As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

The understanding of educations importance is what drives Bedford’s Conservative Councillors to pursue ideas and initiatives that empower future generations of parents and children.

This year alone Cllr Phillippa Martin-Moran-Bryant raised important questions that led to the development of the ‘Best Start Bedford Borough’ website. Cllr John Wheeler also worked with Wootton Poor’s land charity which gave local schools funding to buy and give school uniforms to families who cannot afford it.

However, there is more to be done.

As we leave the pandemic behind the impact of two years of lockdown on children’s educational journey are brought into sharper focus. The impact left a high level of unfinished learning across many cities and towns like Bedford.

Like our Conservative Councillors, the Government continues to prioritise children’s education and has set £24 million to be invested in building children’s literacy skills. The funding will benefit primary school children with high quality phonics and expert literacy teaching.

For those hearing of this for the first time the phonics teaching method is one of the more effective ways to teach our kids to read and write. By using sounds and symbols it helps children hear, identify and use different sounds/symbols to distinguish one word from another. This method is particularly effective for children who find learning to read difficult, for example those who have dyslexia.

This funding sits alongside the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) which provides primary and secondary schools with £349 million in funding to spend on targeted academic support for our children.

Education is a great equaliser, it is amongst some of the most powerful tools we have to transform society and cross social boundaries. The Bedford Borough Conservatives understand its important and will continue to campaign for better schools and more support for families.