Bridget Phillipson MP: Quality of teaching can make the single biggest difference to children’s life chances

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson pictured last year talking with children as they attend a school breakfast club. Photo by Getty Images

Happy New Year to readers of the Echo – I hope you had a Merry Christmas.

During Parliament’s break, I had a chance to reflect on the six months or so since my re-election as your MP and what I’d like to see from this Labour government to make a difference to residents in Sunderland.

I’m so pleased to say that in my first week back in Parliament, I’ve been able to bring forward legislation that will improve the household finances of families and the life chances of children across Sunderland.

Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a landmark piece of legislation that will put our vision of a child-centred government into action.

The Bill will help us to drive high and rising standards in schools through common-sense reform to put more qualified, expert teachers in classrooms, teaching a cutting-edge curriculum.

That’s really important because quality of teaching can make the single biggest difference to children’s life chances and I want young people in Sunderland to leave school ready for work and ready for life.

The Bill will cut the cost of sending children to school to make life easier for families, with free breakfast clubs in every primary school and a cap on the number of branded school uniform items.

Breakfast clubs boost children’s attendance, attainment, behaviour and readiness to learn. Taken together, these measures could also save parents in Sunderland £500 per child, per year, easing the strain of the cost of living.

Crucially, the Bill will stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks through landmark reforms to safeguarding and children’s social care.

After so many tragic cases of children being failed by the system in recent years, we can’t have any more empty words or ‘lessons learned’. We need real action to keep children safe.

We’re taking these steps so we can deliver on Labour’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity – to sever the link between background and success.

That means where you come from doesn’t determine where you end up and that if you work hard, you should be able to get on in life.

That’s a principle that I know so many people in Sunderland hold close and through our Plan for Change, this Labour government will make it a reality.

I’m proud to bring forward the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill because children growing up in Sunderland and across the country deserve the best start in life, nothing less.