Badock's Woods pupils fight back against vandalism

Pupils of Badocks Wood School reclaiming their play area from vandalism - with some great art-work

It is a tragedy for everyone who has worked so hard to get superb new play equipment ( I confess, I still get a bit excited about a really good children's playground) to see it vandalised and burned down, as the local community and councillors in Southmead saw in Doncaster Road Park.

They playground had been beautifully designed, alongside the children, to provide facilities that could even tempt an MP to give them ago. So it was with anger and sorrow that the community found it burned and vandalised.

But Southmead is not a community to be defeated! Together, Councillors, community workers and Badock's Wood School have rallied round to send out a message that the community, the normally silent majority do have a voice, and are energetically encouraging people to be proud of where we live, and to reclaim our community for the majority.

There was some fine art-work from the children, and a lot of anger and sorrow that had been turned into a positive force for change, and for good. Well done everyone , and thank you on behalf of all of us for your efforts. That's how change happens! 

After years of campaigning... finally launching Teach First in Bristol!

I was a bit humbled to be asked to speak at the launch of Teach First in Bristol.

I've learnt in politics that it pays to bang on. and on. and on. and if you're in doubt, bang on again...

Back in 2008, I submitted a report to the organisation Teach First,  which selects high-flying graduates and trains them as teachers to go into the most challenging schools in the country.

I'd seen the amazing effect Teach First had in London and other areas and being a bit pushy for Bristol, wanted Bristol to have some of the action. So I wrote a short report outlining the challenges Bristol's schools faced, and why we needed Teach First to come to Bristol.

To my amazement, they didn't tell me simply to bog off. They told me it was difficult. They'd have to get it right - that expanding without diluting the quality of the offering was important. Lots of things. So meetings ensued and I got people from Teach First to come to Bristol, we set up meetings and got Teach First to meet with some movers and shakers in Bristol's educational world.

Now, around five years down the line, thanks very largely to the superb work of Catherine Hughes, head of St. Bede's School in Lawrence Weston, Teach First has finally come to Bristol and had it's launch event on 16th May.  It was an amazing event for several reasons;  First, it hopefully heralds an exciting time in Bristol education ; second it was the fulfilment of so much work from so many people like Catherine Hughes, and finally, it was a heartening demonstration that if you persist , sometimes things really do work out.

I met an inspiring and superb set of Teach First teachers that evening. I'm so excited they're coming to our Bristol Schools, and wish everyone the very best!

 As ever, more info on my website!

Towards a royal college of teaching?!

I've put together a booklet on the idea of a 'Royal College of Teaching'. Get involved and tell us what you think!

As the daughter of a surgeon, I suppose I've been brought up with a developed sense of just how much the professionalism of people like doctors and teachers matter to our public services. It is easy for politicians to forget that the success of schools and hospitals is not ultimately down to Whitehall Mandarins, officials and politicians, but the doctors, nurses and teachers who work in hospitals and schools, and other public services.

One of my favourite Conservative thinkers and poet, T.S. Eliot wisely warns against trying to 'devise systems so perfect that nobody will need to be good'.   I'm a conservative because I believe in systems that enable people to be good; that bring the best out of people and encourage them to take personal responsibility for themselves, and their professional excellence; not a top-down bureaucracy dreamt up by someone with a swanky degree in a stuffy room in Westminster or Whitehall, and aggressively micro-managed to the coal-face through a series of people with lots of management qualifications but no real life experience of the thing they are supposed to be managing.  Our NHS isn't  a system, it's the people who work in hospitals. Our schools are our teachers.

