10 questions with... Peter Kyle

The Labour shadow schools minister talks about his own struggles at school and why he has a passion for school improvement

5th November 2021, 12:00am

Amy Gibbons

Peter Kyle is Labour’s shadow schools minister and MP for Hove and Portslade. After struggling with undiagnosed severe dyslexia in childhood, he returned to school aged 25 to complete his A levels. He later achieved a PhD in community economic development from the University of Sussex.

A former aid worker, he has supported children affected by war in Eastern Europe and the Balkans - and he has also set up an orphanage in Romania.

So, what did he have to say when faced with Tes’ 10 questions, designed to draw back the curtain on the person behind the profession?

1. Who was your most memorable teacher and why?

Mr Permain. He was a real disciplinarian - very, very strict. He was so tough because he was doing arts and crafts, and this was a comprehensive school in Bognor Regis in the 1980s. We were all quite anti-authoritarian and it was quite a lively group.

The very first thing we did with him was, we took a piece of metal and we cut it, we brazed the metal in hot oil, then we stamped our names into it and made a key ring.

About two years ago I got a letter - a handwritten letter - from him, saying, “Dear Peter, you almost certainly won’t remember me, but I taught you when you were a child.” And he said some very sweet things about me as a child, and then said that he has been watching my career from afar, and is taking real pride in my career.

I got to write back to Mr Permain and say, “You said that I would almost certainly not remember who you were, but I made a key ring in your class, and it’s still to this day on my house keys - so it’s not that I’ve forgotten you, Mr Permain. You literally have been with me every day of my life since.”

2. What were the best and worst things about your time at school?

I have a lot of happy memories from that time, but I just have to be honest: I didn’t enjoy school. I enjoyed the social and friendship aspects of school but as soon as the bell rang and we went back into the classroom, I just didn’t enjoy a second of it.

The worst bits were very simple: I didn’t learn how to learn. And if school teaches you anything, it should be that.

But this is what has driven me so much to get involved in politics, and certainly why I love the job that I have now, because it gives me the chance to talk about this.

I’m very aware that there are aspects of my life that could mean that I’m “the one”, you know: I’m “the gay one”, “the dyslexic one”. I aspire to be known for what I can achieve in politics, first and foremost, not a personality trait.

3. Why do you work in education?

In 2009, Rod Aldridge, who is the founder and chair of the Aldridge Foundation [a charity helping disadvantaged young people] , contacted me and said, “There’s a school that’s fallen into special measures and it’s in an area of deprivation. Do you want to come and visit the school with me so we can just talk about it?” - because he knew that I had a passion for schooling, even though I’d not been formally involved in it at all.

So I went along with him, we saw the school and we looked around and we just thought, “My goodness, this is a school that needs fundamental transformation”. And when we left, we walked outside and he said, “So, are you going to be in with me, then - are you going to help me do this?”

I couldn’t say no. So I got involved in the shadow board, I became chair of governors from the moment it went live - for seven years, and that included two years after I became an MP, because I couldn’t let go. I was enjoying it so much.

So, from that aspect, your readers can see that I choose education as well. It’s not something that I have just gone to because I get told to by the leader. But it does explain why, when Keir [Starmer, the Labour leader] said would I take the shadow schools job, I was punching the air with joy.

4. What are you proudest of in your career and what do you regret?

Personally, what I’m quite proud of is that I’ve grown in the job. And I think what my background has given me is the ability to learn and to develop. I have taken the old-fashioned idea of self-betterment very, very seriously. There is no question in my mind that I’m a better MP today than I was five years ago.

I don’t have any regrets in my life at all. There are some things that, if I could speak to my younger self, I would say. If I pick just one, I wish I had learned to love exercise at a much earlier age than I did.

5. Who would be your colleagues in your perfect school staffroom?

Teachers are going to hate me for this. My ideal staffroom would be no staffroom. It would be a school environment where teachers and students can actually thrive together. I hate the idea of segregated space in any situation. So, I’m sorry, teachers, but my ideal staffroom would actually not be a staffroom. It would be a school space where everyone could have a bit of downtime together in an environment that was suitable for everyone.

6. What are the best and worst aspects of our schools system?

The best aspect is great teaching. I stand regularly in a classroom and see one person standing at the front, communicating in a way that takes 35 young people on a journey - where in that 35 there are kids with barriers to learning, and kids that are gifted and talented and have huge skills when it comes to learning, and they’re all engaged and moving forward.

The worst [aspect] of our school system today is rooms that used to have music equipment in [them] that are now empty, sports facilities that are underused…there will be stages or theatre facilities that are almost never used. That is heartbreaking.

7. Your own teachers aside, who in education has influenced you the most?

I would say that it’s students. There’s one in particular who writes me a handwritten letter quite often. He has a lot of challenges in his life - the biggest challenge being that he doesn’t believe in his own abilities. And that has held him back hugely. Again, that, for me, is somebody who is in education or has just left education who hasn’t learned to learn. He hasn’t learned to grow.

8. If you became education secretary tomorrow, what would be the first thing you’d do?

I’d set the challenge that we have a great teacher in every classroom. That, for me, is the single biggest driver of improvement.

This government, when it comes to education, has acted like a drunk driver, careering dangerously from one side of the road to another, shooting red lights, screeching U-turns. So yes, today it wants to invest in teaching. It is not conjecture to say that this will change in six months or a year. It is based on the experience of the past 11 years.

And what does it say that, after 11 years, it has to make an announcement that investment in teaching is now its priority? It should have been the priority from day one.

9. What will our schools be like in 30 years’ time?

I want them to be purposeful and fun, and packed full of technology.

I truly worry for the future of state education, and I don’t say this lightly. I am not a pessimist; I am not a doomsayer when it comes to any aspect of life. And I accept that teaching and learning has improved under the Tories. I’m not saying that everything has got worse since Labour. What I am saying is that it has not improved in a broad enough way; it has become more myopic.

I have visited private schools since I’ve got the job - I want to learn from them, and I want to build a partnership with them. I don’t want to outlaw them. But I do want to increasingly make them irrelevant because of the quality of the education that we are able to deliver from the state sector. If we can focus on the general improvement and investment and strategic thinking in the education system, then I think that there will be a need for the repurposing of private education.