ANDOVER’S MP has paid a visit to a pair of schools to meet with students and see how the schools were doing.

MP for North West Hampshire Kit Malthouse visited Balksbury School and Harrow Way Community School on Friday, November 18.

Speaking after the visits, Mr Malthouse said: “Both schools have been on an improvement journey over the last few years, and are doing really well now.

“And also given the work that I’ve done on making sure the government invested more money in schools, I was very keen to visit them both and understand what more I could do to help.”

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At Balksbury, Mr Malthouse met with the school’s leadership team, before meeting with a group of Year 5 pupils who asked him questions about his job as an MP and what life is like in Parliament.

Later, at Harrow Way, Mr Malthouse met with the school’s headteacher Mike Serridge as well as the head and deputy head pupils, who gave him “a proper grilling”, challenging Mr Malthouse on topics such as Brexit and the environment.

Mr Malthouse said: “We had a good exchange of views, and it was really pleasing to see four such curious and vigorous young people leading the school.”

Mr Malthouse said that he was happy with what he saw at both schools.

He continued: “When I first became a member of Parliament, I think it’s fair to say that the education in Andover was not in great shape.

“There were some schools doing fine, but there were plenty that weren’t, and over the last seven years we’ve seen a very significant improvement.

“Winton is doing well and expanding, obviously John Hanson had a tricky time but is now in shape, and Harrow Way just seems to be going from strength to strength, so from a secondary point of view things seem to be much improved.

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“And the same is true amongst the primary schools.

“And it’s all part of the future success of Andover; if you look at a town like ours, if you’re going to have a really fantastic future, that will rest on a fantastic education for the people who live here and it looks to me more and more like that is being delivered.”