Steve Brine and Michael Gove visit one of the best schools in the country.
Prospective Conservative MP, Steve Brine, brought Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Michael Gove MP) to Thornden School in Chandler’s Ford last week.
Mr Brine was keen to show his colleague the Thornden way as part of the Conservatives new ‘Comprehensively Excellent’ programme.
Comprehensively Excellent is a nationwide initiative to visit some of the very best state schools in the country and identify the qualities which help make them a success. They were given a tour of the school and visited a number of classes, including a year 10 history class, by Thornden Headteacher Dr Rob Sykes.
Steve Brine says; “The modern Conservative Party has quite rightly placed education at the heart of its platform for Government. As well as celebrating their achievements through the Comprehensively Excellent programme, we're going to campaign for the qualities which make the best state schools successful to be adopted more widely. We often hear politicians talk about learning from the best in the private sector when there are so many good things happening right here in our comprehensive schools and of-course the comparisons are on a much more level playing field in terms of funding per-pupil. I wanted to bring Mr Gove to Thornden because it is a truly excellent school, sitting as it does in the top 4% schools in the entire country. I think he was very impressed and will take a great deal away from his visit to Chandler’s Ford.”
Thornden is in the top 4% for its ‘value added’ score, which measures the difference between expectations in year 7 and outcomes actually achieved in year 11. It is a state-secondary with 1400 children on its roll; it has achieved specialist Arts and Science status from the Specialist Schools Trust.
Michael Gove said; “This seems to be a very well run school, the children seem to be enjoying themselves and they are doing well. I’ve been very impressed by the leadership and teamwork shown here. I think generally we have to find a better balance between Government involvement in education and local management of schools. Since the Government is responsible to parents and taxpayers it has to have some targets in place and some way of ensuring children are achieving everything they are supposed to but at the moment the balance is in the wrong place and Central Government tries to do too much”.
Steve Brine added; “Where I think local management of schools has worked very well, the top down approach has not and I think local parents, as well as teachers, would welcome the greater freedoms that are being proposed for our schools.”
You can visit Thornden School online here.
The visit was featured on Winchester & Eastleigh's new radio station DREAM 107.2. You can 'listen again' here.
Pictured above; Steve Brine and Michael Gove MP at Thornden School on Thursday 18 October 2007.
