Bridget Phillipson tries to rebrand her education reforms

Education has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, as the government’s Schools Bill makes it way through parliament. So far, the legislation has grabbed headlines precisely for all the wrong sorts of reasons. Critics claim it will water down standards and that Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, is effectively doing the teaching union’s bidding. Particular attention has been paid to the thorny issue of Ofsted school inspections, following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry.

Today was Phillipson’s chance to respond. In her first major speech since taking up the role, the Education Secretary sought to shift her rhetoric – while ardently standing by the changes she proposed. She insisted that she was ‘delighted’ by the ‘raging debate’ over the new rating system to judge schools, in which single-word ratings are replaced by a colour-coded five-point ‘report card’ scale. These range from the red coloured ‘causing concern’ to green shades of ‘secure’, ‘strong’ and ‘exemplary’.