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Foreword 3

Introduction 4

Chapter 1 Transforming Education 8

Our vision 8

The Early Years Framework 10

The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies in primary schools 10

The modernisation of secondary education 11

The modernisation of the teaching profession 11

Our achievements so far: the evidence 12

A strategic approach to reform 14

Chapter 2 Early Years 18

There is already better support for families and more provision… 18

… But we need to do more to achieve our ambitions 24

We will create a smoother transition into school 27

Chapter 3 Primary Education Transformed 28

Transformation has begun … 28

…And we will ensure it continues 31

Chapter 4 Transforming Secondary Education 42

We have made progress… 42

… But transformation is now the task 44

Extending diversity 44

Raising standards for 11–14 year olds (Key Stage 3) 50

We will introduce new pathways for 14–19 year olds 52

Secondary schools in challenging circumstances 55

We will promote ‘education with character’ 61

Chapter 5 Teaching – a 21st Century Profession 64

Reforming initial teacher training 66

Recruiting teachers to make a difference 67

Enhancing professional development 70

Improving leadership 71

Building new career paths 72

Enabling teachers to teach 73

Rewarding a key role in society 77

Chapter 6 The Capacity to Deliver 78

Resources 78

ICT 81

Building capacity 84

CONTENTS

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This Green Paper sets out the achievements of theeducation service over the last few years and ourplans for the years ahead. It shows how we cancreate an education service which plays to thestrength of every individual, provides a commonunderstanding of the knowledge base on which oursociety rests, promotes appreciation of the valueswhich hold our communities together and generatesthe aspiration to learn from the past in order tocontribute to the future. We seek to ensure that,in providing a firm grounding of accumulatedknowledge, we also enable individuals to reason, todeduce, to think logically and to develop creativity. Inshort, we want a rounded education for every child.

In setting out plans for the future we have beencareful to propose that we build on what has beenachieved, see through what has begun, work inpartnership with all those involved and, above all, thatwe are able to invest in the process of modernisationand change. By approaching reform this way we canensure that it has a deep and lasting impact on pupilachievement and on the key goal of equality ofopportunity and the development of the full potentialof every young person.

FOREWORD

David BlunkettSecretary of State for Education and Employment

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In this Parliament we said that we would get thebasics right in primary schools. We have done so.Standards of literacy and numeracy have beentransformed, thanks to an historic partnership forchange between teachers, parents and Government.And our pledge to cut infant class sizes of more than30 will be delivered nationwide by this September.There is further progress to make in primary and earlyyears provision, as set out in this paper, but thefoundations are secure.

Our mission now is to bring about a similartransformation in secondary schools. This is not just amatter of new investment and individual policies toimprove standards, important though these are,particularly with regard to raising the status andrewards of the teaching profession. Our primaryschool strategy was designed to extend the bestteaching methods nationwide, based on a clearconception of the requirements of a good primaryschool. Our secondary strategy is similarly anchoredin the achievements of the best schools today and inthe requirements of a good secondary education inthe knowledge economy and modern society.

Those requirements can be simply stated. Everysecondary age pupil must be competent in the basicsof literacy, numeracy and ICT and experience a broadcurriculum beyond. Every secondary school pupil,having achieved this basic competence, must havetheir particular aptitudes and abilities recognised anddeveloped to the full, particularly after the age of 14,so that they achieve good formal qualifications by theage of 16 and the means to progress beyond tofurther or higher education or formal work-relatedtraining. And every secondary school should instil inits pupils a strong sense of independence andresponsibility, to themselves and their widercommunity. Our goal across education is that everyboy and girl, every man and woman should have theopportunity to develop their potential to the full.

These demands are significantly greater than thosemade of secondary schools in the last generation, andwe must be explicit in recognising the changesrequired of our secondary schools in consequence.

Until the very recent past, for all the ideals animatingeducation reformers, only a minority of pupilsachieved good school-leaving qualifications, whilelevels of drop-out and underperformance remainedstubbornly high. Even today, despite realimprovements since 1997 through the Excellence inCities and specialist schools programmes, andtargeted intervention in the weakest schools, fewerthan half of 16 year olds achieve 5 or more goodGCSEs, while levels of complete drop-out and theproportion achieving barely any qualifications, thoughreduced, remain unacceptably high. In last year’sstatutory tests for 14 year olds, just 6 in 10 were at anacceptable standard for their age in each of English,mathematics and science.

This historic poor performance was rooted in societyand the economy. Parental expectations of secondaryschools were generally low, particularly in regions withplentiful unskilled ‘jobs for life’ in the local industries.Throughout the economy the demand for skills andqualifications, and all types of further and highereducation, was also far lower than today. There wasgeneral acceptance that only a minority would reachthe age of 16 with significant formal skills andqualifications, particularly if destined for a vocationalroute beyond.

INTRODUCTION

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These forces shaped the comprehensive system as itdeveloped in the 1960s and 70s. So too did thelegacy of the post-1944 selective system to which thecomprehensives were a reaction. Established inopposition to a very rigid and unfair system ofselection between schools at the age of 11, the needto differentiate provision to individual aptitudes andabilities within schools often took second place.Inclusion too readily became an end in itself, ratherthan the means to identify and provide better for thetalents of each individual pupil, not least those withhigh academic abilities and those requiring a high-quality vocational or work-related route post-14.

