Delivering the keynote address at the Children’s Commissioner’s inaugural Festival of Children, taking place at the Young V&A in London this morning (3 April), education secretary Bridget Phillipson will build on the Prime Minister’s intervention earlier this week to tackle the development of misogynistic views in young boys and will appeal to more men to consider a career in teaching.
She is expected to say, ‘With toxic online influences on the rise, our boys need strong, positive male role models to look up to. At home, of course, and at school too. Schools can’t solve these problems alone, and responsibility starts 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. 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’s extraordinary.
‘So I want more male teachers – teaching, guiding, leading the boys in their classrooms. And of course I want more teachers across the board, as part of our Plan for Change.’
The education secretary will also reaffirm how early years education is at the ‘heart of her agenda’, setting out the steps Government is taking and signalling further reform to come.
It comes after the Department for Education announced yesterday it has approved 300 school-based nurseries, delivering up to 4,000 places from September.
Festival of Childhood
Speaking at her inaugural Festival of Childhood: Our Future, Our Voice, hosted at Young V&A, the Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, will warn that children are facing a ‘crisis’, with many turning to the online world for answers because they feel ‘increasingly disconnected’ from society.
She will go on to urge decision makers to connect with children by listening to them and acting on what they say as the ‘antidote to this disconnect’.
In her speech, Dame Rachel will present her vision for positively shaping childhood in England to make it the best place to grow up, by reimagining support for children with additional needs.
At the same time, the Children’s Commissioner is also publishing her plan for 2025-26, setting out her priority areas for the year ahead, which include children’s mental health services and mobile phone policies in schools – informed by findings her recent school and college survey. The commissioner used her statutory data powers on schools and colleges for the survey, the biggest of its kind, providing responses from nearly 90 per cent of schools in England.
Dame Rachel will say, ‘Children want to be listened to. They want to be heard. They want to work hard and do not expect things to come without effort. They understand that they have a part to play in shaping society.
‘But some of these foundations of childhood are cracking. A different version of childhood is playing out - one that we are struggling to be honest about. A crisis developing in childhood.
‘There is a risk of inaction, of apathy – and the antidote to this is listening. Connecting. That is why we must listen to children, to engage them on the decisions about their lives.
‘Childhood is short and precious – and we must not conflate it with adulthood because to do so abdicates us of our responsibility to making sure every child has all the things they should always have, and no child experiences the things they never should. That, to me, is what we mean when we talk about rights.’
