Wales has long been an embarrassment for any aspiring Labour education secretary. While the Conservative government’s school reforms shot England up the international league tables – in the PISA rankings it rose from 25th to 13th in reading and 27th to 11th in maths between 2009 and 2022 – performance in Labour-run Wales and in SNP-run Scotland has declined.
Labour has always been the enemy of excellence – which it wrongly confuses with elitism
These three UK nations provided a perfect real-time experiment with which to assess the merits of different education philosophies. The tried-and-tested methods of phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum and firm behavioural policies won decisively.
Simultaneously, the pioneering Free Schools and Academies programme – the foundations of which were laid at Policy Exchange – created pioneering test-beds within the English state-school system. Free Schools such as Michaela in Wembley or the West London Free School, and academy trusts such as Outward Grange and Inspiration Trust, showed up coasting comprehensives by consistently delivering outstanding results for some of the most disadvantaged pupils in the country.
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