Furthermore, comprehensives were mostly establishedby local reorganisations on a model which, apart fromthe continuing role of Church schools and pre-existingfoundations, allowed little scope for schools todevelop a distinctive character and mission.Inadequate resourcing further limited the scope forschools to tailor their provision to individual needs anddevelop Centres of Excellence in particular areas.

Significant change is taking place on all these fronts.Expectations of pupils, and their achievements atGCSE and rates of progression to post-16education, are rising steadily. Provision withinschools is increasingly differentiated, including farmore ability setting and a broadening of curriculumoptions. Under the influence of local management ofschools and a new culture of strong schoolleadership by headteachers and governors, bothgreatly extended by this Government, schools are forging distinct missions and ethos withincreasing confidence – whether as specialistschools, community or foundation schools with aparticular strength and a strong sense of individualidentity, or faith schools.

Schools with effective leadership and a strong senseof individual character and responsibility foster thesesame qualities in their pupils. Very many secondaryschools now achieve high standards for manyof their pupils. Under the leadership of effectiveheadteachers, their governors and managementteams, they have moved beyond the old argumentsabout comprehensive schools to create a systemappropriate for the 21st century – embracing withoutreservation the principles of inclusion and equality ofopportunity on which comprehensives were founded,but moving decisively beyond to tailor provision tomeet the full range of individual talents, with apowerful sense of individual character and mission.

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INTRODUCTION


Our ambition is to extend this best practice radically,moving the secondary system as a whole into a newera in which inclusion and equality of opportunity are aplatform to promote excellence for all and to forge astrong character and ethos, school by school, focusedon raising standards. Individual empowerment is thekey – empowerment of each individual pupil todevelop their talents to the full, and empowerment ofeach individual school to achieve steadily more.

We want a secondary school system in which: • Every pupil is good at all the basics, and striving for

excellence in the areas of their greatest strength.• Every school is good at all the basics, and excellent

at much more.• Every school has a distinct mission, ethos and

character, and the autonomy to manage its ownaffairs provided it demonstrates success.

The extension of autonomy and diversity is notan argument for a free-for-all between schools orfor dismantling all local education services. Asheadteachers themselves recognise, certain services– such as school transport and the organisation ofprovision to meet children’s Special EducationalNeeds – are essential to support the work of schoolsand meet the needs of pupils. Few headteacherswish to spend time organising transport. It is alsovital to retain a capacity to intervene in schoolswhose management and standards are weak andnot being improved with sufficient vigour. Freedommust be earned, not conferred at whim withoutregard to the interests of children or the needs of thelocal community.

Within this framework, there is great scope to increaseschool standards, autonomy and diversity, ensuringthat every secondary school provides an educationincreasingly tailored to the needs of all its pupils.Building on the best practice of schools today, and theambitions of our best schools for the future, this Papersets out policies to transform secondary educationover the immediate future and the medium term.

INTRODUCTION

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We will:• Significantly enhance the ‘earned autonomy’ of

successful schools, by further increasing thedelegation of budgets to them, restricting needlessbureaucratic burdens (including those associatedwith the inspection process), and by allowing them thegreater freedoms over the curriculum and teachers’pay and conditions, that schools in Education ActionZones have under the 1998 legislation.

• Extend diversity within the secondary system, onthe basis of high standards, by significantlyexpanding the specialist schools programme,welcoming more faith-based schools, continuing toestablish City Academies, and changing the law toallow external sponsors to take responsibilityfor underperforming schools against fixed-termcontracts of five to seven years with renewal subjectto performance.

• Proceed with a standards drive in the earlysecondary years, with ambitious targets forperformance in tests for 14 year olds in English,mathematics, science and ICT, with appropriatesupport and training for teachers and schools.

• Promote new pathways for pupils beyond 14,better suited to the talents and aspirations ofindividual pupils, particularly those of high abilityand those wishing to proceed on vocational andwork-based routes.

None of this can be achieved without sustainedinvestment, particularly in the teaching profession andin the infrastructure – including buildings, ICT andincreasing revenue budgets – essential for schools tosucceed. We have made a good start here too: acapital programme trebled over the past four years,and a step-change in pay for teachers passing thenew performance threshold. This Paper renews ourcommitment to improving the rewards and conditionsof teaching, and to providing the infrastructureessential for teachers to succeed. The Prime Ministerhas pledged the Government to increase the share ofnational income devoted to education over the nextfive years, which will make this possible.

But investment with modernisation is the imperative.By seizing this opportunity to modernise oursecondary system on the model of today’s bestschools, while encouraging the best to advancefurther and faster, we can carry through atransformation of secondary education to match thechanges now progressing in primary. There is nogreater mission for this Government.

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INTRODUCTION


OUR VISION

1.1 The Government’s determination to pursueeducation reform and bring about a step-change inthe performance of the education service has neverbeen in doubt. Since May 1997 we have sought withpassion and purpose to put into practice the PrimeMinister’s commitment to make education his toppriority. We want a world class education service: onewith standards which match the best anywhere in theworld. We want them achieved not at someindeterminate future date but as soon as possiblewithin the decade that has just begun.

1.2 Our sense of urgency comes from the belief thatevery passing day when a child is not able to fulfil theirpotential is another day lost, not only to that child butto the whole community. It comes too from theimperative for public education to prove that it canrespond to the challenges of the new economy. Thedanger is that as the most prosperous parts of oursociety grow, more parents with increasing income attheir disposal will turn to private education, particularlyat secondary level. If this were to occur on a largescale, growing numbers of people would become lesswilling to pay taxes to fund public education whichwould then decline in quality and provide only for thedisadvantaged. It is hard to imagine under thosecircumstances how social cohesion could be achievedand how the transmission of ever-growing inequalityfrom one generation to the next could be avoided.

