Education Secretary keynote speech at Festival of Childhood
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-03)

The Education Secretary's  keynote speech at the Children’s Commissioner’s Festival of Childhood event.

Good morning, everyone. It’s really great to be here!

Thank you, Tristram, for hosting us today. And Hughie, what a privilege it is to speak alongside you. Thank you so much for everything you said.

Your bravery and determination, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, all while going through that treatment yourself – you are such an inspiration.

I’m so glad to hear about your full recovery too, and everything you’re doing to make children’s voices heard, and it’s great to see you here today continuing to lead and inspire with your journalism.

I was interviewed back in September by your colleague Scarlett at Sky FYI – and she definitely put me through my paces! One of the toughest interviews I’ve ever had.

And it was great to see her again at World Book Day last month.

It’s lovely to look round this room and see so many familiar faces this morning. Rylie and Sofia – it was great to meet you at the Women in Westminster event last year.

And Sofia – I’ve heard more and more about everything you’ve achieved, about leaving your home in Ukraine and coming to England.

About joining school in year 11 and passing your GCSEs – despite English being your third language.

What an amazing achievement!

There are just so many inspiring young people here today.

And I’d like to thank Dame Rachel for bringing together all the Youth Ambassadors. And all your amazing work making young voices heard.

It’s their job, the job of the youth ambassadors, to make sure politicians like me listen to children and young people – and act to make their lives better.

And that’s exactly right.

Because as Secretary of State – children and young people are my priority.

I want to see them, I want to see you, back at the forefront of national life, back at the centre of our national conversation.

I want all children to have the opportunity to succeed.

So we are on a mission as a government – to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.

And I mean it when I say that it has to be every child.

Because all children deserve the chance to get on and succeed.

It’s tempting to think that the path to opportunity begins on the first day of school.

Nervous little girls and boys, lined up outside the school gates clinging on for dear life to their mums and dads.

When stories of success are told, that’s often where we start.

But that’s jumping ahead.

Like expecting a tree to grow strong and tall without first putting down deep roots that are deep and lasting.

Because opportunity starts early, it starts much earlier than that.

I’d just like us to think of two babies, born in the same hospital on the same day.

Think of all that happens before they reach those school gates a number of years later.

One baby goes back to an anxious home.

Her parents work hard – two, maybe even three jobs to make ends meet.

There’s mould on the wall in their bedroom because the landlord won’t fix it – and now that’s where that baby has to sleep too.

There’s never enough time in the day, never quite enough food in the fridge, no help from extended family.

The council baby group her brothers went to now gone; nursery or childminders have been completely out of reach – too few spaces, too far to go, too expensive.

So she stays at home, simply watching as her family struggle around her.

Missing out on so much: playing with other children, sharing and taking turns, learning about her emotions, about those of others, about taking the first steps into learning.

Now think of the other baby from the hospital. Her parents drive her back to a warm and stable home.

Right from that first night, her needs are all that matter.

Parents who read to her, talk to her.

And whose first thought in the baby food aisle, isn’t can we afford it, isn’t where’s the money – it’s about buying her first coat.

When her parents go back to work, she spends her mornings in a great nursery at the end of the road – the best early years teachers introduce her to letters and numbers, she begins to explore the world around her.

There are afternoons in the park with grandma, bedtime stories with grandad.

A whole network of support, with just one goal: giving her the very best start in life.

Step by step, year by year, she grows and develops, and she leaps forward.

So, on that first day of school, those two children, born in the same hospital, on the same day, they arrive wearing the same uniform, they might even stand together in the playground, and when the teacher asks that they walk into the classroom in pairs, they hold hands, bouncing inside towards the rest of their lives, with no idea how different their paths are likely to be.

Because that’s where opportunity can be lost or found, those early forks in the road, where those gaps start to open up.

And with each year that goes by, those gaps grow and grow. And closing them becomes harder and harder as the years pass.

That’s why, when I speak to school leaders and university vice chancellors, they urge me to invest in the early years.

And as we begin to see the generation of children born during the Covid pandemic arriving at school, many already far behind where they would normally be, the importance of early years is more clear-cut than ever.

