Labour’s Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been left reeling after an explosive exchange with Katharine Birbalsingh, Britain’s most outspoken headmistress and a staunch defender of traditional education.
As part of a charm offensive aimed at winning over key academy players, Phillipson met with Birbalsingh, the former government social mobility tsar and head of Michaela Community School, this week. But if she was hoping for an easy ride, she didn’t get it.
Following the meeting, Birbalsingh has penned a scathing letter to the Education Secretary, detailing her conclusions—and let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty. In her no-holds-barred critique, she accuses Phillipson of ideological bias, a lack of understanding, and an inability to answer even basic questions about her own Education Bill.
A DAMNING VERDICT
In her letter, Birbalsingh did not hold back, exposing a series of fundamental failures in Phillipson’s approach:
- Ignoring high-performing schools – Phillipson has seemingly dismissed the success of the best academy schools and failed to seek advice from their teachers.
- No grasp of academy success – She could not explain how academy freedoms helped improve standards.
- Failure to name high-performing schools – The Education Secretary was unable to cite a single school she believed was driving up standards.
- No evidence of curriculum failures – She could not name a single school that wasn’t already offering a core curriculum, despite claiming this was a widespread issue.
- Recruitment chaos – Phillipson is making it harder for schools to hire new staff, with cuts to key funding programmes and unnecessary bureaucracy.
- A ‘Marxist ideological dislike of academies’ – Birbalsingh outright accuses Phillipson of being driven by leftist ideology rather than evidence-based policymaking.
- No understanding of her own bill – The Education Secretary struggled to explain key elements of the Education Bill, including changes to school admissions.
PHILLIPSON UNDER FIRE FROM HER OWN RANKS
Phillipson’s handling of education policy has already been causing headaches for Labour. Number 10 is said to be unimpressed with the Secretary of State, with internal briefings painting her as an “embarrassment.” And this latest meeting with Birbalsingh has only worsened the situation.
Phillipson may now be regretting spending her first months in office prioritising meetings with union bosses rather than teachers. Her credibility among school leaders is now hanging by a thread.
BIRBALSINGH’S LETTER: ‘YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED’
Birbalsingh’s letter, which has been circulated widely among teachers, is a devastating critique of Phillipson’s approach. She writes:
“You will have noticed in our meeting how disappointed we were with your responses to the legitimate questions teachers have of the government’s proposals. I assure you, we are not alone in that feeling.”
She goes on to accuse Phillipson of a complete lack of curiosity about why some schools succeed where others fail:
“One would have thought a Secretary of State keen to spread aspiration across the country would want to ask: how is this done? How can we raise standards everywhere? Yet when we spoke of our successes, you did not probe to find out how we achieve what we do. You are not interested.”
Perhaps the most damning passage of all comes when Birbalsingh challenges Phillipson’s commitment to academies:
“You claim to be a great believer in the high standards that academies have brought. But we saw you twist your face with disgust every time you said the word ‘academy’ in our meeting.”
She then invites Phillipson to debate her in public:
“Which is better for our children: school leaders who make the decisions for our schools, or you in central government?”
LABOUR’S EDUCATION POLICY IN FREEFALL
Birbalsingh’s takedown comes at a time when Labour’s education policies are already coming under intense scrutiny. Phillipson’s admissions policy changes—which could see popular schools forced to reduce their capacity to funnel pupils into struggling ones—have sparked outrage among parents.
Meanwhile, Labour’s war on academy freedoms has angered headteachers across the country. As Birbalsingh points out:
“Academies have been a source of innovation precisely because school leaders have the freedoms to innovate. You cannot remove fuel from a fire and insist it will heat the room just the same.”
WHAT NEXT FOR PHILLIPSON?
Phillipson’s meeting with Birbalsingh was meant to smooth tensions with academy leaders. Instead, it has backfired spectacularly. With Downing Street already unimpressed and school leaders increasingly frustrated, she may find herself running out of allies fast.
One thing is clear: Labour’s education policies are coming apart at the seams, and Phillipson is looking increasingly out of her depth. If she hoped that meeting Katharine Birbalsingh would boost her credibility, she could not have been more wrong.
Main Photo: Photo of highly celebrated Headmistress Katherine Birbalsingh at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. Photo licence: CC0 1.0
Photo of Bridget Phillipson – screen grab X
