Welcome back to Inside Your Ed – I hope you all had a great summer.

For many people working in politics, the summer break offers a gentler pace of life while most MPs and government ministers are away from Westminster. However, one former MP and minister decided that instead of putting his feet up, he should publish a new book that was almost destined to attract plenty of attention.

At the start of August, former schools minister Sir Nick Gibb and his co-author Robert Peal launched ‘Reforming Lessons: Why English Schools have improved since 2010 and how this was achieved’. 

As you would expect from someone who was not afraid to take on his critics as a government minister, Nick Gibb puts forward a range of arguments and evidence to explain the major changes that he oversaw during his time in government.

I’m delighted to be joined today by Sir Nick, whose career includes 27 years as an MP, five years as Shadow Schools Minister and over 10 years as Schools Minister, for which he received a knighthood earlier this year.

So, what drove Nick Gibb’s thinking about how to improve schools in England? Is there anything he would have done differently with the benefit of hindsight? And where does Nick Gibb agree and disagree with the Labour Party - both past and present - when it comes to raising school standards?

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