Michael Gove paid a visit to Staffordhire Moorlands on Friday 17th May after Karen had invited the Secretary of State for Education to come and visit her constituency.
At Endon High School, Mr Gove was grilled by pupils on the Executive School Council with questions including how someone who had never been a teacher could be an effective Education Minister, whether children born in the summer should have different grade targets, and what had he wanted to do when he was at school.
At Westwood College, Karen then introduced him to the headteachers whose schools make up the Leek Education Partnership. Karen said:
"It was a pleasure to show Michael what is happening in education in Leek and its surrounding areas. The Leek Federation and other developments are really exciting. It’s a unique and tailor-made solution to the problems that we face. By working together, everyone should benefit. Cooperation makes smaller rural schools more viable, and helps others to continue to provide a wide breadth of subjects for all academic abilities and needs.
"I’ve often spoken to the Secretary of State about the challenges and successes of our local schools. Like him I want to see standards continue to improve. I am sure he appreciated the challenging questions at Endon and I was glad to give both pupils and their head teachers the opportunity to talk directly to the man in charge."
The pictures show the Secretary of State and Karen with the Endon High School council, and Michael making a point to the Leek Federation Heads with Cllr Sybil Ralphs and Karen listening.