1.3 We believe, however, that successful reform ispossible; that public education can meet the talentsand aspirations of all students in our diverse, modernsociety; and that it need not take forever. The fulldevelopment of the potential of every boy and girl,and every man and woman, is our goal. This is, inessence, our vision for education in England.

1.4 We now have an opportunity, possibly unique, toachieve that vision. Education is a recognised priority,not just for Government, but also for society as awhole. It is seen not only as key to developing equalityof opportunity, but also to enabling the nation toprepare for the emergence of the new economy andits increased demands for skills and human capital.Expenditure on education is increasing in real termsyear on year. In addition to real terms growthaveraging more than 6 per cent per year between1999–2000 and 2003–04, the Prime Minister hasalready promised the longest continuous rise ininvestment in education spending for more than ageneration, with his statement that expenditure oneducation will rise as a proportion of national incomeover the next Parliament. Continuity and consistencycan achieve transformation in a way that one-offbursts followed by retrenchment never could.

1.5 Furthermore, personal tax and benefit changesintroduced in this Parliament will lift more than amillion children out of poverty. If it is not possible toreform education successfully in these favourablecircumstances, it is hard to imagine when it would be.

1.6 The Government is conscious of its starting point.In a 1995 study of adult literacy, the UK fell behindmost European countries, performing similarly to theUnited States. At around the same time England fellbelow the OECD average in a study of mathematicsfor 13 year olds. And in 1996 fewer than six out of ten11 year olds achieved the standards set for their agein English and mathematics.

1.7 Meanwhile, the level of participation in learningafter the age of 16 was amongst the lowest in Europe,and the proportion leaving school unqualified or withlow levels of qualification was unacceptably highcompared to other developed countries. Furthermore,years of underperformance, conflict and poorlyimplemented reform had demoralised teachers andcreated a widespread lack of confidence in publicly-provided education.

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CHAPTER 1 TRANSFORMING EDUCATION


1.8 In order to move from this starting point to theworld class vision, we developed and put in place apolicy approach best described as ‘high challenge,high support’. This is illustrated in the diagram below.

1.9 This framework is designed to make continuous improvement for all schools in allcircumstances a reality.

• The revised National Curriculum sets the standards.• More funding is devolved to schools than in any

other country, with additional funding, throughprogrammes like Excellence in Cities, beingtargeted to those facing the greatest challenge.

• All schools set targets and measure their performanceon the basis of excellent comparative data.

• They can easily access best practice information,for example through the Standards Site and theNational Grid for Learning.

• They have increasing opportunities for professionaldevelopment of staff.

• They have increased resources, and many moresupport staff in classrooms.

• They are held to account through inspection and thepublished performance tables.

• Intervention is in inverse proportion to success:schools that are underperforming are the subject ofan intervention tailored to their specificcircumstances; a successful school may be subjectto shorter inspections, and has opportunities to leadthe service, for example through becoming aBeacon school.

1.10 The emerging evidence from this country, andothers where similar standards-based reforms havebeen made, gives us confidence that this frameworkfor continuous school improvement is bringing risingstandards and will continue to do so. It has beensupported by our reforms of Local EducationAuthorities, which now have a clear remit to raisestandards. Our principle is that schools manageschools. The Local Education Authority's job is toprovide certain essential local services, and to serveas an agent for school improvement where this is nothappening at school level. We have significantlyincreased the level of delegation of both revenue andcapital direct to schools. Inspections of LocalEducation Authorities and the firm follow-up action wehave taken where there is evidence of failure have alsosignificantly driven up the overall level of performance.

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HIGHCHALLENGE

HIGHSUPPORT

AMBITIOUSSTANDARDS

DEVELOPEDRESPONSIBILITY

GOOD DATA & CLEAR TARGETS

ACCESS TO BEST PRACTICE &

QUALITY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ACCOUNTABILITY

INTERVENTION IN INVERSE PROPORTION

TO SUCCESS


1.11 In order to achieve a real step-change in theperformance and equity of the system, we havedeveloped and are implementing four programmes,each aligned with the framework for continuousimprovement: an early years framework; the NationalLiteracy and Numeracy Strategies at primary level; themodernisation of secondary education; and themodernisation and improvement of the teachingprofession and of the context within which teachingtakes place.

THE EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORK

1.12 For too long the education service failed toprovide universally available early years opportunities.The degree of access depended on local provision.The voucher scheme for nursery education for 4 yearolds did not solve this historic problem.

1.13 In areas of disadvantage, we have establishedSure Start. So far 128 local programmes have been setup to provide support to families with children betweenbirth and 3. Over 100,000 children are already involved,and we will extend the initiative to 500 localprogrammes to benefit 400,000 children under 4. Thisinvestment will make a difference to families in the shortand medium term but above all it is an investment inhigher school standards and greater social cohesion inten or fifteen years time. It is a crucial step towardsbreaking the cycle of deprivation.

