Education Secretary speech at CST Conference 2026
In her speech, Lucy Powell set out a bold vision to reimagine childhood for a new era.
For example we have -
I see every single day the amazing job that you do. That is often unseen, and certainly not thanked – and definitely not measured – enough.
So can I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you and all your staff for the amazing job that you do.
This is a new time, a new moment and we need to match it. That’s the challenge for the next decade.
And Hamid just set that out then really well. To reimagine childhood for this new era.
Playing, exploring, belonging and happiness. Restoring for our children a connection to something bigger.
I see every single day the amazing job that you do. That is often unseen, and certainly not thanked – and definitely not measured – enough.
So can I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you and all your staff for the amazing job that you do.
This is a new time, a new moment and we need to match it. That’s the challenge for the next decade.
And Hamid just set that out then really well. To reimagine childhood for this new era.
Playing, exploring, belonging and happiness. Restoring for our children a connection to something bigger.
The notion of aiming to "reimagine childhood" may be twaddle because emitting twaddle is why she is there and it's what people vote for, but it's chilling twaddle too. We might reimagine a few things ourselves, such as an emphasis on parental responsibility before it's too late.
Then there is "Restoring for our children a connection to something bigger." We may assume that's their connection to the State and coming from Lucy Powell it probably is, although she wouldn't put it like that.
There were encouraging hints such as -
Colleagues, every child does matter. And that’s why we’ve got to spread excellence to every corner and give more opportunities not fewer.
That’s why I’m putting technical and vocational qualifications on a par with academic ones.
11 comments:
every single day
each and every one of you
This is a new time
To reimagine childhood
spread excellence
vocational qualifications on a par with academic ones.
One bloody cliche after another.
Oh the nation so needs Lucy Powell to reimagine childhood.
My mother stayed at home to bring up 4 children and we managed on my fathers wage.. My sisters stayed at home and raised their children. My wife stayed home and raised my 2 sons. Resulting in a family of responsible adults making their way in the world.
Rushing round delivering babies and toddlers to daycare is no way to raise normal rational adults.
This is meaningless waffle, but I expect it signals another round of dumbing down.
dearieme - her audience should have noticed too - and drawn their conclusions.
Tammly - it's probably back to wax dolls and pins in her case.
John - I agree, it has been a mistake. The consequences are now embedded with no way back.
Peter - so much so that it's weird, as if they assume the waffle is good enough even though almost everyone must know it's not.
Coming to a school near you - the Labour Youth Squad. You get Equality Badges too.
DJ - a chilling possibility, too close to something they could dream up. On reflection, much too close.
Well, they certainly made a quick start with all the former private school pupils whose childhoods have been substantially reimagined thanks to the imposition of VAT on school fees.
As John D says, treating children like left luggage for the majority of their waking hours is no way to raise normal rational adults; if, however, your aim is to create an impressionable, easily-led voter base imprinted on their peers and subservient to an all-providing nanny state, it’s hard to think of a better method.
Macheath - particularly very young children from what I read, some of them being treated like left luggage before they are out of nappies.
Since a significant proportion these days apparently start school still in nappies, that benchmark no longer means what it used to in our day. However, to put a figure on it, Harriet Harman and her associates have long been advocating full time nursery care from nine months old and shaping Labour policy to suit.
Macheath - good grief, no wonder birth rates are so low, what's the point?
Post a Comment