Bridget Phillipson's education bill is an abuse of state power
Yesterday's March for Children was a striking reflection of what Britain ought to be – a nation where disparate voices unite to defend fundamental freedoms. From home educators and school leaders to Orthodox Jews and black Britons, we came together to oppose the Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It was an extraordinary display of shared conviction: that the state is overreaching, and that parents and school leaders alike must draw a line.
The Bill claims to improve wellbeing and raise standards. In practice, it does the opposite. It erodes autonomy, lowers standards, and imposes yet another layer of bureaucracy on already overstretched schools and families. Home educators are rightly alarmed. Their concern is not born of paranoia but of lived experience – they know how indifferent the state can be to the unique needs of individual children.
As Headmistress of Michaela, I stand with them. Our freedoms are also under threat – particularly the proposed restriction on employing teachers who do not hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The assumption that a certificate guarantees competence is simply untrue. Anyone who has worked in schools knows this.
Consider the private sector. Independent schools have long had the freedom to employ unqualified teachers. Have their pupils failed to achieve top grades or win places at leading universities? Of course not. No one questions whether parents paying tens of thousands of pounds a year are receiving a substandard education. So why should state school families be denied the same flexibility?
It's tempting to believe QTS represents a gold standard. It doesn't. There are myriad routes into teaching – some paid, some unpaid; some university-based, others entirely in-school. All depend on in-classroom mentorship. Any new teacher, whether or not he is pursuing QTS, must learn to plan lessons, mark work, complete safeguarding training and support neurodiverse pupils. A mentor is there to guide them either way.
The truth is that the certificate does not make someone a better teacher – as private schools well understand. QTS requires reams of paperwork from both mentor and trainee. Much of it serves bureaucratic benchmarks rather than educational ones. Hours that could be spent helping children are instead lost to form-filling and box-ticking. For many talented would-be teachers, it is a powerful deterrent.
At Michaela, we currently have around 50 teachers. Two do not hold QTS. One, a former soldier, is a trusted Head of Year 11, leading a full cohort towards their GCSEs. The other, an outstanding Economics graduate from the LSE, was bound for the City but chose the classroom instead. Had we insisted on the bureaucratic hurdles of QTS, he simply wouldn't be teaching. And does Bridget Phillipson – or anyone in Whitehall – understand just how hard it is to find a good Economics teacher?
The Bill also places extraordinary pressure on home educators, potentially criminalising parents for failing to meet arcane new requirements. Under these proposals, those who educate their own children could face up to a year in prison if they fall foul of the new rules. This is not sensible safeguarding. It is an abuse of state power.
And at the same time, the Bill eliminates a key recruitment pipeline for schools – the ability to hire high-calibre, non-certified teachers. With shortages already critical, heads will be forced to rely on supply staff – who, especially in shortage subjects, may not even exist. And by nature, supply teachers cannot provide the consistency and continuity that children need to thrive.
This Bill burns the candle at both ends. It penalises committed parents and closes the door on promising teachers. Yesterday's march reminded me how extraordinary parents can be when they are given a voice. We were united in our message: trust parents, trust headteachers – and for heaven's sake, scrap this Bill.
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