with this approach. We know parents desperately try to get specialist support and battle for Education Health and Care Plans. Children are struggling, and unless we understand and nurture and care and support and transition to a different pedagogy, then they will not learn if they do not feel safe.
Busy schools, bustling corridors and suppressive ideology dictated by the last Government, where detentions are handed out for the most minor of misdemeanours, has resulted in parents witnessing their children melting down at night and stressed over the weekends. In the need to do something, parents have found the therapeutic, nurturing pedagogy adopted by the Quaker and Steiner education traditions better suited to their child’s needs.
Not just here, but well recognised overseas too. So for those that can, parents out of necessity not choice, have found their way to the independent sector, scraping together what they can, one working three minimum wage jobs, to enable their child to access education. Better than being at home and isolated.
This is why I have met with three Government ministers to plead their cause, and that of all children who struggle in their educational environment. That is why I have engaged with parents, and students, who have told me their story, and while funding places have come at great financial challenge and sacrifice, it is worth it to see their child flourish again. I validate their stories. I recognise the inequality that this creates. I acknowledge that an under resourced system formed from the 2014 Children and Families Act has worsened the challenge. I condemn those schools which rather than admitting the problem has sought to blame parents and children alike.
In visiting schools in Sweden, I saw how parents were brought into the heart of schools, resolving challenges, not pushed away as some are here. Together, co-producing the very best outcomes for their children. How psychologists, counsellors, physios, OTs and speech therapists worked in an integrated way with parents, students, teachers and support staff and how the system rather than isolating, integrates, building an inclusive approach for all children.
From my many exchanges with York’s Director of Children Services, I have confidence that if Government gave the resources and governance powers, we could build an inclusive learning environment.
As my recent visit to Applefields School, a specialist school for children with significant support needs, showed, there is no reason why the state cannot deliver excellence, given the opportunity.
So Government must listen to ensure that we transition with care, placing every child at the heart of a nurturing and therapeutic environment. This is their future, and it is time that we properly invest in it.
