Former Coundon Court head in bid to be Coventry councillor

A highly-respected former Coventry school headteacher is back – and is standing to become a city councillor.



Ex-Coundon Court school head David Kershaw says he is dedicating his retirement to his “drive to improve the lives of thousands of vulnerable children”.

It’s a “retirement” which has already seen eight years as executive head at disadvantaged schools in Leicester and Bradford, his home town.

He was tasked by the Labour government to turn-around those poor performing schools, after transforming Coundon Court’s reputation over 21 years before he retired in 2001.

Mr Kershaw says he helped achieve dramatic improvements, and lifted those schools out of special measures.

Now the grandfather of seven is to stand in Bablake ward for Labour in May’s Coventry City Council elections, seeking to overturn a Conservative majority.

He says his achievements in the last decade would have been impossible without Labour’s extra investment in schools.

Yet his bid to become a politician comes as an OECD study challenged whether that huge extra investment provided real improvements in educational standards, despite better exam results.

He also accepts government spending cuts are needed to reduce the deficit left behind by Labour.

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