The shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, has called for British values to be prioritised in schools, proposing stricter oversight to ensure political impartiality in teaching. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on 6 October, Trott outlined a series of measures aimed at reshaping the approach to citizenship education and classroom content.

Trott criticised the current citizenship curriculum, arguing it places too much emphasis on promoting the value of different cultures. Instead, she said schools should focus on teaching the values inherent to British culture and explain their significance to students. She advocated for routine investigations by Ofsted, the education regulator, into schools’ impartiality as part of their inspections, with consequences for institutions that fail to meet such requirements.

Her comments come amid government plans to introduce a new national curriculum in 2028, which will make citizenship lessons compulsory in primary schools and require secondary schools to offer triple science GCSEs. However, Trott said that if the Conservative Party is re-elected, it would reverse the introduction of citizenship classes at the primary level, aiming to concentrate education on core subjects.

In her speech, Trott pledged to keep “trade union politics” out of the classroom and promised greater transparency for parents, who would be given access to all teaching materials, including those used in sex education lessons. She also suggested that British authors should be central figures in teaching emotional skills, citing Charles Darwin as an example for curiosity and Winston Churchill for resilience.

Addressing issues surrounding identity, Trott expressed the view that young children are less focused on gender identity than adults, questioning schools that allow pupils to select their own pronouns at an early age. She shared that during visits to primary schools, the most common question she encounters from children is about favourite colours, adding that her own choice was “100 per cent blue,” distancing herself from the colour teal associated with the Reform UK party.

The Conservative Party launched a seven-point pledge aimed at preventing political activism in schools and protecting what they termed “shared values” foundational to British society. The pledge includes a commitment to ensure no girl is compelled to cover her hair for religious reasons in state schools, including faith-based institutions.

Under these proposals, Ofsted would have expanded powers to assess political impartiality during inspections and investigate specific incidents of bias, even retroactively. The party also advocated for enhanced teacher training on handling contested political issues, with the Teaching Regulation Agency empowered to address serious breaches.

Trott’s remarks included concerns over activities such as children as young as five writing Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers, referencing materials distributed by the campaign group Schools of Sanctuary.

Responding to the speech, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, criticised the proposals as disappointing and unfair. He defended teachers, saying they already adhere to legal standards of impartiality and that parents have ample access to learning materials and trust educators. Kebede also warned that requiring schools to disclose every worksheet would impose excessive administrative burdens on teachers.