Photo: Alan has visited every secondary school and college in the Havant constituency to meet the head, staff and students.
Alan wants local people of all ages and backgrounds to get on in life, not just get by. Alan is working hard to ensure our young people get the best start in life, and everyone has the chance to gain workplace skills.
To achieve this Alan has introduced a number of new initiatives and has visited every secondary school and college in the constituency as well as almost every primary school, helping him to understand the individual needs of Havant schools.
As a former primary school governor, secondary school careers mentor, Cambridge University Alumni Advisory Board member, and ex-President and Trustee of children’s charity Magic Breakfast, Alan has a deep understanding of the education system and a strong track record of working to improve it.
He supports the Government’s reforms to the school curriculum, which focus on core literacy and numeracy skills; investing in science, engineering and technology; and equipping our young people with the skills to win the global race for success & compete in the modern, knowledge economy.
Locally Alan has engaged with pupils of all ages during his many visits to constituency schools and introduced a number of successful initiatives. These include the Havant Education Leaders’ Forum (HELF), which brings together the headteachers & principals of local secondary schools and colleges on a termly basis, and helps them to share best practice. The forum discusses cross-constituency issues that affect all local schools.
In 2015 Alan founded and hosts the local Annual School Merit Awards.
In November 2016, Alan also hosted the first Havant Oxbridge Schools Conference to help boost the aspirations of students from across the constituency and get them aiming for a top university. A priority for Alan is improving the numbers of school leavers going to Russell Group Universities, and at the event students were given advice on A-level choices, university subjects and university life.
In Westminster Alan has campaigned for more funding for Havant's schools since being elected. Despite the recent draft new national school funding formula being announced by the Government, Alan says he will continue his campaign for fairer school funding.
To make the case for Havant schools, Alan has written to, and has met both, the Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb, and the Secretary of State for Education Justine Greening to make representations on behalf of Havant's schools. In addition he has written to the Chancellor Philip Hammond (both letters can be found below).
He will be responding formally to the Department for Education's public consultation on the draft funding formula and has written to all local primary and secondary schools encouraging them to do the same.
While Vice Chairman of the Hampshire All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), and the APPG’s Lead for Education, Alan campaigned in the county-wide fairer funding initiative .