Ed Balls: Articles: House of Commons statement on the Schools White Paper

Schools White Paper: Statement to Parliament (click for larger view)

House of Commons statement on the Schools White Paper

30/Jun/2009

Mr Speaker, over the past 12 years school standards have risen significantly in our country – and our education system has changed beyond recognition:

- the number of secondary schools with at least 30% of pupils failing to achieve five good GCSEs including English and maths has fallen from over half in 1997 to just 1 in 7 schools today;

- we now have over 40,000 more teachers, backed up by over 200,000 more support staff;

- and we now also have 200 National Leaders of Education ? compared to none in 1997.

Our best state schools now match the best schools in the private sector and anywhere in the world.

And the reason is that we have rebuilt the school system on a foundation of sustained record investment matched by tough accountability.

And that is why we can now go further and transform our schools system to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Mr Speaker, our country faces:

- an economic imperative – because every young person now needs skills and qualifications to succeed;

- and a moral imperative – because every child and every young person has potential and can do well with the right help and support.

And it is to meet these twin imperatives that I am today publishing our 21st Century Schools White Paper based on:

- new guarantees for pupils and parents;

- a significant devolution of power and responsibility to our school leaders, matched by strengthened school accountability;

- and an uncompromising approach to school improvement – because we want every child to succeed and we will never give up on any child.

The Pupil Guarantee

First, Mr Speaker, we will now legislate for our Pupil Guarantee to ensure:

- all young people get a broad and balanced curriculum and high quality qualifications, whether their strengths are practical, academic or both;

- every secondary pupil has a personal tutor;

- all pupils get 5 hours of PE and sport every week and access to cultural activities too;

- gifted and talented pupils get written confirmation of the extra challenge and support they will receive;

- all pupils with additional needs get extra help, with 4,000 extra dyslexia teachers;

- all pupils in Years 3 to 6 falling behind in English or maths get one-to-one tuition to help them get back on track;

- we will now extend the offer of one to one or small group tuition to all pupils at the start of secondary school who were behind at the end of primary school.

And following the report of the expert group on assessment, we will now introduce a new progress check at the end of Year 7 so parents can be confident their children have made up the lost ground.

Parents Guarantee

Mr Speaker, our new Parents Guarantee will ensure:

- regular online information about their child’s progress, behaviour and attendance;

- access to their child’s personal tutor;

- fair school admissions in line with the Admissions Code;

- that parents’ views will be listened to and reported on the School Report Card so parents know what other parents think when choosing a school;

- and where parents are unhappy with the choice of schools on offer to them, based on an annual survey of parents, local authorities will have to listen and respond to their concerns.

And because all parents want their children to learn at an orderly school where they are safe from bullying and lessons are not disrupted by bad behaviour, we will now legislate to strengthen Home-School Agreements so that:

- all pupils and parents will accept the school’s rules when they apply for a school place and expected to sign up to renew their commitment every year;

- schools will have stronger powers to enforce discipline through intensive support, parenting contracts and parenting orders;

- and parents will have the right to complain and expect action if schools fail to act to enforce the Home School Agreement.

Strong Leadership

Mr Speaker, building on the success of the National Strategies’ literacy and numeracy hours – which will continue in all schools, with Ofsted continuing to inspect them as now – we will devolve power and funding to school leaders to decide, with ring-fenced funding, what support they need to further drive up standards.

We will ensure that schools can get the support they need from other services through Children’s Trust Boards and encourage multi-agency teams based in schools.

The new chair of our independent bureaucracy watchdog will review any unnecessary obstacles which get in the way of delivery.

And building on the success of our National Leaders in Education and Academies programmes, we will now act so that our best head teachers can run more than one school – with better pay for Executive Heads.

We will accredit high performing schools, colleges and universities to run chains of schools in not-for-profit Accredited Schools Groups – with the first providers up and running by January.

Already 9 schools, one multi-Academy sponsor, 4 colleges and 4 universities, including Nottingham University, have come forward – and I am today setting aside funds over the next two years to support their growth.

Strengthened Accountability

Mr Speaker, we will match this transformation in school leadership with a transformation in school accountability.

School league tables are easy to read.

But because they present a narrow view of performance, based solely on the attainment of the average pupil, they cannot provide the full picture parents need.

Our new School Report Card will include full information on school attainment, but will go well beyond it.

It will set out clearly for parents:

- how the school is improving standards;

- how well it is helping those pupils who have fallen behind to catch up, and stretching the most able;

- it will report on discipline, attendance, sport, healthy eating and partnership working;

- and it will set out what parents and pupils think of the school.

We will begin pilots of our School Report Card this September.

But while we will consult further, I am now convinced that if parents, newspapers and websites are to make fair, clear and easy to understand comparisons between schools, our School Report Card will need to include a single, overall grade.

The Workforce

Mr Speaker, because a world-class schools system needs a world-class workforce, we are making teaching a Masters-level profession.

And we will now introduce a new ‘licence to teach’ similar to that used by other high-status professionals like doctors and lawyers.

Teachers will need to keep their practice up to date to renew their license – and they will be given a new entitlement for continued professional development.

We will start with newly qualified teachers beginning their training this September, those returning to teaching from September 2010 and all supply teachers shortly afterwards.

And we will make governing bodies slimmer, more highly-skilled and require all Chairs to undergo specific new training.

School Improvement

Mr Speaker, the primary responsibility for school improvement lies with head teachers and governing bodies.

But where progress is too slow and performance does not improve, local authorities have a responsibility to act.

Since we set out our National Challenge and our coasting schools challenge, local authorities have drawn up improvement plans and we have announced 55 new Academies and 27 National Challenge Trusts.

Today I am giving the go-ahead to 2 new Academies in Halton and in Redcar and Cleveland – and confirming funding agreements for 2 further Academies in Nottingham and Herefordshire – all replacing National Challenge schools.

Some argue that where underperformance is entrenched, locally-led change isn’t working and excuses are being made, the right approach is to:

- stand back;

- let schools wither and slowly decline;

- and allow the children and young people in those schools to pay the price.

I disagree.

We have a responsibility in government to step in and demand improvement.

I will not shirk that responsibility.

Mr Speaker, following Ofsted’s December 2008 assessment of Milton Keynes - which found children’s services to be inadequate, with serious weaknesses in secondary school attainment and improvement - we commissioned an independent performance review.

Despite some progress, the review concluded that urgent improvement is still required.

The Children’s Minister has today written to the Council directing them under Section 497A of the Education Act 1996:

- immediately to appoint Mr Peter Kemp to chair an independent improvement board that will report directly to Ministers;

- and to submit and agree an improvement plan.

The Schools Minister and I are concerned about the rate of progress in Leicester, where we issued an improvement notice last June.

So I am today asking Sir Mike Tomlinson, the chair of our National Challenge Expert Advisers, to provide us with a progress report in September. And on the basis of his report and this summer’s results, we will consider whether further action is needed.

I am also asking our Expert Advisers to work with Blackpool and Gloucestershire – areas that need to make more progress - to identify what more needs to be done to deliver National Challenge and report back to me on progress in September.

If this year’s exam results reveal serious weaknesses in these areas, or any area of the country, I will do whatever it takes to secure the progress of children and young people.