Education cuts and controversies to watch this year

Good morning. I’m your “pretend Stephen” this morning while he takes his well-earned break. So it falls to me to wish you an enjoyable time seeing in 2025 later. (The Inside Politics New Year’s Day edition, by Northern correspondent Jen Williams, will arrive at the later hour of 11am tomorrow).

I’ll raise my glass to all this newsletter’s readers, wherever you’re spending it: under the duvet with a biography of an obscure opposition leader, carousing somewhere, or having a late-night gong bath on a retreat for politics addicts. Meanwhile, class, sit up straight and everybody focus . . .

Edyukashunul opportunities — and threats

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is emerging as one of the ministers most likely to court controversy over the coming months — and this in contrast to a slightly reticent approach in opposition. She’s softly spoken, but may turn out to be more radical in terms of policy than many expected — and indeed to relish a fight. A case of “do not underestimate the determination of a quiet woman” to paraphrase the lowest moment of Iain Duncan Smith’s career? We’ll see.

The new year begins with private schools across the UK screaming blue murder (or rather “red” murder) over the addition of VAT to fees, and plenty more flashpoints on the near-term horizon. Let’s have a look at a few and why they might cause a crescendo of political rows.

First, the private schools: Phillipson came out swinging at the weekend claiming that aspirational middle classes actually support a new 20 per cent tax on school fees, imposed from January — and that the pushy parents would be welcome in the state sector where they would be campaigning for higher standards. Predictably, as with almost any issue relating to social class and education in this country, her remarks were a Rorschach test — you now hate the policy more, or hate its opponents more, depending on where you stood previously.

If you want to see how badly the independent sector is handling its image at this fateful moment here’s Laura Hughes’ story on the arms race for luxurious facilities and the potty escalation of fee levels. There are decent arguments for wanting the survival of private SEN (special education needs and disabilities) schools, specialist arts and music schools and girls-only institutions — where the evidence shows girls are more likely to choose science and to do well at it, for example. These points have not been well made.

The decision to cancel Latin in state schools, announced just before the Christmas break, is slightly different. Cancelling an exam course mid-year hurts those kids affected, in this case pupils in 40 comprehensives, a third of them actually on free school meals. In my view, ensuring that cultural riches are the preserve only of a moneyed elite is not a good look for Labour’s “opportunity mission”. As Angela Rayner said when accused of being a champagne socialist for going to the opera at Glyndebourne: “never let anyone tell you you’re not good enough”. (No, I’m not going to translate that into Latin. Behave at the back).

Cuts are inevitable, that’s the DfE line. The Latin scheme cost a measly £4mn, though. Money was a more convincing reason for halting 44 new free schools in October — given falling rolls, weighing up local demand and value for money seems sensible, especially given the “Raac” repair costs and because many buildings are coming to the end of their design life.

But the subgroups of people interested in school standards and yet being alienated by Labour seems to be widening. This trend fascinates me, having watched successive secretaries of state at the department for education decide who to square off against (usually the unions) and who to cultivate as allies — most ministers want parents on side, though. They/we vote.

Add to all this a review of the curriculum that has offered the tabloids another mini skirmish in the culture war (my view is let’s see what Professor Becky Francis, leading the review, actually comes up with — Phillipson’s office insists it will be “knowledge-rich”).

So is Phillipson happily courting opprobrium? Maybe she is conviction-led and the first education secretary in a very long time to break with the cross-party consensus, which reaches from Ken Baker in the 80s, through the long Blair-Adonis-Gove years to today. And yes, Michael Gove did then end up making so many enemies that he had to be reshuffled out, according to other coalition ministers — a lesson there about keeping education folk with shared objectives on board, perhaps.

One clue might be her most significant policy move so far, at least on schools. A new bill in draft form seems to remove some of the freedoms that have made academy schools able to change educational prospects in the most deprived areas of the country — particularly their ability to vary pay and conditions (the TES has done a useful summary here). Its worst unintended consequence could be an inability to recruit and retain teachers, especially in shortage subjects, in places where the need is greatest and the job hardest.

This proposed move is different from the first two controversies on my list, which you could characterise as jousting with elite education, its providers and defenders.

Any move against academies will dismay those across the political spectrum who believe that the past few decades have seen major progress in English schools. There’s a lot of muttering about what a huge mistake it would be to veer from that continuity and consensus. That extended from why it was necessary (social justice, the economic and individual waste of talented and able young people) to how to do it as well (ambitious curriculums, better teaching and school accountability — plus innovative outside expertise).

The decision early on to introduce a more complex Ofsted rating system, and one that the prime minister had to deny would confuse parents, has already spooked some critics. I have to say I’m ambivalent on this, having seen the contrast between the old “outstanding” one-word rating and what actually goes on inside my kids’ school.

We haven’t even got to the vexed question of SEN provision, one of the most expensive and pressing problems facing the school system, as any head or academy chief will tell you. Nor have we mentioned early years or the other part of Phillipson’s brief in higher and further education. But fastened seatbelts are definitely in order for 2025.

Oh, and do dig deep if you can for our FT Seasonal Appeal jointly with Magic Breakfast, to get more kids properly fed before they start lessons. The secretary of state is supporting it, as is the Mayor of London. We hope you will, too.

Now try this

Having a bad back over the festive season was suboptimal but I found sometimes you have to be grounded (in the teenager sense) to become a bit more grounded (in the New Age sense). And I rediscovered music that made me actually enjoy the gloaming — I am not a fan of winter. If you’re not a fan of gravel-voiced geniuses look away now. But if you are I recommend mainlining this great Van Morrison track, “Ancient Highway” and then going back to the nine-minute Bob Dylan mini-epic, “Key West” from Rough and Rowdy Ways. Don’t tell Bob but Van the Man edges it.

Top stories today

• National Archives | Senior UK cabinet members warned prime minister Tony Blair in 2004 that free movement from new EU member states, including Poland, could place huge pressure on the benefits system and housing, newly released documents show. 

• Blair and Gaddafi | The British government lobbied for an arms agreement with Libya on behalf of aerospace company BAE Systems while Tony Blair was prime minister, a newly released letter shows.

• A hard play’s knight | Former England football manager Gareth Southgate, the actor Stephen Fry and London’s mayor Sadiq Khan have all been knighted in the UK’s New Year honours list.