Best Schools - Education must stay internationalist post-Brexit claims schools minister

Schools' minister Nick Gibb has said that the UK’s education system will remain internationalist after Brexit.

Mr Gibb met with fellow G7 education ministers in France yesterday to present the Department for Education’s recruitment and retention strategy and to discuss early years schooling and teacher training.

He stressed his dedication to utilising international examples of best practice in the English education system, when speaking to an audience of G7 ministers and the invited countries of Singapore, Argentina and Estonia.

He said: “Education transcends borders, nationalities and languages – and we are proud that our education system has taken in a wealth of influence from other countries around the world, not just our European neighbours.

“But it is not all one-way – there are a host of countries that come to the UK to learn from what we do so well in our own schools and colleges and to learn about our reforms to the curriculum, to the teaching of reading and our academies and free schools programme.

“It is more important than ever that this approach continues in the coming months and years as we look to our international partners, in bringing forward even more vital improvements to our education system."

Phoebe Waller-Bridge defends 'privilege' as she says it's not a fair criticism of her work

In an interview with writer and author Elizabeth Day on her podcast How to Fail, Waller-Bridge, 33, admitted that although the hit BBC comedy is told through the "prism of a very middle class family”, she was using them as a device to “tell a story that was emotional”.

Her comments came after the second series of Fleabag, which aired on BBC Three earlier this year, was reviewed as a show reserved for “posh girls”.

As a guest on the podcast for the second time, Waller-Bridge, who grew up in Ealing, West London and had a private education, laid bare that she has never pretended to be from a lower class.

Instead, she defended her upbringing, claiming she would have been inspired to write the story - now also a sold-out West End play - regardless of where she lived.