Pride in the Edge Academies

What a pleasure and a privilege it was to be involved in the openings of our two Academies in Milton Keynes and Nottingham. They have done such a great job!

And it is so important to spend time on the classroom floor, talking to real students, teachers, parents and councillors. There are a lot of ‘knockers’ in education and some of them need to get out there and see how badly we are letting down some youngsters – and to smell and feel the change that can come about through a new school. In these two areas kids have not always been given the chance they deserve but there is now a real commitment to improve things and expectations are high. They are Challenge schools and there is a long way to go - as the MP for our Bulwell Academy, Graham Allen, put it (quoting Churchill), ‘this represents not the end, or even the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning’. However I am a betting man and having met the people involved, I would put money on both Principals and their teams turning things round.

On Tuesday I looked round the fabulous new building and facilities in Milton Keynes and spoke to the 186 staff – everyone seemed primed and ready to go for the arrival of all the pupils on Friday. By contrast in Bulwell the students were already in place and the new building is only just beginning. As with MK there had been a remarkable amount of hard work and commitment over the past few weeks, in Bulwell’s case to spruce up the existing two school sites, and to present a very positive and united front – it may be the same buildings and largely the same staff, but this is a totally new school, with a new ethos and new expectations. The new uniform was important symbolically - it was moving to hear how all the students were apparently turning up in good time (unheard of previously), wearing their uniform with pride, and how this was really lifting the local community. It lifted me too.

Also this week our latest media campaign went live with adverts appearing in the Times, Indie and Evening Standard. We are seeking people’s views on how they want to change the education system – and we will then feed these in to those actually writing the education sections of the various political manifestos (http://www.edge.co.uk/revolution).