1.14 Through early years partnerships we havealready put in place nursery education for all 4 year olds and are progressively making this availablefor all 3 year olds. We have gone further. Through co-ordinating nursery education and childcare, we aremaking wrap-around care available, so that parentscan work, knowing that their children will be lookedafter throughout the day. Early Excellence Centreshave been established to model best practice. Thenew Foundation Stage of education for ages 3 to 6provides a set of early learning goals and bettercontinuity between the early years and school. Newinspection arrangements will ensure that all earlyyears settings are of real quality. As a result, morechildren than ever will arrive at school ready to learn.Our plans for building on these achievements are setout in Chapter 2.

THE NATIONAL LITERACY AND NUMERACYSTRATEGIES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

1.15 Our education system will never be worldclass unless virtually all children learn to read, writeand calculate to high standards before they leaveprimary school.

1.16 We have therefore given top priority to anational strategy to achieve this goal, settingambitious national targets for 2002: that in English80 per cent and in mathematics 75 per cent of 11year olds should meet the standards set for theirage. These targets are staging posts on the way toeven higher levels of performance. To achieve themwe have progressively put in place what the leadingCanadian educator, Michael Fullan, has calledamong the most ambitious, comprehensive andaligned national strategies anywhere in the world.Primary teachers, heads and support staff haveresponded magnificently.

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1.17 Their impact is evident in the national testresults over the last three years. The excellentprogress so far is only the beginning. Our intentionis to pursue the strategies consistently, to refinethem and to invest in professional development forprimary teachers through to 2004 at least. Ourplans for enabling primary schools to advancebeyond their current remarkable achievements areset out in Chapter 3.

THE MODERNISATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

1.18 Our drive for world class performance demandsthat we modernise secondary education so that itbuilds on rather than dissipates the growing successof the primary sector. We need our best schools tostrive harder still. We need all pupils to be achievingas highly as they are able. We also need to narrow theachievement gap both between schools indisadvantaged areas and those elsewhere andbetween schools which have succeeded against theodds and those with historically low levels ofachievement. Over the last two years, through theearly implementation of Excellence in Cities and thepilot of our programme to raise standards for 11–14year olds, we have made a start. All the evidencesuggests that there has been improvement atsecondary level but there is much more to do.

1.19 Bringing about a step-change at secondarylevel is the top priority for the next phase of reform. Amajor transformation is planned, both of the transitionfrom primary to secondary school and of the quality ofteaching and learning in both lower and uppersecondary education. We plan to ensure that eachsecondary school is excellent in providing the centralcore of learning but also has a clear mission andethos, so that it makes its own distinctivecontribution. Our proposals are set out in Chapter 4.

THE MODERNISATION OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION

1.20 The success of the Literacy and NumeracyStrategies shows what teachers can achieve whenthey have the right support. It proves too that nomatter how coherent our framework for schoolimprovement, no matter how successful our policiesto strengthen primary and secondary education,world class standards will elude us unless we canrecruit, retain, develop and motivate teachers andschool leaders of real quality.

1.21 There is a justified belief that society does notvalue teachers sufficiently. If economic successcontinues, the education service will be competingever more fiercely with growing demands for talentedgraduates. For all these reasons we developed in theTeachers Green Paper in December 1998 the mostradical reform of the teaching profession since theSecond World War. At the heart of this reform aremeasures, still being implemented, for payingteachers better, for providing them with more supportin the classroom and for investing more in their initialtraining and professional development, so that werecruit and retain good quality teachers.

1.22 We want teachers to be able to concentrate on teaching, planning, assessing and their ownprofessional development and to be freed from othertasks by support staff and by information technology-based systems. At times, our reforms have createdincreased workload and administrative burdens. Wehave begun to address this, by reducing dramaticallythe need for schools to bid for funds and cutting verysharply the paperwork sent to schools. Last term weachieved a two-thirds cut in the number ofdocuments sent to secondary schools and a 40 percent cut for primary schools, compared to the sameterm last year, but this is only a start.

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1.23 The steps we have taken so far to implementthese reforms and our plan to build on them to helpteachers to meet the challenges of the 21st centuryare set out in Chapter 5.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR: THE EVIDENCE

1.24 When we published the Excellence in SchoolsWhite Paper in July 1997, we set out a clear agenda.We have stuck to it firmly and, taken together, thereforms of that Paper are delivering significant results.

1.25 Among the key achievements are the following.• Universal nursery education for all 4 year olds has

been put in place. There has been a significantexpansion for 3 year olds. In total there are 120,000more free nursery places now than in 1997.

• 298,000 new childcare places, created betweenApril 1997 and September 2000, have providedcare for more than 546,000 children. Taking intoaccount turnover, this has added more than182,000 places to the stock of childcare placesavailable across England, helping more than343,000 children.

• Infant class sizes have been cut. Almost half a millionchildren were in infant classes of more than 30 inJanuary 1998. By September 2000 the number wasjust 30,000. The Government’s election pledge thatno 5, 6 or 7 year old would be in a class of morethan 30 will be met ahead of schedule in September2001, as a result of our investment of £620 million.

• The primary pupil:teacher ratio improved between1998 and 2000 from 23.7 to 23.3, after years ofsteady increases.

• There is more money going into schools. In2000–01, we are spending over £300 more perpupil in real terms than in 1997–98. In total over thenext three years we are spending a further £370 perpupil, taking the total increase to around £700 perpupil between 1997–98 and 2003–04.

