New education secretary Nicky Morgan to field teachers’ questions later today

3rd September 2014, 2:00pm

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New education secretary Nicky Morgan to field teachers’ questions later today

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/new-education-secretary-nicky-morgan-field-teachers-questions-later-today

Education secretary Nicky Morgan will be taking questions from teachers as part of a TES video chat that will be broadcast live later today.

Ms Morgan, who was a shock replacement for Michael Gove following an extensive Cabinet reshuffle in July, will be spelling out her thoughts on the country’s school system less than a year ahead of the general election.

The MP for Loughborough, who still continues in her role as minister for women and equalities, has made it clear there will be no change in course in the government’s reform agenda as set out by her predecessor. 

At the weekend, Ms Morgan told the Telegraph that a future Conservative government would ask Ofsted to mark down schools that failed to teach all pupils the English Baccalaureate subjects.

The move would mean no school would be able to achieve a “good” or “outstanding” judgement from the school watchdog unless every child took five “core” subjects at GCSE, such as English, maths, a science, a modern foreign language and history or geography.

“We want students to be able to keep their options open for as long as possible in terms of what they are going to do after school or college,” she said.

“In selective schools or schools with a low proportion of free school meals, that is what they are already doing. But that is not always happening in less advantaged areas.”

She added: “These core academic subjects offer children great opportunities. They are what universities are looking for.”

The live video webchat will take place at 5.30pm today. To submit a question beforehand and to watch live, click here.

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