Obviously I think exams and qualifications are important, but I also think teachers should have more freedome to make their lessons as interesting as possible to help you do well. sometimes the National Curriculum restricts them.

I would like to see more home study, like flexi school so that students could chose the time they spent in school
and work on the laptop at home. Pie in the sky do you think? Or a sound idea?

I’d like more outdoor and real-life experiences and work. I’d love to make sustainable living a higher priority in schools so children are educated to be more self-sufficient when the have their own homes. It annoys me that children who don’t respond to school education get offered more practical ‘interesting’ opportunities whereas if you’re a good student you just do the academic stuff and don’t have the opportunity to do these fun and interesting things. I realise that some people don’t respond to school education and they need accomodating, but good students don’t get offered these chances that I’m sure they’d appreciate, enjoy and get a lot of fulfillment from.

I would like school education to be more fun. I would like teachers to have a bit more freedom to plan really good lessons that will make school more fun. I would not have you starting school until you were 7. I would make lessons start at 8:30 on a morning and finish at 4 but have Friday afternoons off. I would have common rooms in schools so you could hang out on rainy days. I would support the new diplomas that are coming out as not everyone wants 12 GCSE but want a trade skill. I could go on and on.

I would scrap the sats exams. I know that it was my government that introduced it but I always disagreed with it. we have some of the best teachers in the country working in Darlington and I would prefer to trust their judgement on a childs ability rather than putting children through an exam.