Liberal Democrats demand better for education – support teachers

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran MP has reaffirmed the party's plans to radically overhaul Ofsted, League Tables and Primary School Exams to ensure tests offer real measures on children's creatively, depth of understanding or ability to work as a team.

Provide teachers with the support they deserve

Speaking at Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton on 15 September 2018, Layla Moran said teachers should be provided with the support they deserve.

She said, "Without a doubt, teachers are the most valuable part of our education system, give them a pay rise and do more to tackle the bureaucracy that makes their workload unsustainable." Liberal Democrats believe that by giving teachers opportunities to continue training and developing in their profession is key.

Invest in youth services

Liberal Democrats would ring-fence additional investment in youth and children's services to ensure they reach more children and young people and provide more varied and high-quality support than ever before.

Grammar school reform

Rather than wanting to close grammar schools, Liberal Democrats want to see every child in areas which have grammar schools to have an equal chance to attend them and an equal chance to benefit from the excellent facilities they offer.

Layal Moran said, "So what I do want to do - what I would like to see us do as a Party, hand in hand with the communities that this affects- is take on the harmful, antiquated tradition of the 11+ exams and indeed all barriers to entry in the state system."

Look at independent schools

Liberal Democrats should remove the charitable status of independent schools unless they can concretely show it's benefiting the entire community, like a charity might.

Layla Moran said, "Every child in this country should have the same opportunities that are available in independent schools. But given that they mainly serve families in the top 5%, given the creaming off effect from surrounding schools, given that many of these families don't even pay tax in the U.K, how can we justify their charitable status?"

Significant investment into Special Educational Needs provision

Liberal Democrats believe we have a problem with Special Educational Needs. Many parents feel they have no choice but to game the system and try to get into a particular local school or opt out altogether and home school. But isn't it sad that parents need to think this way? Because the implication is that many, many schools do not have the special needs provision that parents can believe in.

Layla Moran said: "The Liberal Democrats should be committing to a massive additional investment in this, and I intend to bring a costed package of proposals back to this conference. To bring provision to every school in line with that of the very best. State or private."

https://www.libdems.org.uk/conference-autumn-18-layla-moran-highlights