OUR PATRONS
John Bercow is the former Speaker of the House of Commons. MP for Buckingham 1997 – 2019, John has first-hand experience of the many problems of the 11-plus and its impact on overall educational attainment. He recently wrote a piece for the Guardian about his change of mind on selection.
Baroness Blower
Christine Blower, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, is a Labour peer and a former General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers.
Professor Emeritus of Higher Education Policy and former Vice Chancellor of Southampton Solent University.
Demitri Coryton is editor of Education Journal and chairman of the Education Publishing Company Ltd. A former editor of Education and Education Parliamentary Monitor, he was nominated for the Ted Wragg Award for Sustained Contribution to Education Journalism in 2007.
Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. A leading academic on issues of social justice and inequality, his latest book is ’Finntopia: what we can learn from the world’s happiest country.’
Philip Hunt, Baron Hunt of Kings Heath
Philip Hunt is a Labour peer and serves as Labour’s Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords. Philip lives in an area of Birmingham with grammar schools and is an outspoken critic of selective education.
Lord Kinnock
Neil Kinnock joined the House of Lords in 2005, after being created Baron Kinnock. He was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 until 1992.
Caroline Lucas has twice led the Green Party and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election.
Jane Martin is Professor of the Social History of Education at Birmingham University. She has just published ‘Gender and Education in England 1770 to the present day: a social and cultural history’. Jane is currently working on a biography of Caroline Benn, education campaigner and author, and a leading figure in the comprehensive education movement during the transformative years of the 1960s and 1970s.
David Melville is Chair of Pearson Education Ltd. He was previously a Professor of Physics, Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University and the University of Kent, and Chief Executive of the Further Education Funding Council for England.
Fiona Millar is a writer and journalist specialising in education and parenting issues. Fiona was Chair of Comprehensive Future from 2009 to 2013. We are delighted to welcome her back as a patron. Fiona’s book ‘The Best for My Child. Did the schools market deliver?’ was published in 2018.
Michael Rosen is a novelist and poet, and the author of 140 books. He served as Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009. As a political columnist he regularly writes on education issues.