Looking Backwards to Move Forward: Why Politics Belongs in Every Classroom

There is a peculiar rhythm to British political rhetoric at the moment. Britain's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, opened his premiership by looking backward rather than forward — arguing that the country took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” and pledging to reverse four decades of centralisation and privatisation. His critics pounced on the irony almost immediately: a Prime Minister promising renewal by rewinding the clock.

Whichever side of that argument you sit on, the pattern itself is worth pausing on. Every generation of political leaders reaches into the past to build its case for the future. The 1970s and 80s are not settled history to today's politicians; they are live material, picked up and reframed according to the argument of the day. What one leader calls a wrong turn, another calls a golden age. The past doesn't change — but the story we tell about it does, constantly, in service of where we want to go next.

If that's true in Downing Street, it is just as true for the young people watching it unfold on their phones, half-following the argument but sensing, correctly, that something significant is happening. Give them the tools to properly interrogate it, and you don't just create better-informed citizens. You create people who can tell the difference between a genuine lesson drawn from history and a slogan simply borrowed from it — a skill that, frankly, more of us could use.

That is exactly why, this September, St David's College is introducing Politics as part of our curriculum for the first time.

A New Teacher, A New Subject

We're delighted to be welcoming Mathew John Owen to our teaching family as History & Politics Teacher. Mathew's arrival marks the introduction of Politics into our curriculum — a subject our students have been increasingly curious about, and one we cannot wait to bring to life in the classroom.

Mathew joins us from St Gerard's School, where as History and Politics Lead he built a reputation for academic excellence, creative curriculum design, and a genuine gift for getting young people engaged with the world around them. His interactive assemblies and student-led activities around the 2026 Senedd Election culminated in a whole-school mock election — and, remarkably, around 90% of eligible students went on to cast their vote in the real thing, many for the very first time. That is precisely the hands-on, inspiring approach we want to see more of at St David's: not politics as an abstract subject revised for an exam, but as something students do, debate, and ultimately own.

Academically, Mathew is exceptionally well qualified — a First-Class BA in History from Bangor University, a PGCE in History, and an MA in Modern History from the University of York. He also brings valuable experience across the wider humanities, along with a genuine passion for inclusive teaching that helps learners of all needs achieve outstanding outcomes. His outstanding subject knowledge, his commitment to personalised learning, and his ability to inspire curiosity and confidence make him an excellent addition to our teaching team, and we look forward to seeing our students benefit from his expertise and enthusiasm for History and Politics.

Why Now

At St David's, our students already live and learn inside history. Gloddaeth Hall itself has stood for more than 500 years, adapted and reimagined across centuries, and for 61 of those years, it has been home to St David's College, honouring what lasts, while challenging what needs to change. That, it turns out, is not a bad description of politics itself.

Understanding why a Prime Minister reaches for 1980, or why his opponents reach right back at him with the same decade, requires more than following the news. It requires the historical grounding to know what actually happened, and the political literacy to recognise how and why it is being retold. Teaching these two subjects together, as Mathew will, is not a curriculum convenience. It is, we think, the only honest way to teach either one properly.

We are not interested in producing students who can recite a timeline. We want young people who leave St David's able to sit with complexity, question a convenient narrative — including our own — and bring empathy and clarity to a world that can feel like it is constantly reinventing its own past. That is the kind of leadership Britain will need long after this particular news cycle has moved on to its next reference point. It is also, we believe, exactly what an education rooted in endeavour, compassion and belonging should be preparing them for.

Politics arrives at St David's College this September. We could not be more excited to see where our students take it.