I was pleased to attend a hustings at St Andrews High School in Warrington Road, hosted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

The panel included the two main protagonists in the Croydon Central election Sarah Jones and Gavin Barwell. The other three panel members were the general secretary of the NUT Christine Blowers, the local NUT branch secretary and Dave Winters a retired headteacher.

The debate went on for some time about the use of non-qualified teachers in Croydon schools and Mrs Jones claimed that if she and her party were elected then this would not be permitted.

Quite how sufficient fully qualified teaching staff would be sourced was not explained until after extensive unfunded teacher training.

Mrs Jones was very expressive about her opposition to fee-paying and grammar schools in Croydon and felt that they were elitist and not serving the community.

She argued that free schools had disproportionate amounts of money spent on them and were not placed in areas of need – despite that many have been graded as outstanding by Ofsted and are strongly supported and favoured by parents and students.

Gavin Barwell volunteered that if he is not re-elected he may consider a career in education.

More interesting though was the issue of Mrs Jones’ personal and family education that was not discussed.

She was a pupil at Old Palace Girls School in Croydon – a fee paying independent school, rated as excellent by Ofsted.

I note from her biography that her son Joseph attended Trinity School, another fine establishment, independent non-state funded school, no doubt against Mrs Jones’ principles.

I am disappointed, although not surprised, that Mrs Jones’ Labour agenda is set against the educational establishments that she and her family have benefited from.

Croydon has good schools, and many are improving under the current education policies.

GRAME FILLMORE
by email