Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Why a top headteacher has slammed Education Secretary over academies

• The Government’s proposed Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill could see far-reaching changes for schools and child safeguarding
• But it has also attracted its fair share of controversy
• The headteacher of one of England’s highest-performing academy schools has hit out at the education secretary
• She says schools like hers will lose the freedoms that had enabled them to be so successful

The headmistress of one of England’s top-performing state schools when it comes to GCSEs has lashed out at the education secretary, accusing her of bias against academy schools.

Katharine Birbalsingh, head teacher of the high-achieving Michaela Community School - an academy in Northwest London with the highest Progress 8 score in the country in the last school year - recently met with Bridget Phillipson to discuss her concerns about the Government’s new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The bill was introduced to Parliament in December and passed its second reading last month, and could see sweeping changes to both schools and safeguarding measures for children in the education system.

However, some of the bill’s proposed measures have proven controversial in some circles. These include new restrictions on homeschooling, state-funded academies now having to follow the national curriculum and pay frameworks for teachers, and requiring all teachers in state schools to have qualified teacher status from 2026.

Ms Birbalsingh has since hit out at the education secretary in an open letter posted to social media, even going so far as to brand her as having “Marxist” beliefs about academies. But what exactly are her concerns about the new bill, and what does the government have to say?

Here’s what you need to know:

What did she say?

In the scathing open letter, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), Ms Birbalsingh wrote that she had been disappointed with the Education Secretary’s answers to “the legitimate questions teachers have of the government’s proposals”. She said she was concerned that Phillipson was a politician that wanted to appear to be interested in schools - rather than having a genuine interest.

“Anyone who thinks that black and brown kids from the inner city are destined to be underachievers is wrong,” she continued, citing her own school’s academic success. “They should meet our children. And with the right values, the right leadership, the right school freedoms, we prove them wrong every time.

“One would have thought a Secretary of State keen to spread aspiration across the country would want to ask: how is this done? How can we raise the standards everywhere? Yet when we spoke of our successes, you did not probe to find out how we achieve what we do. You are not interested.”

Ms Birbalsingh said that academies - state-funded schools run by academy trusts that are independent from local authorities - and their current freedoms had driven up standards in the school system because they were able to “tailor their curricula to the communities they serve”.

She added: “You are passing a law that we must all follow a brand-new curriculum, before you have even told us what it is,” she continued. There is currently a full review of the national curriculum underway, with recommendations expected to be published later this year.

Ms Birbalsingh added that educators were facing many serious challenges that she was not convinced the Government’s current efforts would address, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision, absences, and teacher recruitment.

She said that the removal of academy freedoms boiled down to “a Marxist ideological dislike of academies”, and claimed that Phillipson was only pretending to like the academy system. “You want the state to have total control. You should stick to your convictions and be clear: you do not believe academy freedoms are a good thing and you believe that central government is the answer. At least that would be honest”.

Over the weekend, Ms Birbalsingh also appeared on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips. She defended describing the Labour minister as a “Marxist”, saying she used the term because Phillipson was “centralising powers into the state” that she felt should be left with academies.

The proposed legislation would mean “good schools simply have fewer places, which means the good schools have less money, fewer teachers”, she continued.

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What has the Education Secretary’s response been?

In an official statement sent to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “We would not comment on what was a private meeting, held in good faith. As the education secretary said in her speech [at the Centre for Social Justice last week], debate around education policy is welcome, and ministers will always meet with a wide range of stakeholders, with a range of different views.”

However, an unnamed source also told the paper the headmistress had been invited in good faith, but during the meeting constantly interrupted Phillipson - and wouldn’t listen to what she had to say.

“This is a person who has spoken at Conservative party conference[s] and who was very supportive of the Conservative government’s policies, and who does not like the idea that there’s now a Labour secretary of state who’s got a mandate to drive up standards, improve schools and make changes,” they told The Guardian. Ms Birbalsingh has previously described herself as having “small c conservative values”, Sky News reports, and has spoken at a National Conservatism conference in London, although she told the broadcaster she was not a member of the Conservative Party.

It is also worth noting that the Government is taking other actions besides the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill in regards to some of her concerns. These include announcing an extra £1 billion in SEND funding in the last Budget, as well as a national push to recruit more teachers.

To learn more about the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill and its other proposals, check out our previous coverage here. Or you have your say and let us know what you think about it by leaving a comment below.