I’m in politics because I believe that every child deserves every opportunity to succeed.

I’m here to make a difference in their lives.

And because early years is where the biggest difference can be made, and it’s where my biggest priority lies.

Giving every child the best start in life is my number one goal.

That’s where I want to be judged, that’s where my legacy will lie.

It’s not simply my priority.

Children are central to the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change. It sets the target of a record share of children arriving at primary school ready to learn.

Because we know that our success as a country begins in the earliest years of children’s lives.

The Prime Minister gets it, I get it, and the Chancellor gets it too. That’s why, despite the toughest fiscal inheritance in a generation, she chose to invest over £8bn in early years – £2bn more than last year.

But we’re just getting started.

This is the beginning of a wave of reform to lift up the life chances of all children, to give parents power and choice and freedom – and to put money back in their pockets too.

And that means great childcare and early years education.

There is a rich diversity of early education and childcare of all shapes and sizes right across the country that is already working hard to give children the best start in life.

And I can’t thank them enough.

But now is the time to go further.

So yesterday I announced funding for 300 primary schools to expand their nurseries and set up new ones.

Up to £150,000 each to convert unused classrooms into new nurseries for our children.

6,000 new childcare places – most of them ready to go by September.

It’s 300 steps on the road to 3,000 new and expanded school-based nurseries.

An important part of how we’re delivering the childcare entitlements parents were promised.

Giving them the power to choose the jobs and the hours that they want.

Support for parents is so important too, saving them money as well.

But, deep down, early education and childcare is all about children’s futures.

And what an impact high-quality early education can have on their futures. Analysis shows that children who go to a higher-quality pre-school earn about £17,000 more over the course of their lives.

Across 6,000 high-quality new places, it could mean a boost of over £100m in lifetime earnings.

Now given the prize on offer, we’re still going further, to make the most of that precious time, when horizons still stretch out ahead.

Because if those early chances are missed, they won’t come again. The lives of our children march on, so those early brushes with education are just so precious.

That’s why we’re twinning the childcare rollout with the biggest ever uplift in the early years pupil premium for disadvantaged children.

Because this is how we can narrow the attainment gap, and give every child, no matter their background, every opportunity to succeed.

Children are there to learn. And the adults in the room are at heart early educators.

So we’re fully funding initial teacher training for early years teachers and supporting them to become early years experts too.

And we’re doubling our Maths Champions programme – to reach 800 early years classrooms.

A really big step change.

Helping children to feel comfortable with numbers from their youngest years, building numeracy skills early, so that by the time they reach school, maths is already a familiar friend.

But I said before that we’re just getting started – and I meant it.

So later this year, I’ll launch a new strategy to revitalise early years education.

Rooted in creating positive early childhood experiences for all of our children.

Our new nurseries in primary schools will create a positive journey of learning for all children.

Children, beginning in nursery at 2 or 3 years old – then moving along the corridor at 4 or 5 to start primary school.

The same faces, the same friends, the same buildings.

Parents can build relationships with teachers, teachers can spot issues early, and when children reach school, they already feel at home in the classroom.

And so we’re backing parents too – supporting them with joined up family services as they guide their children through those early years.

That’s where the journey starts, with those positive, supportive early experiences.

And that must continue through school.

Because this is a government that puts children first.

I want all children to love learning.

But I should say right now exactly what I mean when I say that.

It’s building knowledge, growing skills, reaching into a variety of topics.

High and rising standards, exams that can capture our progress.

I want to grow a love of learning with deep roots, that is lasting, that shapes lives.

The type that sustains join, that builds confidence, that fosters resilience, that doesn’t come from doing what feels easy.

Putting children first isn’t soft. It’s not a sugar-rush, ice-cream-for-dinner approach to schooling.

It requires exposing children to a wide range of ideas.

So that they can find what inspires them.

It requires supporting children to persist with subjects that might feel hard, when they don’t immediately like what is in front of them, to keep going when it’s hard, not to give up at the first sign of struggle.

So that they can discover for themselves the quiet satisfaction, the happy resilience that comes from the pursuit of learning.

