I began my day with a visit to William Davies Primary School on Stafford Road. Each year group at the school gave excellent performances, demonstrating different ways that they learn subjects like maths and spelling. Also, many parents at the school have recently completed a course that will enable them to help their children better.  I was very happy to present awards to them, and very much enjoyed the presentations from the children.

After this I went to the Kitchen Table Café to meet with Save the Children to discuss the Child Poverty Bill that I am responsible for as a Minister, and also discuss future campaign ideas, that will help with their mission as a charity.  Adrian Lovett, the senior Save the Children official who was present, used to work in my House of Commons office.

I then had four meetings with local constituents. Two of the meetings concerned local matters to them; housing and anti social behaviour. I was able to write to Newham Council on their behalf, and will continue to chase a positive outcome for them. I was delighted to meet another constituent to help her with career decisions.  Finally I met a constituent who has very interesting proposals for East Ham, involving linking areas of our town centre with areas of other countries.

I ended my day in a similar way to how I started it, this time at Lathom Junior School. They are launching an excellent scheme, where primary schools in South Africa and London link together to learn from one another. Teachers from the South African schools were at the presentation, and I was delighted to give a short speech.  The twinning has a sporting theme, around the two big events which our two countries will host: the World Cup in South Africa and Olympics in London.