ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers

I want to begin with a huge thank you – to those of you in this room, and to governors, trustees and clerks, up and down the country.

One of our undoubted strengths as a country, a very British quality… is this sense of duty felt by communities towards our public institutions – we see our schools and the education of our children, rightly, as a shared responsibility, a shared enterprise.

But there are some people who take their share of responsibility to a much, much higher level.

What you do as governors and trustees can’t simply be measured in hours spent. Although, of course, I do also recognise it is also a large volume of hours.

But it’s also the weight of responsibility. Making budgets add up, recruiting and retaining staff, helping to set your school’s whole ethos and vision for the future.

And of course, knowing all the while that these decisions will affect children’s futures and, ultimately, our nation’s future.

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Former Minister for Merseyside Lord Heseltine says the overall standard of education in the UK is a “disgrace” and bringing it up to scratch was the “great challenge of our time”.

Lord Heseltine was speaking at an ‘Urbanisation and Cities’ event during the International Business Festival in Liverpool, which 27,000 delegates from around the world are expected to attend over the next couple of weeks.

‘Heart of everything’

He told the audience at Exhibition Centre Liverpool that education was the key reinvigorating communities. He said: “At the heart of everything lies education – if we can educate people then we can liberate them.

“Many schools are a disgrace. We are 29th in the global league table of educational standards and that is simply not good enough. We have great schools and great universities but it is the trailing edge that holds back our economy. “There is an acceptance of indifferent performance in many parts of the country, particularly in the North, and the elected Mayors needs to get involved in tackling that.”

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More than one in three councils are being forced to divert money from frontline school budgets to replace an axed government fund, it has emerged.

Figures show the impact this year of cutting the Education Services Grant (ESG), which previously paid for a range of school support services.

Sixty-one councils are now top-slicing school budgets to compensate for the loss, school standards minister Nick Gibb has admitted.

The figures were revealed following a written parliamentary question by Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran.

Ms Moran asked ministers how many councils were now taking money out of the Dedicated Schools Grant – the main pot of school funding money – in order to provide support services which used to be paid for by the ESG. 

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A minister’s claim that a student reported an academic for “hate speech” after they took the British side when lecturing on the Cold War has been denied by the university.

Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, warned in a speech today that a “monoculture on campus” had emerged with a “lack of diversity of thought”. 

Speaking about free speech, he said a student made a complaint against a King’s College London lecturer for “hate speech” after taking the side of the British when teaching the Berlin Blockade.

Mr Gyimah told an audience at the University of Buckingham that the student “took offence” to the way the Cold War event in the 1940s was taught by the lecturer of war studies. 

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Up to 50 "exceptional" students are to be given financial support in the form of fellowships set up to honour Professor Stephen Hawking.

The renowned physicist died in March, at the age of 76, after a long battle with motor neurone disease.

Ten UK Research and Innovation Stephen Hawking Fellowships will be awarded for the next five years in the fields of maths, physics and computer sciences.

The professor's family said it was a "great tribute to his life in science".

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said: "[They] will allow exceptional graduate students in maths, physics and computer science in institutions across the UK to take their work even further."

The funding will allow the students to continue their work in any UK institution for up to three years.

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