MP says new Government investment in education is vital for areas like Ashfield

I welcome the Government’s commitment to increase investment into our education system and the increase of £3.5 billion since last year is good news for places like Ashfield and Eastwood.

I also welcome the £1 billion covid catch-up fund which will help children catch up with lost teaching time.

The National Tutoring Programme will allow disadvantaged children in Ashfield to access high quality tuition which is so important for their development.

The plan to allocate more than £500 million to enable colleges and schools to support, attract and retain disadvantaged students and those with special educational needs will once again be welcome news in Ashfield and Eastwood.

Last week, I met with the schools minister, Nottinghamshire County Council and the schools commissioner to discuss the good and bad in Ashfield’s schools.

I also took part in the ‘left behind children’ debate in Parliament where I spoke about schools in Ashfield.

There are some excellent schools in the constituency but there are also some that need improvement and I will not shy away or ignore this issue.

I believe that even in some of the most deprived areas that schools can thrive with the right management and leadership.

There can be no better example of this than Leamington Primary School in Ashfield, which serves a mainly disadvantaged area and was rated only ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted.

But since becoming part of the Flying High Trust in 2017 it has been transformed and is now rated as ‘good’.

The credit for this goes to the head teacher Kaye McGuire and the trust .

With great leadership and hard work anything is possible.

But where there is poor management, poor leadership and no intervention from local politicians, no amount of money can make a school successful.

So, I welcome all the extra investment which will undoubtedly help the young people in Ashfield get a better education.

Lee Anderson in MP for Ashfield.