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Birbalsingh Blasts Phillipson: “You Don’t Know Your Own Bill”

by Will Jones
6 February 2025 1:35 PM

Katharine Birbalsingh, the headmistress of one of Britain’s best state schools, has written an excoriating letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson after a disappointing meeting where Phillipson exposed her true colours. Published in full in the Spectator, the letter kicks off by noting Michaela’s extraordinary achievements under the freedoms permitted to it as an academy (52% grade 9s across all GCSEs, compared to £60,000-a-year Eton’s 53%) before launching into a devastating rundown of Phillipson’s hypocrisies, Leftist animus towards educational freedom and basic lack of understanding of her own bill. Here’s an excerpt.

You have said that you want to address recruitment. But you are making it harder for schools to hire new staff. There will be fewer maths teachers in our classrooms because of your butchery of the Advanced Maths Support Programme. You are removing schools’ ability to hire teachers without the mountains of bureaucracy that your state-sanctioned, centralised stamping requires.

You are passing a law that we must all follow a brand-new curriculum, before you have even told us what it is. Every teacher knows what this means: more money spent on new resources – such as textbooks – and thousands of man-hours ploughed into a fresh curriculum that hasn’t been finalised and might be changed. Time away from children means time away from raising standards. We tried to explain this, but to no avail.

I believe your lack of clarity and interest unfortunately stems from a deeper problem. It became apparent to me when we met that you do not appear to know your own bill.

When we asked you to explain how the recruitment of new teachers would function, you said that this detail was covered in the bill. When we read to you the relevant extracts from the bill, you said that it would be clarified elsewhere. But when we looked elsewhere, we didn’t find any answers to our questions.

When we asked you to explain how the changes to published admissions numbers would function, again you did not appear to understand. This rule change means that local councils can deliberately reduce the capacity at popular, good schools in order to force families towards less good schools which are undersubscribed. When we asked what you would say to a mother desperate for a place for her child in a successful school, who misses out because the capacity at these institutions has been deliberately reduced, you were unable to answer.

Your party has had 14 years in opposition to prepare for this. You were the Shadow Education Secretary for three years ahead of the election. It should not be left to school leaders to point out the holes in this bill.

So why do all this? Why claim to love academies when you are in fact turning all academies into the equivalent of local authority schools? The reality is that your record in Parliament reveals what you really think of academies, which is that you hate them. You repeatedly voted against academy reforms from 2010 to 2016. You claim to be a great believer in the high standards which academies have brought, but we saw you twist your face with disgust every time you said the word in our meeting, repeating that the worst schools “are, in fact, academies“.

You are pretending to like academies now that you are Education Secretary, because it is hard to openly oppose them in the way that you have done throughout your Parliamentary career, in the face of such obvious success. You don’t want school leaders to have the freedom to innovate and do what is right for their children. You want the state to have control, which is not much of a surprise; I’ve repeatedly pointed out your Marxist leanings. You should stick to your convictions and admit that you do not believe academy freedoms are a good thing and that you believe central Government is the answer. At least that would be honest.

Definitely worth reading in full.

Tags: AcademiesBridget PhillipsonEducationFree SchoolsKatharine BirbalsinghLabourLeft-wingMarxismMichaela Community SchoolSchoolSchool choice

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54 Comments
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Monro
Monro
6 months ago

Bridget Phillipson is an utter disgrace.

Yet another bigoted and profoundly stupid charlatan working for the bigoted and profoundly stupid bureaucrat and charlatan masquerading as PM.

Last edited 6 months ago by Monro
44
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
6 months ago
Reply to  Monro

Neither Phillipson nor Stalin are anything like as nice as your descriptions.

15
0
Arborvitae23
Arborvitae23
6 months ago

What a brilliant takedown.
This should be flagged on the BBC and all MSM.
It won’t be though.

38
0
MajorMajor
MajorMajor
6 months ago

Brave woman!
She knows what she is talking about and she believes in it.
One thing all marxo-fascist governments rely on is unquestioning compliance. With people like Katherine Birbalsingh their power would crumble.
Of course she is completely right.
The entire government consists of a group of clueless, talentless, incompetent, useless individuals.
Starmer, Reeves, Lammy, Phillipson, Milliband – the whole cabal is just an utter embarrassment to Britain.

Last edited 6 months ago by MajorMajor
47
0
kev
kev
6 months ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

You missed Rayner, and a few hundred other empty vessels.

21
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  MajorMajor

Imagine if we had people of that quality running the dept of education…

8
0
Jack the dog
Jack the dog
6 months ago
Reply to  Purpleone

Wouldn’t it be great if there were no dept of education and all schools were independent paid for by vouchers issued to patents through the tax system.

