Liberal Democrats Investing in Excellence Policies for Education up to 16 Putting Education First Education and training are key to personal fulfilment, a harmonious society and a successful economy. We are committed to creating a top class education system which gives everybody the best start in life, the best chance to succeed in work and the best opportunity to develop as individuals. The system we seek should fire in our students a passion for learning, instead of a fixation solely on getting good grades in examinations. We must teach students the capacity to learn and develop over their entire lives and not just to pass exams while at schools. Education has been under funded and undermined by repeated shifts in policy. Britain is not performing well enough compared with key competitors. We are prepared, if necessary, to raise the basic rate of income tax by 1p to provide extra investment in education and training. Our policy aim is quality education for all pupils in all schools and to raise the morale of the teaching profession as a whole. As a priority, we would recruit extra staff, increase funding for schools to invest in books and equipment, and ensure that all pupils have regular access to a computer connected to the Internet within their classrooms. We would tackle the backlog in repairs and maintenance of buildings by launching a 'Schools 2010' programme to replace temporary classrooms. Foundations for Excellence We would: * Provide high quality early years' education by recruiting extra early years specialists. * Reform and extend early years education to establish a Foundation Key Stage for 3-5+ year olds, ensuring that very young pupils have a curriculum which meets their needs. Children would start their learning from the age of 3, with a compulsory education beginning, as now, at age 5, and formal schooling staring at the beginning of the school year in which children become 6. * Introduce a Maximum Average Class Size of 25 for all primary school pupils measured across LEAs. * Set minimum standards for care and premises and ensure that those in early years education are supervised by qualified staff. * Establish partnerships with parents from the beginning, recognising that parents are their children's first educators. We would encourage Early Years Development Partnerships to address work with under threes and their families. Improving Teaching Standards We would: * Extend the scope of the General Teaching Council giving it responsibility for standards of entry to teaching and effective disciplinary procedures. * Improve teaching quality by raising minimum entry standards for teachers while reviewing terms, conditions and pay scales to reward both responsibility and professional development. * Establish a degree followed by a PGCE as the main route into teaching, phasing out the 4 year B.Ed. * Improve the education inspection process and strengthen the links between inspection and advice. * Require every school to develop a policy to tackle bullying and truancy, and launch a national Truancy Watch scheme. * Oblige LEAs to fulfil their responsibilities to educate pupils excluded or suspended from school. Investing in Excellence Measuring Achievement in Pupils and Schools We would: * Give every pupil a Personal Record of Achievement enabling them to build up a set of nationally accredited qualifications and record their other achievements. * Scrap testing (SATs) at age 7, while keeping it for older pupils. * Require schools to publish meaningful information on their standards, achievements and plans for the future. * Replace the National Curriculum with a focused and flexible Minimum Curriculum Entitlement that ensures a broad and balanced curriculum. * Issue annual reports to all parents on their school's performance. Unlike the current crude league tables, these reports would measure the value added each year by a school, using the test results from a child's start at the school as the baseline. This will result in league tables that genuinely show how schools are performing. We will also promote school councils to give pupils a greater say in how their school is run. Boosting Literacy, Numeracy and Special Needs Education We would: * Fully fund the implementation of the Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs and establish the right of all children with Special Educational Needs to have the opportunity to be educated in mainstream schools, requiring local authorities to establish a multi disciplinary team to support pre-school children and their families in order to ensure early diagnosis of special needs. Building New Partnerships with Parents We would: * Extend Home/School/Pupil Links, develop Home-School partnership arrangements, supporting parents with information and resources to help them help their child. * Require the schools inspection service to report on home-school partnerships as part of school inspections. * Promote school councils and guarantee automatic representation on governing bodies to staff and, where appropriate, students. * Encourage schools to develop courses for parents, build links with local leisure organisations to open up school sports facilities to the community. * Give parents greater say in which type of school their child should attend that would best meet the needs of their child. Giving Schools More Independence We would: * Give all schools greater independence over the content of the curriculum, their own priorities and on the school's own style and ethos. * Devolve as many powers as possible to schools and give them more control over their budgets. * Require independent schools to offer the Minimum Curriculum Entitlement; extend charitable status to all schools without affecting total Council funding; and maintain the VAT exemption on school fees. Policies stated in this briefing represent policy passed by the conference of the Liberal Democrats. A fully costed manifesto containing our priorities for government is published at each general election. This briefing is based on Policy Paper 21, Investing in Excellence, Policy Review Supplement Foundations For Excellence, and the Education section of the Policy Review Paper, Moving Ahead - Towards a Citizens' Britain, February 2001 Produced by the Policy Unit. 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