• Investment in school building has tripled – from£683 million in 1996–97 to £2.1 billion in 2000–01.Over the next three years there is a further £7.8billion. By 2003-04 we will be spending £3.2 billiona year on schools capital, including £500 million offunding devolved to schools to spend as theychoose. In the next three years, we will be makingavailable almost £1 billion in devolved capital – 40per cent more than the total capital spend onschools in 1996–97. Around 17,000 schools –three-quarters of all schools – are already benefitingfrom New Deal for Schools grant funding.

• A programme of action for children with SpecialEducational Needs was outlined in the 1997 Green Paper Excellence for All Children and has been implemented.

• Investment improving the accessibility of schools forchildren with Special Educational Needs has beenincreased substantially from £4 million in 1997–98to £30 million this year, and £220 million over thenext three years.

• Thousands of schools are now working towards theNational Healthy School Standard, and all EducationAuthorities are engaged in successful partnershipswith their local health authority to support this work.The Department of Health and DfEE are jointlyproviding £5.7 million of funding annually for thisprogramme.

• A total of 20,200 schools (98 per cent of secondaryand 86 per cent of primary schools) are nowconnected to the Internet, compared to around6,500 in 1998.

• There is now one computer for every 8 pupils insecondary schools and one for every 13 in primaryschools (compared to an average of 9 secondaryand 18 primary pupils sharing a computer in 1998).The directly-managed part of the National Grid forLearning website receives some 2.5 million hitseach week.

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• Dissemination of best practice has improved. TheStandards Site (a best practice website) received 64million hits last year. Already 550 Beacon schoolsare in operation and around 4,000 excellent primaryteachers are funded to model best practice in theteaching of English and mathematics.

• We have reduced paperwork for teachers – cuttingby a third the number of documents we send toschools this year, and radically simplifying theStandards Fund, with no more bidding andstreamlined monitoring. And the number ofclassroom assistants supporting teachers hasincreased by 24,000.

• Over 450 Learning Support Units [LSUs] have beenestablished to date in Excellence in Cities areas,including 59 pilot primary LSUs to enable schools totackle the problems of disruptive pupils withoutexcluding them. We will provide £11 million in2000–01 and £17 million in 2001–02 for up to 360LSUs in areas outside the Excellence in Citiesprogramme. We aim to have over 1,000 in place by2002. As a result of these and similar targetedactions, the number of exclusions was cut by 15 percent from 1997–98 to 1998–99.

1.26 These dramatic changes in the inputs are crucialbut improvements in teaching quality and pupiloutcomes must be the acid test of our reforms. Theevidence shows just how much progress has beenmade. The policies and the investments are combiningto deliver higher quality and higher standards.

• There are now fewer unsatisfactory lessons:according to OFSTED figures the percentage isdown to 6 per cent from around 20 per cent in1994–95.

• There are fewer failing schools: over 650 have beensuccessfully turned around since 1997. Importantlytoo OFSTED has shown that once schools emergefrom special measures they continue to improve.

• Fewer schools are going into special measures: only48 in autumn 2000 compared to 69 in theequivalent term in 1999. The measures we have putin place are preventing as well as curing failure.

• More children leave primary school able to read andwrite well. Seventy-five per cent of children achievedLevel 4 in 2000 compared to just 57 per cent in1996: that is 160,000 more children meeting thestandard than four years ago.

• More children leave primary school numerate.Seventy-two per cent achieved Level 4 in 2000compared to 54 per cent in 1996: 155,000 morechildren meeting the standard than four years ago.

• Progress in primary school English and mathematicsis fastest in the most disadvantaged areas of thecountry. The lowest scoring Local EducationAuthority in Key Stage 2 English is now doing betterthan the national average of four years ago.

• More young people achieve 5 or more highergrades at GCSE – 49.2 per cent in 2000 comparedto 46.3 per cent in 1998.

• Exam and test results in the Excellence in Citiesareas are improving more quickly than in otherplaces – with a rise of 2.3 percentage pointsbetween 1999 and 2000 in those getting 5 goodGCSEs, compared to 1.3 percentage points inother areas.

• The biggest jump in standards within those cities isat the most deprived schools.

• Results for 11 year olds in the 25 round oneEducation Action Zones improved more thannational results in 2000. In English, mathematics andscience the increase between 1998 and 2000 in thenumbers meeting national standards was 11, 16 and20 percentage points respectively (compared with10, 13 and 15 percentage points nationally).

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• In specialist schools, the proportion of pupilsachieving 5 or more A*– C GCSE grades increasedby 6.1 percentage points between 1997 and 2000,half as much again as in other schools.

• The percentage of black pupils achieving 5 or moreA*– Cs at GCSE rose far faster than the nationalaverage between 1998 and 2000.

• The percentage of children of parents whoseoccupation is ‘unskilled or semi-skilled manual'achieving 5 or more A*– Cs at GCSE also rose farfaster than the national average.

• Performance at A level and in vocationalqualifications has risen steadily too throughout thelast four years.

• The number of young people leaving school with noqualifications at all has fallen from 45,000 in 1997 to33,000 in 2000.

1.27 Perhaps most importantly of all there are twofurther underlying achievements. The first is that theeducation service has demonstrated over the lastthree and a half years that rapid, fundamental reform,which really makes a difference to children and youngpeople, is possible. The old sense of despair, whichused to bedevil education, is increasingly beingreplaced by precisely the ‘can-do’ culture weadvocated in the 1997 White Paper.

1.28 The second is that the education service has aculture focused, as never before, on standards andtargets. Teachers seek out what works, and believe intheir capacity to make a difference to the life chancesof pupils. There is some way to go before teachers –and society as a whole – realise the extent of the shift.But make no mistake: teachers, with governors andother school staff, are making real progress. Theseachievements provide the foundation for the nextphase of our education revolution.

