Michael Gove MP, the Secretary of State for Education, came to Northampton at my invitation to visit one of our secondary schools, the Malcolm Arnold Academy in Trinity Avenue.
This followed on the back of a visit I arranged recently for Elizabeth Truss MP, the Minister for Early Learning at the Department for Education, to a primary school in Abington, Cedar Road, and a Nursery, Child First in Moulton Leys.
Large scale investment has been put into Malcolm Arnold Academy in recent years, the school has gone from strength to strength and is doing well, with an impressive central atrium and a strong musical ethos.
We heard students singing and playing instruments in music class, and Mr Gove and I were rather impressed by an advanced Maths lesson!
We also dropped into an English lesson where the pupils were learning about Tennyson’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ and the Crimean War.
The standard of teaching was first rate and despite it being the last day before half term the pupils were all enthusiastic and engaged.