5
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack the dog

Can’t have that – far too much choice, people might choose the ‘wrong’ answer! 😉

0
0
Art Simtotic
Art Simtotic
6 months ago

Hockey sticks at dawn…

…Birbalsingh United 7 – 0 Phillistine Wanderer

Last edited 6 months ago by Art Simtotic
16
0
coviture2020
coviture2020
6 months ago
Reply to  Art Simtotic

“You lucky bas**d it could have been 10”

2
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
6 months ago

What Paul Weston said ( and kudos to Katherine for one very fine roasting of one half of the dreadful ‘bob twins’ );

”The greatest problem facing England and the English is that all the people in all the state institutions which control every aspect of our lives are communists, and as such wish to destroy England and the English.”

27
0
Betty W
Betty W
6 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Something they seem to be managing pretty well, I’d say…

3
0
PRSY
PRSY
6 months ago

I’m reminded of a recent DT item on Brighton schools, where they plan on bussing pupils miles in direct contradiction of their “active travel” obsession. Hypocrites all.

Last edited 6 months ago by PRSY
12
0
Climan
Climan
6 months ago

I love Katherine Birbalsingh (not literally) and her ideas for how schools should operate, but am a bit queasy about her political tone of voice, which allows Labour to dismiss the arguments simply because she is a Tory.

Last edited 6 months ago by Climan
-5
-13
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

I don’t see where she says she’s a Tory.

Anyway, everything is political, so I don’t think the argument can be avoided and she’s right to raise it. This is a government with a socialist ideology (well, supposedly – who knows what they really think) and they’ve acted accordingly in many areas since taking office. I think it’s great that people are shown that there’s an association with crap education policies and socialism.

17
0
Climan
Climan
6 months ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Yes education is lousy with politics, especially in WHAT is taught, but HOW it is taught should be based simply on what works.

2
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

I’m sure I read somewhere that she denies and has convincingly refuted being a Tory.

It wasn’t in Wikipedia but it’ll do for a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Birbalsingh#Political_views

Last edited 6 months ago by soundofreason
2
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
6 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

Perhaps not a Tory but possibly a conservative thinker.

6
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

So what if she is – we’d need to be a little more Trump and just brazen these things out, rather than denying – you’ll never please them so why bother, f**k em

11
0
MichaelH
MichaelH
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

I love her literally. What a truly wonderful woman!

5
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
6 months ago
Reply to  MichaelH

Blimey! A man on here who has something positive to say about a woman for a change.😵 A woman that’s also in a leadership position, no less.😵😵
Here, have one of these⭐. Your kind are in short supply round these parts.😁

3
0
RTSC
RTSC
6 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

I think you’re a tad too touchy. I’m a woman; I’ve made that clear on many occasions and I don’t see a great deal of anti-woman bigotry.

4
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
6 months ago
Reply to  RTSC

Not touchy at all, but I’ve been commenting regularly for 3.5+ years now and I speak from extensive experience. Interesting you’re a woman but you never have anything to say in support of women or pipe up when it’s the same names, again and again on here, making disparaging remarks and generally slagging off women in general. Cowardice or a misogynist’s submissive ‘handmaiden’…? Hmmm. Just as well I don’t require anyone to fight my battles for me or have my back around here, isn’t it? Because all there ever is is crickets.

1
-1
LizT
LizT
6 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

I’ve got your back Mogs

1
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
6 months ago
Reply to  LizT

Cheers Liz. 👍 I think women posters are few and far between. The ones who aren’t afraid to share their opinions, whether popular or not, and challenge any sexist bollocks are near non-existant.😄 Well you know what they say:” Better to die on your feet, a ballsy shield maiden, than live on your knees, a submissive handmaiden.”😁 It seems some are afflicted with a bad case of wilfull blindness…..🤫

0
0
Epi
Epi
6 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/cN7L_cte7PA?si=JByV-kov4ynDEQ6z

1
0
Epi
Epi
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

Nah! Go for it Katherine these people are playground bullies (as well as communists) and the only language a bully understands is to bully them back they soon cower away. Assume Katherine understands that being a teacher and an outstanding one.

2
0
LizT
LizT
6 months ago
Reply to  Climan

What on earth makes you think she’s a Tory? I would hope she inclines more towards Reform

0
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
6 months ago

NOTE FOR MODS:

I am back to two and three times daily log in. Could this be sorted please?

2
0
10navigator
10navigator
6 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Ditto. It’s a pisser!

2
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
6 months ago
Reply to  10navigator

Moderator here: please see response above

0
0
Hardliner
Hardliner
6 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Moderator here: I’ll pass your messages to the office. Did you receive this message which was sent to you in mid-November, when this happened previously? I didn’t get any response from you:

QUOTE”Ian says: “Hux specifically asked us to prevent him logging in, since he was concerned someone else might have gained access to his account (or something). But he obviously forgot about that! I’ve unblocked him.”
 