A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO REFORM

1.29 In the succeeding chapters, we look at what we have achieved and what we propose for the next stage of reform phase by phase. However, our proposals for each phase of the school systemare based on a common set of eight strategicintentions which were discussed with thousands of headteachers in a series of consultativeconferences in autumn 2000 and refined to takeaccount of their feedback.

1. WE WILL SEE THINGS THROUGH AND BUILDON THE ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR. Over the next three to five years our first priority is tomake sure that our current reforms becomeirreversible. Modernisation and consistency go handin hand. In the past and in other countries, promisingeducation reforms have all too often failed becausegovernments did not see them through until they hada deep and lasting impact on performance. As aresult, frustration built up among teachers: their workin bringing about change was so often wasted. Andthe credibility of reform itself was called into question.

Society cannot afford to make these mistakes again.Our reforms in the last three and a half years havebrought undoubted progress. Teachers have investedgreat skill and commitment in the success that hasbeen achieved but they know, and we know, thatthere is much more to do. Our first priority must be tocomplete what we have begun. Continuity andconsistency are crucial. For example, the Literacy andNumeracy Strategies at primary level need furtherinvestment and further refinement at least until 2004to ensure that standards continue to rise. Similarly, thereforms of the teaching profession begun in the lastthree years need to be firmly embedded.

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Where we need to refine existing policies in the light ofexperience or to make progress with the next stage ofreform, we will do so in ways that recognise, reinforceand embed further the progress that has been made.In short, we will seek consistency, stability andcontinued improvement.

2. WE WILL CONTINUE TO PROMOTE HIGHSTANDARDS AND NARROW INEQUALITIES IN ACHIEVEMENT BETWEEN ADVANTAGED AND DISADVANTAGED AREAS, GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS. We want a publicly-provided education service foreveryone. School by school, we must press for higherstandards at the top, and steadily increase theproportion achieving at the highest level. We mustalso focus on raising the 'floor' level of achievement.Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds need betteropportunities to succeed: the school system shouldbe the decisive factor in unlocking their potential andgiving them the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions.

In practical terms this means that we need a fasterrate of improvement in disadvantaged areas than inothers and within all areas faster improvement forthe most disadvantaged children; at least equalimprovements in boys’ performance as in girls’;faster progress than often in the past for pupils fromsome ethnic minority groups; and continuedpractical support for all pupils with SpecialEducational Needs. Achieving these goals requiresthat we co-ordinate education policy with otherstrategies to challenge generational and historicdisadvantage, lack of economic activity and a poorphysical environment. Our policies for economic andsocial regeneration and for the family and communityare key to ensuring success.

It also means that we need universal policies, whichinclude every school, as well as targeted, extrasupport to those schools and pupils that face thegreatest challenge in achieving high standards. Anumber of current policies, including the Literacy andNumeracy Strategies, Education Action Zones,Excellence in Cities, the promotion of out-of-schoollearning, improved provision for pupils with SpecialEducational Needs and the Ethnic MinorityAchievement Grant are designed to provide this extrasupport. The tests and examinations in 2000 and theYouth Cohort Study indicate that, at last, achievementdifferences are beginning to narrow. Building on thisearly progress is a key priority.

3. WE WILL TAILOR EDUCATION TO THETALENTS, ASPIRATIONS AND POTENTIAL OF INDIVIDUAL PUPILS.In the 20th century, our education service was toooften built on a ‘one size fits all’ model. In the 21stcentury we need to change this and build a flexiblesystem around the needs and aspirations of individualpupils and their families, particularly at secondarylevel. The reforms of the last few years have laid thefoundations for this shift. Individual pupil-level target-setting has become accepted practice in manyprimary and secondary schools; Learning Mentorsprovide assistance to individual pupils with challengesoutside school; subject by subject setting enablesteachers to meet the talents of individual pupils moreeffectively; schools are increasingly using datasystems which enable individual pupil progress to betracked; and Information and CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) opens up a wealth of opportunity forpupils to take greater control of their own learning andstudy minority subjects (such as Latin or Japanese)which might not have been available in the past.Building on these developments is a major themethroughout this Paper.

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4. WE WILL OFFER THE OPPORTUNITY OFHIGH STANDARDS IN BOTH ACADEMIC ANDVOCATIONAL SUBJECTS AND ENCOURAGE'EDUCATION WITH CHARACTER'.The importance of high academic standards iswidely accepted and has been the central thrust ofour school reforms. By encouraging greateropportunities for work-related learning for pupilsaged 14 upwards and by enabling schools to varythe curriculum for 14–16 year olds and offer morevocational options, we have also done a great dealto encourage vocational education. What mattersmost however is that vocational qualifications are ofcomparable standard to their academic counterpartsand that their status is respected by employers,parents and students.

In addition, we want to establish 'education withcharacter' in every school. This phrase is intended tosuggest that pupils, in addition to achieving highstandards, should have the opportunity at school todevelop as well-rounded, creative, self-reliantindividuals, who know right from wrong, who canwork in teams, who respect their fellow pupilswhatever their backgrounds, who are able to managetheir own learning, who see the value of working hardnow in order to achieve success later, who areprepared to take risks, who are steadfast in the faceof adversity and who have the confidence tocontribute to the success of their school, their familiesand their community. These characteristics are asimportant in the workplace as they are in thecommunity and are highly prized by employers.

