A top performing free school has played host to a special visit from the Secretary of State for Education today, describing pupils as “inspirational.”
Conservative MP Nicky Morgan met teachers and students as she toured School 21, Stratford.
During her visit the education secretary observed the school’s creative approach to education. She told the Recorder: “I think it’s inspirational meeting the primary children, but I think particularly the year sevens, eights, and nines.
“They are so articulate and passionate and engaged and that is why it’s lovely coming out visiting schools because you can sit behind a desk at Westminster and think about the theory but this is the practice.”
While touring the school, the politician was taken to observe a maths lesson in a Year One class and also spoke to a number of secondary students about their time at the Pitchford Street school.
Ms Morgan, MP for Loughborough, added she enjoyed talking to teachers about the school and methods of teaching.
“I think it is fabulous to speak to teachers and to see how it is working for them – some, obviously, are fairly newly qualified, some have been in the profession a long time – and how they have responded to the challenges of setting up a new school,” she said.
The state-funded free school, which opened last year to students aged between four and 18, is committed to preparing young people for life in the 21st century through using innovative educational methods.
Following the tour, the Ms Morgan commended the school’s efforts to introduce new learning methods to the borough.
She said: “In Newham a group of people have come together and said ‘actually we think there’s a need for new, different places, a different style of education’.
“I think this school’s main factor is [as a] ‘school for the 21st century’ and children gaining skills for the 21st century – and that is what the free schools programme is all about.”
Headteacher, Peter Hyman, said it was “great” to have Nicky Morgan visit the school and to show her the “amazing projects the students have been involved in”.
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