Accord has been at the party conferences recently. Because we went to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Harrogate this year – and successfully lobbied for changes to their policy – this autumn we thought that we should focus on making sure that Labour and the Conservatives also got to hear Accord’s message for inclusive education.
Accord Coordinator Alex Kennedy was at the Labour conference for several days and used the opportunity to build links with individuals and groups who share our aims. A week later, he was joined by Accord Chair Jonathan Romain in Manchester for the Conservative Party Conference. There, Accord held a very successful breakfast fringe meeting chaired by Ryan Shorthouse from influential thinktank the Bow group, with Lord (Robin) Glentoran—an Accord supporter and Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland—and Rabbi Romain as speakers.
As we had hoped, the event drew people from all sides of the debate and there were a large number of contributions and questions from the floor. Issues covered included the impact of faith schools on community cohesion, the role of other forms of selection in the education system and the lessons that can be taken from Northern Ireland.
The conferences were also an opportunity to publicise the Accord Awards to those councillors and school governors who want to see best practice rewarded. If you know a governor or teacher at a state funded school then please tell them about the awards. The forms that they will need to fill in can be found on the Accord siteand the closing date is 2 November.
In other news, we were heartened to see recently that the headmaster of leading independent school St Pauls (which itself has a Christian foundation) has criticised faith schools for being divisive. Dr Martin Stephen’s comments have been condemned as “dangerous” by the Bishop of London, but in reality he is one of a growing number of people, religious and non-religious, who have come to believe that the current system is in serious need of reform.
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