Two good points to bear in mind about our new education secretary Damian Hinds.

First, he showed an interest in education before he was summoned by Theresa May to take charge of the brief in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

He was quickly appointed to the influential Commons Education Select Committee on becoming an MP as a result of the 2010 general election and played a key part in the all-party Parliamentary committee on social mobility. 

During his spell on the education committee, he gained a reputation as an assiduous questioner of witnesses - something that not all of his fellow MPs on the committee could lay claim to - with a forensic understanding of the issues the committee was debating.

Secondly - and this may seem a trivial point but we do not have much evidence as to his intentions - his wife Jacqui is a teacher and he has three young children going through the education system. This could keep his feet grounded in reality when it comes to making key decisions.

This last point reminds me of Tony Blair. I was fortunate enough in an earlier incarnation on the Daily Mirror to be the first education correspondent granted an interview with him over his “education, education, education” priorities.  I was told in no uncertain terms the interview would come to an end if I started questioning him about his children. I asked an innocuous first question about what had caused him to develop his three priorities and he replied: “It’s the children” and went off into eulogies about seeing them come home from school every day. They can, you see, shape your thinking.

High flyer

There is a third point that may be worth mentioning - he comes from the more liberal wing of the Conservative party, as shown by his chairmanship of one of its more enlightened thinktanks, the Bow Group.

He is, within Conservative circles, thought to be a high flyer. At least two people signalled him out as a potential leader of the party on the day his promotion to the front ranks of the Cabinet was announced.

I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad point, though - especially when you realise that the two people in question were Michael Gove (of whom enough has been said!) and Nick Timothy, the sacked former adviser to Theresa May who was the architect of her plan to create more grammar schools.

So far, we have few clues as to the line he will adopt towards selection. It’s unlikely to be a top priority anyhow given Ms May’s failure to command an overall majority in the election and consequent ditching of the proposals. Opponents of selection, though, need to stay awake in the forthcoming months.

He is a product of a grammar school education, having gone to a selective Catholic school in Altrincham that provided him with a gateway to the University of Oxford. In his first article since becoming education secretary, he praised grammar schools for their achievements - but then he praised every other form of schooling, too.

If I were a betting man (and I do have a flutter on the Grand National every year), I would predict he would be less uncomfortable about the direction of travel of education policy than his predecessor Justine Greening - who was always said to be opposed to the May grammar school plans - but is hardly likely to be a radical on education policy in the Goveian mould.

Columnists never like sitting on the fence but, in this case, adopting a wait-and-see stance may be the wisest choice.

Richard Garner was education editor of The Independent for 12 years, and previously news editor of Tes. He has been writing about education for more than three decades

To read more columns by Richard, view his back catalogue

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and Instagram, and like Tes on Facebook