Yvette Cooper MP: Families to benefit from breakfast clubs and school uniform changes

Yvette Cooper MP writes: Across the Five Towns we have some great talented young people, some great schools and colleges – including brilliant results at New College - and hard working teachers determined to help young people get on.

But we should be honest. For too long many young people round here and across Yorkshire have been held back and they need a better deal.

I believe that under the years of Conservative government, the school curriculum got too narrow. It didn’t take vocational and practical skills seriously enough – even though we have a desperate shortage of people with crucial technical skills, from plumbing to engineering, and especially in construction. And it never recognised the value of things like sport, drama and art, even though we also have amazing creative traditions in our area with new job opportunities at places like Production Park. We are also a sporting powerhouse with our schools churning out more great Rugby League players through the generations than anywhere else. From Henry Moore to Rob Burrow we should celebrate our greats and encourage the next generation to make the most of their talents too. Often teachers find that encouraging pupils to enjoy wider subjects also helps them build confidence and become stronger at core subjects like maths and English, and get better academic results too.

That’s why I think it is so important that the newly elected Labour government is broadening the school curriculum so that it encourages academic, vocational and creative skills alongside recruiting more teachers to improve education support too.

Children also need to be ready to learn. When the cost of school uniforms spiralled, adding to the cost of living crisis that many parents felt in recent years, many local children have felt the squeeze. Local groups like the Airedale Baby Bank or the Normanton Uniform Exchange do a brilliant job supporting hard pressed families, but all kids deserve a fair start.

That’s why the Labour government has promised free breakfast clubs for primary school children to children can start the day well fed and ready to learn, and parents can get some extra morning child care and get to work on time. I want our towns to be at the front of the queue for the new breakfast clubs, and I have written to all our primary schools to encourage them to apply for the first wave starting later this year.

There are also new measures coming through to help save on school uniforms too, putting sensible limits on the number of specially branded clothing items that schools are able to require so that it makes things a bit cheaper for parents while still keeping uniforms smart and special for each school.

Like the pupils I spoke to at Castleford Academy, we want all our children to feel supported and excited about their future because they are the future of our towns and our country too.