MY visits to our senior schools and most of our primary schools have demonstrated many points of improvement and excellence but still some ongoing problems following the trauma of the Wyre Forest review.

Meetings with the Director of Children’s Services have allowed me to stress these concerns and my appreciations for new buildings and for splendid achievements of staff and pupils.

I have been impressed by the efforts of students at several schools to tackle health and green issues by working seminars, by writing letters through me to Government ministers, by passing on environmentally helpful messages to their parents and, at Offmore Primary School, by their initiative to manufacture fruit smoothies on a large scale for sale during school breaks to enable pupils to achieve their five-a-day target.

I strongly expressed my disapproval for the labelling of Baxter College as a National Challenge School as under Dave Seddon and his staff it has improved out of all recognition from the Harry Cheshire School I visited in my first months as an MP.

The impressive growth in student numbers, including sixth form expansion, proves the its success and improving popularity.

I will demand that the promise of funding is honoured for the rebuilding of four of our five senior schools and major refurbishments at the fifth. Although we believe this is assured money under the Building Schools for the Future scheme we can never be sure in the current economic climate that the resources will remain. I am aware of concerns from residents near the Baxter College and Wolverley high school sites and I will make sure these receive fair consideration.

I will continue to fight with other local MPs for fairer funding for Worcestershire school children.

I support measures to improve standards in English and maths but I have heard teachers’ concerns about SATS and the inevitable emphasis these place on exam success rather than real, wider learning.

I also welcome the move towards more diverse qualifications including applied practical learning, diplomas and vocational apprenticeships and the recognition that university degrees should be but one of a number of valued and valuable qualifications available to our young people. I also understand and am concerned that current national strategies in literacy and numeracy and one-to-one support for targeted under-achievers may be due to cease in March 2011.

These programmes have assisted greatly and must be continued or replaced with further assistance.