Aspiration for 'a world-class teacher in every classroom'

A journalist, author and broadcaster, he recently triggered accusations of wanting to wage class war when he warned private schools that a Labour Government will require all independent sector schools to form “genuine” partnerships with state schools if they want to keep their current charitable tax-free status.

Certainly, during a sometimes lively Q&A session conducted with teachers from Rye Hills secondary school in Redcar, during a visit to the school, Mr Hunt took pains to reassure teaching staff that he would be on their side if elected to power.

Asked for his views on the teaching unions, who were memorably dismissed as “The blob” by former Education Secretary, Michael Gove, Mr Hunt responded: “I love the blob. I’m pro-prob. You only deliver real change if you work with the profession. There has been too much of a confrontational attitude.”

Asked what he would do about the growing recruitment crisis in teaching Mr Hunt said more needed to be done to “celebrate” teachers for what they do as well as stressing the opportunities for career development.

He stressed he wants to see a more regional model of teacher recruitment with greater links between local universities and local schools.

But when challenged on the unpopularity among teachers of Ofsted’s inspection regime Mr Hunt expressed support for an organisation which many teachers liken to The Spanish Inquisition.

“The reform journey is the right one. Ofsted has been good at identifying under-performance and helping schools go from under-performing to good. However, it has not been effective in going to the next stage,” he added.

However, Labour’s Education Spokesman agreed that proposed changes to school curriculum should go through “a broader, more transparent process” than at present.

After one teacher lamented the difficulty of raising the aspirations of some pupils Mr Hunt was firm in his response.

“My constituency is Stoke-on-Trent. I understand poverty and the context of poverty but I also know that you can achieve phenomenal results. We know that it can be risen above.”

In a one-to-one interview I asked Mr Hunt what would be different about a future Labour Government’s education policies.

“First of all there will be a move away from the kind of competitive, marketised system of school policy that we have at the moment. We would have a much greater focus on schools partnering, collaborating and challenging one another – and we know that raised standards. Where schools work together all children gain,” he said.

Mr Hunt promised that a future Labour Government would have more qualified teachers in the classroom.

“We think it is really worrying that the Government is allowing more and more unqualified teachers to teach pupils. As Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted pointed out, it is the quality of teaching that really matters. So rather than the kind of relentless structural reforms that we have seen in recent years, we are going to focus on quality teaching.”

Even though Mr Wilshaw pointed out in his most recent national Ofsted report that becoming an academy did not seem to make a great deal of difference Mr Hunt defended the introduction of academies by the last Labour Government.

“The Labour-sponsored academies programme was a very targeted intervention and often in high poverty areas, turning around failing schools.”

This focus had now changed, he said, with increasing numbers of mainstream schools opting for academy status.

“Giving heads the autonomy they need to manage their schools is really important. The Labour Party began that process and will stick with it,” he added.

Mr Hunt parted with a reminder of the promises he made at the Labour Party conference earlier this year - reforming childcare by providing childcare support at schools from 8am to 6pm, providing “a world-class teacher in every classroom” and setting up a vocational education system to rival Germany’s, including two-year apprenticeships.