Catherine McKinnell is the new schools minister, one of her Department for Education colleagues has confirmed. The MP for Newcastle North was appointed to Bridget Phillipson鈥檚 ministerial team earlier this week. Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary and schools minister, was given a seat in the House of Lords and appointed further and higher education minister over the weekend. Smith , which she previously hosted with broadcaster Iain Dale, that McKinnell would be taking on the 鈥渟chools role鈥� in the new team. Governments are free to set and change the roles ministers hold, so there is no guarantee McKinnell will have the exact same set of responsibilities as previous schools ministers. But here鈥檚 what we know about McKinnell. 1. She was born in Newcastle in 1976 At 48, she is far from the oldest politician to serve as schools minister in recent years. Nick Gibb was 63 when he stood down last year. But she is by no means the youngest either. Jonathan Gullis was 32 when he was appointed (albeit briefly) in 2022. 2. She‘s been MP for Newcastle North since 2010 After her election she served as shadow solicitor general, shadow children鈥檚 minister, a shadow Treasury minister and shadow attorney general. However, she resigned from the latter role in 2016 citing the “negative path” she claimed Labour was following under leader Jeremy Corbyn. She later served on the education committee, Treasury committee and chaired the petitions committee in Parliament. 3. She attended comprehensive school McKinnell attended Sacred Heart Comprehensive School in Fenham. She studied politics and history at Edinburgh and then Law at Northumbria before working as an employment solicitor. We reported last week that Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet was on track to be the most comprehensively-educated ever. 4. She faced off against a prominent Tory teacher Mark Lehain, free school founder and former head of the New Schools Network and Parents and Teachers for Excellence, challenged McKinnell at the 2019 general election, losing by more than 5,700 votes. He went on to become a DfE special adviser. 5. She has promised Ofsted reform quickly McKinnell received a baptism of fire last year, appearing at the Labour Party conference just weeks after her appointment. Pressed on Labour’s plans for Ofsted, she told one panel 鈥渋t really does feel that we have a system currently where inspections aren鈥檛 just dreaded, but ineffective鈥�. 鈥淭hey are adding to the recruitment and retention crisis in our schools. And they are providing very little useful information for parents.鈥� She pledged to reform Ofsted 鈥渋n the shortest time possible鈥� but with the 鈥済reatest engagement possible鈥�. 6. She’s already spoken about school issues in the role Responding to yesterday鈥檚 SATs results. She thanked 鈥渁ll our wonderful teachers and staff who tirelessly supported children to prepare for the assessments earlier in the year鈥�. But she said 鈥渄espite the brilliance of our teachers, these figures show there are far too many pupils who are not meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, and almost total stagnation in progress nationally over the past three years鈥�. 7. She wants the ‘joy of learning’ back in schools McKinnell has spoken about how she wants to put 鈥渢he joy of teaching and the joy of learning鈥� back into schools. She that the previous government was 鈥渞ightly proud鈥� of the phonics programme, but that she wanted to look at 鈥渉ow much people are building those broader skills鈥�. 8. ‘Shared interests’ with boss Phillipson She was elected at the same time as her boss, Bridget Phillipson, and they both represent north east constituencies. She said last year they had 鈥渁lways maintained a lot of shared interests鈥�. 9. A campaigner and ‘details person’ McKinnell has described herself as a 鈥渄etails person鈥� and said she was 鈥渁lways a campaigner鈥 like to know what鈥檚 underneath what鈥檚 being said and why it鈥檚 being said and really get to grips with something鈥�. However, in an interview with LBC around a month ago, McKinnell was unable to say how many free breakfasts the party would provide under its breakfast clubs policy.