SPEAKING UP FOR KIDS

Education reforms will 'shatter the class ceiling' Focus on digital skills and ability to communicate

- LIZZY BUCHAN

CHILDREN will study creative subjects to boost their confidence as public speakers under a Labour schools shakeup to "tear down barriers".

Leader Keir Starmer promised major reforms to the school curriculum yesterday and vowed to "shatter the glass ceiling" holding ordinary kids back.

In a highly personal speech, Mr Starmer told how seeing his toolmaker dad feel "looked down upon" and "disrespected" because of his job had pushed him to end the academic/vocational divide.

He vowed to break the link between young people's success and their parents' earnings with an overhaul of the curriculum and a boost for skills reform.

Pupils would be encouraged to study sport, art, music and drama throughout their schooling to help boost confidence and communication skills, and ensure disadvantaged kids do not miss out.

State schools would also teach pupils how to speak fluently and clearly to help them get ahead and end the "short sighted" focus on writing and reading, Mr Starmer said in Gillingham, Kent.

He said primary schools would teach digital skills to prepare kids for the future. But he argued it was not a binary choice between learning out-of-date IT and forcing every child to be a coder.

The plan to boost opportunity is the last of the Labour leader's five "missions" for government.

It is also a "personal cause" for Mr Starmer, who was the first in his family to go to university.

He said when growing up in a working class family in the 1970s: "There was a sense that enterprise, hard work and imagination would be rewarded, that - even in tough times this would see us through, and that things would get better for families like ours.

"The question is, do we still believe it? Do you look around our country today and believe with the certainty you deserve that Britain will be better for you or your children? Because you should."