LIKE the vast majority of parents, I have been busy preparing for the new school term. So it means new school uniforms, checking the PE kit to see if it fits still (and it never does) and doing a stocktake on pens, pencils, rulers etc. This has been the Foster family routine for the last 12 years, with the promise of a few more years still to go.

But over that period, what has happened in our schools? Are they better or worse than 12 years ago?

Let’s look at the evidence.

Back in 1997, fewer than four in 10 pupils left school with five or more A* to C GCSE grades.

If we take Worcester’s Christopher Whitehead Language College as an example – but the same applies to our other schools – the achievement rate in 1997 was 36 per cent, this year it has nearly doubled to 67 per cent.

These are not one-year wonders either, but steady improvements over the years.

At primary school, the same pattern emerges. If we take Warndon Primary School, in Worcester, as our example, in 1997 the average Key Stage 2 pass rate was 55 per cent – last year it was 89 per cent.

At Dines Green Primary, a pass rate in 1997 of just 30 per cent is now 67 per cent.

So our children are getting the best educational results for a decade, and I’ll go even further, and say best results ever.

But there is no complacency from me. Can results improve further?

Yes. Should we be challenging and supporting our schools to achieve more? Again, yes.

So what of the inputs? With their three-year budgets, school funding has more than doubled over the same period. Cash for capital building programmes has increased seven-fold. We have more teachers than ever before, and they are the best-qualified generation of teachers ever.

Locally, a senior council official told me that our overall pupil:teacher ratio is now amongst the best in the country.

Can we do more? Yes. Can we invest in extra resources, new books, equipment, and additional teaching assistants? Yes.

Is this transformation an accident?

No. It came about because a Labour government made education its priority.

The Conservatives opposed our curriculum reforms, they voted against the extra cash allocations.

They still plan to stop the complete rebuilding programme for secondary schools in Worcester.

Education still has the capacity to change lives and parents preparing for the new school year starting next week should reflect on what changes have taken place over the last 10 years.

Back in 1997 our campaign theme tune was ‘Things can only get better’ – in our schools they have.