Under the Conservatives, education standards have risen to be among the best in the western world. The Labour candidate has opposed Academies and Free Schools, opposes the selective education offered at grammar schools and wants to tax private schools to reduce choice for children and parents locally. Labour’s policies have reduced educational standards in Wales - don’t let this happen in here too. Conservative success in schools has been built on increasing parental choice, support for disadvantaged students through the introduction of the pupil premium payments and reforms encouraging schools to focus solely on education.
As the MP for Eltham and Chislehurst Charlie will campaign to allow more students to attend the best schools, increase the number of teachers and improve the ways students can hold universities accountable.
Eltham and Chislehurst voters choice at the election
The Conservative governments' record of success in England was made clear in December 2023 it was announced that English schools and teachers had achieved their best ever ranking in maths: 11th in the world, up from 27th in 2009 in the OECD’s Programme of International Student Assessment (Pisa). In comparison Labour-run Wales and SNP-run Scotland fallen further down the league tables reflecting the damage their political agenda has done to those nations.
Headline above is from The Economist magazine in July 2023.
Underpinning this success is a clear focus on allowing parents and students to choose what sort of school they wish to go and nowhere is this more obvious than south east London where Conservative governments have championed a range of excellent schools.
Academies
Nationally there were only 203 academies in May 2010 but in 2023 they made up more than 10,000 of the country’s 22,000 state schools. The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) states that “The growth in ‘multi-academy trusts’ (MATs) has allowed leaders to push up quality and standards for children across multiple schools at once, by allowing resources and expertise to be pooled.”
South East London students have benefitted from the higher educational standards that academies and the trusts that support many of them bring. This rise in standards can be seen in many places from the transition of Eltham Green School to Harris Academy Greenwich (rated outstanding by Ofsted) or John Roan School joining the United Learning Trust in order to improve standards.
However, Eltham’s MP Clive Efford consistently opposed schools converting to academies most recently with John Roan (despite the existing school being judged inadequate by Ofsted when the change was proposed).
Free Schools
Free schools have undoubtedly added to the educational choices for parents and students across London and in Greenwich the highly successful Ark Greenwich Free School is based on the edge of the constituency on Shooters Hill Road.
However, objections by Clive Efford MP and other local Labour Councillors led directly to the closure of the International Academy of Greenwich Free School as it was not allowed to find an appropriate site for the new school.
Ensuring choice for parents and students
In south east London parents and students have a wide range of choice for where they are educated. The recent options for academies and free schools have added to the grammar and private schools which already exist in our area. Under Labour these options will be reduced as private schools reduce in size and Clive Efford supports the end of grammar schools.
Under the Conservative government private schools have been encouraged to develop links with the state sector and increase bursaries for poorer students to give greater access to the excellent education on offer at many of these establishments. Examples of successful partnerships include the London Academy of Excellence (LAE) in East London is a partner institution of Eton College or Westminster School’s partnership with Harris Westminster Sixth Form both of which have become centres of educational excellence for state school Sixth Form students from across London, including Eltham and Chislehurst.
However, Labour’s policy of attacking private schools by increasing taxes on them will damage these partnerships and likely reduce the number of bursaries available in them for poorer students. Eltham’s MP Clive Efford backs the Labour Party’s attack on private school and has done so publicly in parliament. Mr Efford is also the Chair of the Tribune Group of MPs and recently published a pamphlet entitled “The Change we need” which included calls for to “end selective education and remove charitable status from private schools; properly fund the comprehensive education system;” (page 81-2)
But Mr Efford’s history of opposition to selection in schools is clear as he backed an anti-grammar school early day motion in Parliament in 2000.
Conservative success in schools has been built on increasing parental choice, support for disadvantaged students through the introduction of the pupil premium payments and reforms encouraging schools to focus solely on education. A vote for Clive Efford is a vote to end parents and students being able to choose their own schools, it is an end to selection (like grammar schools or the Sixth Form academies) and an attack on private schools which actually save the government money. We have seen in Wales how educational standards decline under Labour and if Labour win the election this will happen in England too.