That’s how we wake children up to their own power. It’s how we plant within them a sense of purpose as they leave school and move into the wider world.

And it’s how we raise a generation of children who can think critically and act thoughtfully. A generation ready not just for work but ready for the rest of their lives too.

Confident, creative, kind.

At home in our country and in the world.

And that matters more now than ever before.

At a time when uncertainty is rising, and trust is falling, a time when disinformation can slip quietly into the pockets of our children, and young boys can fall under the spell of toxic role models online, men who preach misogyny, who cook up resentment, who feed on hatred.

And sadly so much of that flows through smartphones.

They have no place in the classroom, they’re disruptive, distracting, they’re bad for behaviour.

So we’re backing schools to rid our classrooms, corridors and playgrounds of phones.

It’s clear the behaviour of boys, their influences, and the young men they become, is a defining issue of our time.

That’s why this week the Prime Minister convened a roundtable on rethinking adolescent safety – to listen to the experiences of children today and to prevent young boys being dragged into misogyny and hatred.

We need to raise a generation of boys with the strength to reject that hatred – curiosity, compassion, kindness, resilience, hope, and respect.

But hard skills as well as soft skills.

Because to reject disinformation, children need critical thinking skills, maths too, a proper understanding of science, history, geography, economics.

To think analytically, children need that foundation in English – to explore different points of view, to weigh up the arguments, to consider the facts, and to come down on the side of reason.

And above all, to become active, engaged, curious about the world – children need knowledge and skills.

And through our review of the relationships, sex and health education curriculum we will ensure young people learn about healthy relationships, boundaries and consent right from the start.

With toxic online influences on the rise, our boys need strong, positive male role models to look up to. At home, of course, but also at school too.

Schools can’t solve these problems alone, and responsibility does start at home with parents.

But only one in four of the teachers in our schools are men.

Just one in seven in nursery and primary school.

One in 33 in early years.

And since 2010 the number of teachers in our schools has increased by 28,000 – but just 533 of those are men.

That is extraordinary – over the last 15 years, for every 50 women who’ve taken up teaching – they’ve been joined at the front of our classrooms by just one man.

Now I want more male teachers – teaching, guiding, leading the boys in our classrooms.

But in truth I want more teachers across the board as well.

Because if today we’re here to talk about positive early childhood experiences, about the role of education in creating and sustaining joy and confidence, about the routes for giving children a sense of purpose, about setting children up for success, then it is all about our teachers.

Great teachers, inspiring teachers, teachers who believe in the power of their pupils.

That’s why we’re working to recruit 6,500 more expert teachers across our schools and colleges.

More teachers in shortage subjects, keeping the great teachers that we already have, restoring teaching as the profession of choice for our very best graduates.

Now a couple of weeks ago I visited Cardinal Heenan School in Liverpool.

And the first thing I did was sit down for a chat with an amazing group of students, the same age as many of you here today.

And they were so excited to tell me all the things they wanted to do when they left school.

I could see them light up; I could feel their joy.

That’s the joy of learning.

Now up on the walls of that school were pictures of all the ex-pupils who had gone on to do amazing things.

One of them was Steven Gerrard.

But there was another ex-pupil who wasn’t up on the wall. And I met him outside at the end of the day as he was helping all the students on their way home.

He was Mr Backhouse, now the school’s assistant headteacher.

He said he’d been given every opportunity to succeed at that school. So he became a teacher to pass that on to the next generation of kids in his community.

He understood the power of his job – it’s about unleashing the power in all of our children.

That’s why my job is the best job in government – because I get to work with and empower you, the young people here today and across the country.

From those earliest years, those babies leaving hospital, the nurseries, the childcare, through school, and then on into college, university and beyond.

It’s my job, it’s the job of childminders, teachers, support staff, lecturers and leaders, together with your parents and carers, to shape your journey, to guide you on, to spur you, to give you every opportunity to succeed. That is what you deserve.

But it’s your job to rise to the challenge, to give it your all and to grab those opportunities with both hands.

Looking around this room, looking at all of your faces, I have no doubt you’re up to the task.

I think our future is in very safe hands.

Thank you.