Hopefully that should solve it. 
UNQUOTE

0
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
6 months ago
Reply to  Hardliner

My mobile got nicked in Spain. I do not recall asking that my account should be locked. Since the unblocking all has been fine until the last couple of days so something has gone wrong.

1
0
Ian Rons
Ian Rons
6 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

It could well be a browser issue. Could you try using a private browsing window and see if it still happens there? Or email me if it continues.

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
6 months ago
Reply to  Ian Rons

Ok Ian, I will see how it goes. I use Brave browser and have done for years. No issues on any of the other sites I visit.

0
0
ellie-em
ellie-em
6 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I couldn’t log in for several months from August last year. I was apparently identified as a ‘bot’! Strangely enough, my subscription went through with no problems immediately before I became a ‘bot’! I have to say that admin did try to get me back on line but nothing worked. Apparently, I’d changed my password but how I did that when I was unable to log in still leaves me bemused. Temporary passwords provided by admin still did not work and each time, after 3 failed attempts, I was locked out for 24 hours! I gave up eventually. I suppose the positive side of me not being able to join in with discussions for several months spared everyone from reading my contributions 🙃😋

2
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
6 months ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I have to log in every time I look at DS , even if it’s within the hour of last being on 🤔

2
0
ellie-em
ellie-em
6 months ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

Me too. It’s so annoying!

0
0
Epi
Epi
6 months ago
Reply to  ellie-em

Yes certainly happens more often nowadays and yes annoying.

0
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

For what it’s worth I don’t have any issues using on two different Apple devices, login seems to last for 30 ish days I think, then go to comment and have to login again. Worth checking your router settings etc, sometimes the ISP services cause issues, I use opendns for example instead of my ISP’s services, one less thing to go wrong

0
0
Oowotwnwrwyhow
Oowotwnwrwyhow
6 months ago

Step by step marching along the road of dumbing down and not owning anything but being happy. How do we stop these fools?

5
0
coviture2020
coviture2020
6 months ago

Katherine and Phillipson is a staggering miscontest
.

6
0
Bloss
Bloss
6 months ago
Reply to  coviture2020

What I can’t get over is that Phillipson was so badly prepared. Anyfulekno that Katharine Birbalsingh is not to be messed with.

2
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  Bloss

Clearly assumed she’d be cowed by the majesty of an MP… not. In fact, I think the best way to describe the outcome was ‘the education secretary got her ass kicked’

Last edited 6 months ago by Purpleone
1
0
RTSC
RTSC
6 months ago

The “Teaching” Unions and Education Bureaucrats hate Academies as much as they hate Private Schools which the plebs can just about afford to access.

It’s they who are driving the destruction; Phillipson is just their useful Marxist idiot.

Anyone who can afford it should be investing in a private tutor for STEM subjects and making the time to educate their children in neglected/warped subjects such as History, themselves. History is easy; there are so many places to visit which can be used to teach it and they don’t all have to cost much money. Our history is a story: tell it.

5
0
Epi
Epi
6 months ago

Well said indeed. But tbh it doesn’t take the “brain of Britain” to know that these people couldn’t give a tuppenny ha’penny f… about this country or educating its people. They are communists through and through. All they want is their Marxist ideology to be taught everywhere and enforce their dystopian agenda on the world.That is their aim. It needs to be destroyed.

2
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
6 months ago

Katharine, I am forwarding your name to Elon Musk with the hope he will forward your name to President Trump. The USA education dept is one big mess. They could sure use a successful leader such as your self. It would mean a move to the USA. Your academy should be a role model for the department of education in this country. Instead you are second guessed at every turn and forced to follow a department of education curriculum and politicians unfit for purpose. I will pray for you and your tremendous school(s).

4
0
LizT
LizT
6 months ago
Reply to  marebobowl

No no no, we need you here Katharine. Please don’t leave us!

2
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
6 months ago

Daily sceptic, do not stop here. Continue to write about Katherine’s successes, support her in every way and question the dept of education’s plans for curriculum, academies and the whole of education in this country! These kids are our FUTURE. Look after them and the people giving them the education they deserve. Thank you.

8
0
Skepticus
Skepticus
6 months ago

Birbalsingh should have Phillipsons job..

5
0
Purpleone
Purpleone
6 months ago
Reply to  Skepticus

She’s not shallow enough for that…

1
0
mrbu
mrbu
6 months ago

I sincerely hope Katharine Biirbalsingh can instil in her students that same ability to think for themselves and speak up when they encounter something that is wrong, unjust or asinine. Like the education secretary herself.

5
0
LizT
LizT
6 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

She’s leading by example. I’m sure her pupils can see that and cheer her on from the side lines. What a great role model

4
0
klf
klf
6 months ago

Wow. What a great response. I wonder if Phillipson will budge.

0
0

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