The following article was written by Lynne Featherstone and was published today on her website.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.34 “We will increase the funding of the most disadvantaged pupils, around one million children. We will invest £2.5bn in this ‘Pupil Premium’ to boost education opportunities for every child.”

The government has delivered on the key Liberal Democrat pledge of a £2.5bn pupil premium to bring extra funding to the most vulnerable students. Each child on Free School Meals in Haringey will start with an extra £430 which will go directly to their school to be spent how the school thinks best. This is additional funding on top of the normal formula settlement.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.34 “We will improve discipline by early intervention to tackle to poor basic education of those children who are otherwise most likely to misbehave and become demotivated”

The schools white paper introduced simple reading checks at age 6, designed to stop young children falling behind in basic skills which go unnoticed until it is too late and therefore contribute to future bad behaviour.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.35 “We will confront bullying, including homophobic bullying, and include bullying prevention in teacher training”

The schools white paper specifically states that we will expect teachers and head teachers to take a strong stand on homophobic bullying. It sets out plans to rationalise and simplify anti-bullying guidance from a fragmented 500 pages to around 20 pages. It also commits to working with NGOs such as Stonewall and the Anti-Bullying Alliance to promote best practice and make sure that schools know where to go for support. I have already had a number of meetings with the Schools Minister (and Stonewall) on this.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.34 “We will… support the expansion of Teach First to attract more top graduates into teaching”

The Government has announced plans to expand the Teach First scheme. It also announced a new Teach Next programme to encourage more mature entrants into teaching.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.34 “We will improve teacher training by increasing the size of the school-based Graduate Teacher Programme… we will improve training for existing teachers over the course of their careers to keep them up to date with best practice”

We have announced plans to expand the Graduate Teacher Programme.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.34 “Axe the rigid National Curriculum, and replace it with a slimmed down ‘minimum curriculum entitlement’ to be delivered by every state funded school.”

The schools white paper announced that both primary and secondary National Curriculums will be reviewed and slimmed down to become a national benchmark of the knowledge and concepts children should be expected to master in core subjects at each key stage. It will be designed so that parents can hold schools to account for what their child has learned.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.36 “Reform league tables to give parents more meaningful information which truly reflects the performance of a school. Schools should be working to get the best from all their pupils but government league tables are forcing them to focus on those who are just above or below the key C-grade borderline.”

Under government proposals, performance tables will include a measure of how well pupils progress as well as attainment. All of the information that underpins government statistical tables will be published for each school, and DfE will publish ‘families of schools’ documents that group similar schools in a region and provide detailed performance information that can be used to identify best practice.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.38 “Reform the existing rigid national pay and conditions rules to give schools and colleges more freedom”

The schools white paper announced that we would give schools greater flexibility and freedom to set pay.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.35 “We will replace the bureaucratic Early Years Foundation Stage with a slimmed-down framework which includes a range of educational approaches and enough flexibility for every young child.”

Dame Clare Tickell has been commissioned to review how the curriculum of the Early Years Foundation Stage prepares all children for school, reporting in spring 2011.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.37 “Introduce an Education Freedom Act banning politicians from getting involved in the day-to-day running of schools.”

The schools white paper introduced this year addresses many of our concerns, removing much of the centralised and stifling bureaucracy imposed by Labour. Every school will have more autonomy, but the white paper also includes provision for local authorities’ strategic oversight.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.40 “We will end Train to Gain funding for large companies, restricting the funds to the small and medium-sized firms that need the support.”

The Government has announced that it will end Train to Gain and replace it with an SME-focused programme to help small employers train low-skilled staff.