Character building is a key part of an overallapproach to education which values scholarship,endeavour and the idea of a citizen of the future whois self-reliant and simultaneously able to contribute tothe wider community.

5. WE WILL ENCOURAGE INNOVATION, ENABLE SCHOOLS TO USE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY TOTRANSFORM TEACHING AND LEARNING AND MODEL THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE. The application of ICT is transforming businessprocesses in every sector of the economy, bothprivate and public. It is beginning to have a similarimpact in education. Indeed, in some schools, thetransformative power of ICT has already beenunleashed. Many of the case studies in this documentare testimony to that.

The next challenge is to extend the benefits of ICT toall schools, while creating a culture in education whichencourages innovation and therefore constantlychallenges inherited attitudes and approaches in thepursuit of higher standards.

To achieve these goals demands investment ininfrastructure and in digital resources. But technologyis only a tool: the key to innovation is teachers andother staff with the confidence and skills to exploit itspotential to transform the learning process andmotivate children to learn. Just as importantly,schools, often working together, must have thefreedom to innovate and the confidence to do so.

6. WE WILL ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY AMONGSECONDARY SCHOOLS, EXTEND AUTONOMYFOR SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS AND INTERVENEONLY IN INVERSE PROPORTION TO SUCCESS.Since 1997 we have applied our policy of interventionin inverse proportion to success. We have targetedunderperformance wherever it has occurred, whetherat school or Local Authority level. As performance hasimproved, we have also given the vast majority ofschools much greater autonomy especially overfunding. No other education service in the worlddevolves as much power and responsibility to schoolsas we do. Increasingly, too, we have introduced


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rewards and opportunity for successful schools tolead the system. Giving schools greater freedom andencouraging them to play to their strengths hasbrought a welcome diversity to publicly-providededucation. The evidence suggests that schools with adistinctive ethos and mission are more likely tosucceed. Promoting diversity leads to greaterflexibility, more opportunities for schools to learn fromeach other and, above all, a wider range ofopportunities and choices for pupils and parents.

Our vision is of confident, successful schools whichdevelop a distinct mission and ethos and welcomethe opportunity to contribute to the improvement ofthe whole system, to share best practice and to workin partnership.

7. WE WILL DEMONSTRATE TRUST IN THEINFORMED PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT OF TEACHERS WHILE MAINTAINING A FOCUSON ACCOUNTABILITY AND STANDARDS.Schools are more firmly focused on pupil performancethan ever before. They have demonstrated theircapacity to make a difference and the teachingprofession has embraced accountability more thanany other.

As a result, teachers have become determined toseek out best practice and apply it in their classroomsand schools. Meanwhile, through a range of policies,including the establishment of Beacon schools,Internet best practice sites and investment inprofessional development, we have made it easierthan ever to find and apply best practice. In thesecircumstances, the key to improvement school byschool, classroom by classroom is the informedprofessional judgement of staff.

Increasingly, the Government will involve thoseworking in schools in designing, implementing andrefining policy. We will build on the experience ofpolicies such as Excellence in Cities which have beenimplemented in partnership with schools.

8. WE WILL ENCOURAGE PARTNERSHIPSBETWEEN THE EDUCATION SERVICE AND ALL THOSE WHO HAVE AN INTEREST IN ITS SUCCESS.We will encourage those within the education serviceto learn from each other and to work with and learnfrom those outside it – parents, communities, thecultural sector and business. The growth of learningopportunities at home and in the community, spurredon by dramatic technological change, increases theneed for educators to work with all kinds of partners.In this way the education service can not only learnfrom experience of change and progress elsewhere, itcan also become a valued possession of society as awhole: a public service, which is absolutely central tothe creation of a successful economy and society inthe future.

1.30 The remainder of this document sets out howwe intend to put these principles into practice over thenext few years.

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FOR EARLY EDUCATION AND CHILDCARE

We will:• provide free nursery places for two-thirds of 3 year

olds by March 2002 and for all who want one bySeptember 2004; provide new childcare placesbenefiting 1 million children by 2004; and helping tostimulate an extra 100,000 full-time places forchildren of nursery school age, linking educationwith childcare;

• fund 500 Sure Start programmes to support 400,00under 4s, one-third of under 4s living in poverty by2004; increase the number of Early ExcellenceCentres to 100 and create up to 900Neighbourhood Nursery Centres in disadvantagedareas by 2004;

• improve quality, so that by 2004 virtually all provisionis satisfactory or better; and introduce a star-ratingscheme to provide better information for parents,enhance choice and raise standards; and

• invest further in the Foundation Stage, ensuring fourdays training each year for all and developing links with infant education; introduce a professionalqualification in early years and childcare; enable upto 1,000 people to qualify as teachers through new routes; and provide training so that all providers have a trained Special Educational Needsco-ordinator with expert back-up.

THERE IS ALREADY BETTER SUPPORT FORFAMILIES AND MORE PROVISION…

2.1 Children’s experiences in the earliest years oftheir life are critical to their subsequent development.They have a significant impact on their futureperformance at school and the extent to which theyare able to take advantage of opportunities later in life.That is why we have invested heavily in early yearseducation and why our programmes from birthonwards support children and their parents andcontinue to support them right through to the start offormal education and beyond. It is also why thisGovernment has begun a drive to halve child povertyin 10 years and to eradicate it in 20.

