Access to good quality education for pupils in the Beverley and Holderness constituency has always been a priority for Graham. He will still be fighting to get more cash allocated to fund school [...]]]> Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, was today elected as the chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee at Westminster.

Access to good quality education for pupils in the Beverley and Holderness constituency has always been a priority for Graham. He will still be fighting to get more cash allocated to fund school pupils in the East Riding as well as pushing the government for money to be spent refurbishing or rebuilding schools such as Withernsea High and pressing for the East Riding College to be helped in moving its campus to the Flemingate site.

The Children, Schools and Families Select Committee is expected to be renamed the Education Select Committee in the near future.

He said a Conservative government would not accept another generation being consigned to an uncertain future of worklessness and dependency.

Graham said: “Our plans to deliver an [...]]]> Young people are among the biggest victims of Labour’s economic mismanagement, with almost 900,000 not in any kind of job or training, says Beverley and Holderness Conservative candidate Graham Stuart.

He said a Conservative government would not accept another generation being consigned to an uncertain future of worklessness and dependency.

Graham said: “Our plans to deliver an extra 400,000 training opportunities over the next two years will ensure everyone gets the good start they deserve.

“For 13 years Labour has done its worst, now it is time for us to do our best. Our schools are some of the worst funded in the country and our college fell victim to the funding fiasco of the Labour inspired Learning and Skills Council (LSC).”

And he added: “I have fought hard, and hope to continue fighting to make sure East Riding College gets the money it needs to relocate to Flemingate in Beverley.”

The College, currently based on Gallows Lane, has outgrown its current campus and is looking to develop a purpose built new facility on the site of the former British Army Transport museum in Flemingate, Beverley.

After being told the project would be funded by the LSC the College was later told it, along with hundreds of other colleges, would not get the cash because the LSC had over stretched its own budget.

Graham has already raised the issue in the House of Commons, met with College staff, property developers and members of the LSC to try and make sure funding is made available.

A Conservative government will:

• Provide 10,000 extra university places in 2010;
• Introduce an early repayment bonus on student loans which are repaid ahead of schedule;
• Work to improve the way that universities are funded so that students get a fair deal, disadvantaged young people don’t miss out and researchers get the funding they need;
• Provide people with much better information about the true costs and benefits of going to university and help people choose the course and institution which is right for them;
• Create an extra 100,000 apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships each year;
• Give small and medium businesses a £2,000 bonus for every new apprentice they hire, and make it much easier for firms to run apprenticeships;
• Provide an extra 100,000 college places over two years so unemployed young people can improve their skills;
• Provide 100,000 new ‘work pairings’ over two years so unemployed young people can get meaningful work experience and mentoring from businesspeople;
• Offer much better careers advice, including providing expert advice in every secondary school and college and setting up a new careers service for adults.
• Establish a Community Learning Fund to help adults who want to learn new skills or restart their careers;
• Abolish many of the further education quangos which Labour have created, and cut bureaucracy and inspections in colleges so teaching staff can spend less time in the office and more time in the classroom; and
• Delay the implementation of the new funding system for universities – the Research Excellence Framework – and work with academics to ensure that there is a robust and acceptable way of measuring the impact of all research.

 Across the East Riding alone there were 10 expulsions for assaults [...]]]> Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, says he is deeply concerned by official Government figures which reveal more than 1,000 pupils every school day are being suspended or expelled from schools for physical assaults, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour on both pupils and teachers.

 Across the East Riding alone there were 10 expulsions for assaults and abuse and 560 suspensions – equivalent to eight exclusions for each school day, in the last recorded year.

 Since 1997, Labour Government rules have deliberately made it more difficult for schools to expel pupils.

 This has undermined the authority of head teachers and means bullies and disruptive children end up back at the same school as their victims.

 Labour Ministers have also hindered teachers on ‘human rights’ grounds from searching and confiscating items which might cause violence or disruption in schools.

 Now the Conservatives are pledging to give teachers new powers to tackle violence, to introduce home-school contracts to improve behaviour, and to reform the flawed exclusions process which undermines head teachers.

 Graham said: “Despite the hard work of our teachers, it is clear we have a serious problem with discipline in our schools. Unless there is good discipline, pupils can’t learn and teachers can’t teach. The children who suffer most are the poorest and the country as a whole loses out when teachers’ authority is undermined. “

 And he added: “A Conservative Government will raise standards in schools, giving teachers across the East Riding the power to restore discipline. We need to encourage responsibility and back those who do the right thing.”

CONSERVATIVE POLICIES TO RAISE STANDARDS

 Head teachers are increasingly having their authority over discipline undermined. Exclusions appeals panels overrule head teachers on expulsions in a quarter of the cases they hear, and 35 per cent of these pupils are then returned to the school from which they were excluded.

 Power to Discipline. Conservatives will change the law to make it easier for teachers to use reasonable force to deal with violent incidents, remove disruptive pupils, and physically restrain disruptive children without fear of legal action. We will abolish the legal requirement of 24 hours’ notice for detentions so that bad behaviour can be punished with detention the same day.

 Search Powers for Schools. We will give head teachers the legal power to ban, search for, and confiscate any items they think may cause violence or disruption.

 Home-School Contracts. We have been calling for legally-enforceable home-school behaviour contracts since 2007 and are pleased the Government is finally taking up this idea. We would take the policy a step further and allow home-school contracts to be used as a condition of admission. 

 Reforming the Exclusions Process. We will end the right to appeal against exclusion to an independent appeals panel, which undermine head teachers’ authority and signals that the school cannot cope with violence.  There will only be an appeal to the school governors. We will abolish the Government’s new rules forcing good schools to take pupils expelled from bad ones (‘one in one out’).

 LABOUR OPPOSE ACTION

 Labour’s Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry, has said that searching pupils’ bag and lockers if they suspected them of “violent” or “hardcore” pornography was against their human rights. She has said: “Children have human rights as much as adults do, and it comes down to the fact of it being proportionate. I would not welcome a sweeping power to search any child in a school” (Hansard, Public Bill Committee, 10 March 2009, col. 174).

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/appren/090310/am/90310s06.htm

 LOCAL FIGURES

 The table below shows the number of expulsions (‘permanent exclusions’) and suspensions (‘fixed period exclusions’) for violence in 2007-08.

 DCSF, Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions from Schools in England 2007/08, 2009, Tables 21 & 22.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000860/index.shtml