Over the past few weeks, students in Hampstead and Highgate received their exam results.

I can still remember the nerves of opening that envelope! Congratulations to all of those who received results and I hope that they were all that you were hoping for.

I know that it is not just parents and students who find results day fairly nervewracking – all the fantastic teachers at the wonderful schools across Hampstead and Highgate will have been nervously waiting for the day too.

Through my visits to many of the schools in the constituency, I have seen first-hand how hard teachers work to support students through exam periods and are with them through the journey of revision too.

Tulip Siddiq congratulates the teachers for their hard workTulip Siddiq congratulates the teachers for their hard work (Image: Submitted)

Thank you so much to all the school staff who worked so hard to help students reach their potential and perform at their very best in their recent exams.

That’s why it was fantastic to see the new education secretary accept the 5.5% pay increase recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body last month. We owe it to our teachers to make sure that their hard work is rewarded after years of cuts under the Conservatives.

A great education opens children’s pathways to opportunity and is key to ensuring that someone’s background doesn’t prevent them for fulfilling their potential. I stood on a Labour manifesto at the last election that made this a priority.

The fact is our education system is struggling to cope after years of mismanagement under the Conservatives. This Labour government will transform our education system, so that young people get the opportunities that they so richly deserve.

We will expand our childcare and early-years system, work to modernise the school curriculum, creating higher quality training and employment pathways by empowering young people with the skills they need.

As I made clear during my time as shadow children and early years minister, I believe that every child deserves to be given the best possible start in life.

Part of Labour’s plan to ensure that this becomes reality is ensuring that every child in the country arrives at school ready to learn, by funding free school breakfast clubs for all primary school pupils.

This will improve behaviour, attendance, and learning in schools and will support parents through this very difficult cost of living crisis.

Children are our future, and this Labour government will give the next generation the opportunities they deserve.

  • Tulip Siddiq is Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate.