Pat spoke in a House of Commons debate yesterday about the need to ensure that every child, no matter what their background, is given the opportunity to make the most of their life. This was in response to government proposals to increase the number of grammar schools at a time when school budgets are being cut. 

Click the picture above to watch the whole speech, or click here to read it in full.

In July 2016, local MPs received a letter from OFSTED warning about the “low standards and weaknesses” in the quality of provision for secondary school pupils in the black country. Children in Wolverhampton should be receiving as good an education as children elsewhere in the country and while GCSE results in Wolverhampton have been improving fast, there is still a long way to go. 

In the Commons yesterday, Pat said:

“We cannot be satisfied with the status quo; we ought to be passionate about changing it. The easiest thing in the world in politics is to be a megaphone for anger, but real leadership is not just about amplifying disaffection; it is about giving people a chance, not a grievance. ?An extension of grammar schools will not do that, but an improvement in all-ability schools for all children has a real chance of doing so.”