I was always grateful that it wasn't politicians who told my dad how best to perform a surgical operation, but that the Royal College of Surgeons, as a body of doctors set the standards of what good surgery looked like, was the body that promoted and protected those standards. But that's not the case in education. Over decades the state has steadily encroached into the classroom. I think it's time for teachers to regain ownership and responsibility for their profession and professional excellence.  ( I've written a bit more at length in the Telegraph HERE)

So I've put together, with teachers and professionals, a pamphlet comprising views from all sorts of people within the education profession, (including all the Unions) and from other professionals who have a professional body like engineers and medics, to discuss what " A Royal College of Teaching" might look like; potential pit-falls and other ideas.  We launched it last night at the Royal College of Surgeons and I was really proud to have  Norman, from Brightstowe Academy ( the most improved school in the country last year) speaking at the event!

 We really want to get feedback so if you're interested, please contact me and I can send you a copy, or its available online at www.tdtrust.org.uk/rcot   . There's a feedback page and we'd really welcome thoughts.

The irony of all this is , of course, that such an idea cannot come from a politician like me, but from the teachers and teaching profession itself, and if teachers don't want it, it will never happen. So please, if you are a teacher and have opinions, thoughts on this, get involved!

 There's also a bit more information on my website.

Bristol Free School - from aspiration to actuality!

Today, the Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibb, came to visit one of the country's very first Free Schools - in Bristol. Here we are, with new head , Richard Clutterbuck and one of the parents behind it all - Blair King.

It was a very odd ( in a good way) feeling. Back in Summer 2009, when a group of distraught parents ambushed me while I was having a quiet pint in my local, to demand "What I was going to do about getting a local secondary school for this area", the idea of actually achieving that school was just a dream.

Shirehampton Primary goes Turkish

I could have made all sorts of puns about Turkish delights in the title - and quite appropriately too.

Shirehampton Primary School put on a truly exotic Turkish Evening last night; it was a great success with brilliant performances from pupils and adults, which almost made me consider taking up belly-dancing ( The glamorous outfits could have had a lot to do with it too...)

During the interval we were served with Turkish delicacies - particularly memorable was the pistachio cake made by local mum Ruth, who is with me here. Although by the time we got round to taking a photo, the pistachio cake was long gone...

Well done all, a really great community event, superbly organised and the perfect way to spend a hot mid-summers evening!

Lockleaze Primary Cinema hit!

Yep, that's a pop corn machine in the corner. It's all in preparation for Lockleaze Primary School's screening of "Kung Fu Panda" , on Tuesday evening. The school organised the cinema event to bring parents and their children together, and to make the school more of a heart of the community.

The evening was a storming success. I helped out on the door. Tickets had sold out, and over 90 people came to enjoy jacket potatoes, soft drinks, the film - and of course, pop corn. The evening was enjoyed by parents, children and siblings alike. Hopefully this will be the start of many more similar evenings at Lockleaze Primary and across schools in Bristol.

Lockleaze Primary - bringing Lockleaze together

One of the memories that sticks out for me as a child was being taken to what was then called a "Rumpus Room". I faintly recall the one my parents took me to was somewhere in Bristol and was called "Mr. B's". Does this ring any bells with readers?

It was amazing. You could throw yourself about all over the place and jump around a padded room a lot with a load of padded big objects. Which, for some reason when you're anywhere between 3 and 8 years old, is virtually heaven. I remember pestering incessantly to go to Mr.B's which attained almost mythological status in my 5-year old eyes.

So it was with those memories in mind, that I visited Lockleaze Primary School and their new soft-play area. They described how successful the soft-play area has been and told me of their ambitious, but hugely exciting plans to create a soft-play cafe, in the school grounds.

The whole idea of the cafe would be to provide somewhere for children and young parents to come and have fun and socialise - whether by jumping around in a padded environment with colourful toys, ( the children) or having a nice cup of coffee and a chat while the children let off steam. It would continue the work (already successfully underway) by the school to become a real heart of the community, instead of simply a school building open from 9am-4pm. And it would also become a base for other services to come and meet parents ( eg. advisory services, support services etc) instead of parents having to go to find them.

The Head teacher, Gareth Simons, has already begun transforming the school. I look forward to watching progress and supporting wherever I can in the future!