The Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, has spoken about the value of school visits, exchange programmes and international partnerships.
Addressing the Embassy Education Conference in July, Ms Phillipson said she had been ‘resetting relationships across the length and breadth of education’ in her first few weeks in the role.
She added: “I want to refresh old partnerships and grow new ones, not just at home but around the world too. By joining forces in education, we can build new bridges between our nations.”
The education secretary highlighted the benefits for students coming to the UK and also our benefits from them being here, referencing her own personal experience of making ‘wonderful friends who came from around the world’.
She said: “Students come and build bonds with their classmates – and friendships between students become friendships between countries. That’s what education is all about.”
Specifically highlighting ‘school trips and scholarships, exchange programmes and language learning’, Ms Phillipson said she wanted to build more partnerships with countries around the world.
“This is certainly a positive step in the right direction, but we cannot afford to sit back and wait, we need to keep pressure on and continue to share helpful information with government departments to ensure that positive outcomes are delivered.”
Gill Harvey, School Travel Forum
The speech has been welcomed by the School Travel Forum (STF), the association for UK companies offering educational visits and tours. Gill Harvey, external affairs director at STF, said: “We are very pleased that Bridget Phillipson specifically mentioned the importance of ‘school trips and scholarships, exchange programmes and language learning’ in her speech.
“The STF has been working with Baroness Coussins and the APPG for Modern Languages for many months to urge the Government to make it easier for overseas school visits to go ahead.
“This is certainly a positive step in the right direction, but we cannot afford to sit back and wait, we need to keep pressure on and continue to share helpful information with government departments to ensure that positive outcomes are delivered.”
A plea to tackle inequalities in school trips and create opportunities
The education secretary’s speech follows extensive work by the School Travel Forum and Baroness Jean Coussins, vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modern Languages.
Baroness Coussins spoke about the importance of educational trips and exchanges in the House of Lords during the King’s Speech in July. She said: “Much needs to be done to reverse the damaging decline in the UK’s language skills.” Linking this to the viability of educational trips and exchanges she described it as a ’perfect early win for an incoming government to tackle regional and other inequalities and to create opportunities’.
She added: “We need clear and consistent guidance to help teachers plan educational visits overseas.” She urged the Jacqui Smith, the Department for Education’s new minister for skills, further and higher education, to review the Turing Scheme, which provides funding for school visits, and to bring back the Traveller’s List which previously allowed school children, who didn’t have a passport, to travel without a visa.
Baroness Coussins is hoping to meet with Baroness Smith when parliament returns in September to follow up on the debate which can be watched here.
