​School Guide’s Victoria quizzes Education Secretary Michael Gove


Earlier this week School Guide’s Founder Victoria Bond had the opportunity to put some questions to the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove.

Victoria, the mother of two school age children, wanted to discuss the issues that affect many of the thousands of parents who visit her site daily.

One key question since this summer’s GCSE results has been whether the English Baccalaureate, the performance measure introduced by Gove to encourage schools to enter pupils for five core academic qualifications, has a future in our children’s schools.

“Will the EBacc still be around in five years time?” Victoria asked Michael Gove.
“Or will you be happy for the measure to fall by the wayside so long as it is doing the job it set out to achieve?”

Michael Gove answered: “Yes – it is and will still be an important indicator.” He went on to explain that the EBacc played a role in the government’s strategy to see greater numbers of pupils leave school aged sixteen equipped with core subjects including Maths and English.

The EBacc is one of eight core pieces of official data that School Guide presents on over 35,000 schools as part of its easy-to-read guide for parents. Its colourful data pages also include GSCE results and Value Added Score, the measure of a pupil’s progress between 11 and 16, as well as Ofsted reports and school contact information. Individual schools can be compared to other schools, both locally and nationally, and parents can filter by secondary, primary, state and independent schools. School Guide makes choosing the best school for your child as easy as ABC says the BBC.