2.2 Traditionally early years services have beendelivered separately by a range of professionalsworking in distinct education, care and healthservices. However, very young children do notdistinguish between care and education, and families’needs in the modern world are best met by providingjoined-up services. Our approach to early yearseducation and care is to develop seamless servicesfor children and families. We want to retain the bestwhich each profession offers, but provide moreintegrated services which are built around children’sneeds rather than professional structures. All theevidence shows that joined-up services deliver bothbetter outcomes for children and better value for thepublic purse.

CHAPTER 2 EARLY YEARS

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2.3 We have introduced the Sure Start programme,to ensure that children and families in disadvantagedareas have access to the services, opportunities andpractical help which enable young children to flourishfrom birth. Sure Start promotes the physical,intellectual, social and emotional development ofyoung children through a range of education, parentsupport and health services so that they are ready tosucceed when they start school.

2.4 It supports parents and children with enhancedchildcare, play and early learning opportunities andbetter access to health services – from ante-natal andbaby clinics to specialist services for children withSpecial Educational Needs. Services are delivered innew ways, by staff working together across health,care and education. We will have invested £452million in the programme by April 2002, establishing128 local programmes, with over 100,000 childrenalready involved. Local Sure Start programmes are ledby local partnerships with strong parental andcommunity involvement.

2.5 A range of other programmes are beingdeveloped (including, for example, providing booksfor babies) which support parents in bringing up theirchildren (see The PEEP Project, for example). Byhelping to provide a good start in life, children willbenefit as they move into early education and theninto more formal education.

THE PEEP PROJECT

The Peers in Early Education Project (PEEP) wasset up to improve the life chances of children indisadvantaged areas in the Blackbird Leys, RoseHill and Littlemore estates in south-east Oxford. It aims to help improve children’s educationalattainment, especially in literacy, by supportingparents and carers in their role as first educators.

From birth to school it offers materials, groupsessions and home visits to parents and carers.The focus is on listening, talking, playing andsinging together and sharing books every day,aiming to lay the foundations for later learning,especially literacy. PEEP also collaborates withpre-school settings and primary schools as thebasis for long-term home-school partnershipsbeginning in the Foundation Stage.

Early evaluation findings indicate that PEEPmakes a positive impact on babies’ and youngchildren’s development and on parents andcarers in their role as first educators.

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2.6 Our support for families includes support forfamily learning. Family learning also benefits adults – achild’s first chance to learn may be a parent’s second.It can develop adults’ skills, improve their chances ofemployment and give them the confidence tocontinue learning. Our support has included:• Family Literacy and Numeracy: we are supporting

courses for some 20,000 families in 2000–01; withan additional £10 million to reach a further 50,000parents and 22,000 children. Family Literacy andNumeracy will be a key part of the national adultbasic skills strategy we plan to launch this spring.

• The Adult and Community Learning Fund (ACLF) –family learning is one of the themes of this £20million challenge fund which supports small-scalelocal projects to take learning into sectors of thecommunity rarely reached by traditional educationalinstitutions (see Parents as Partners, for example).

2.7 An evaluation of our national Family Literacyinitiative by the National Foundation for EducationalResearch (NFER) has shown:• An increase in employment – from 19 per cent of

parents in work to 43 per cent at the end of theircourses, the majority of whom attributed theiremployment to Family Literacy.

• An increase in parents’ learning – in 1997, 60 percent went on to take a further course of study,compared to none in 1994.

PARENTS ASPARTNERS

Parents as Partners brings together adults andchildren in severely deprived areas of Sheffield todevelop their skills, build confidence and raiseaspirations. There are three types of activity:parents and children learning together (for examplein literacy, numeracy and communication); parentslearning together (for example, computing forbeginners); and children learning together, eg at the after-school club which their parents run.The Workers’ Educational Association establishedthe project six years ago at Wybourn CommunityPrimary School. Now its activities cover six localschools and help over 200 people a year. Parentsas Partners has become a firmly established partof the community, with funding from a range ofsources including the Local Authority and the DfEE.

Chris McKee, the Parents as Partners co-ordinator, has been employed by the initiativefrom the outset. She said: “Family learning – it’sbigger than individuals. There’s a roll-on effect out into the community.”

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2.8 Critical though this support is for disadvantagedfamilies, it must be backed up by high-quality earlyeducation for all, if children are to be able to take fulladvantage of their future formal education. In the past,Britain’s investment in early years education laggedbehind that of our competitor nations and earlyeducation was much more readily available in someparts of the country than in others. We have thereforetaken steps to expand our investment, to ensure thatit is consistently available everywhere and haveabolished the divisive nursery voucher scheme. Wehave introduced local partnerships working for thebenefit of all families, parents and children to developa planned approach to early years development andchildcare, with a choice of provision for parents.

2.9 Since September 1998, there has been a freeearly education place for every 4 year old whoseparents want one. By March 2002 two-thirds of 3 yearolds will have a free place and, in total, some 120,000new, free early education places have been createdsince 1997. Over the next year alone, we will beinvesting £250 million in early education provision.

2.10 In the past, the quality of early education waspatchy – there was much excellent, but also someunsatisfactory, provision. Clearly it is the quality of achild’s early years education which will determine thebenefit to the child of that experience. To support ourquality agenda we have introduced a distinct earlyyears phase, the Foundation Stage, covering childrenfrom the age of 3 to the end of their reception year inprimary school, and Early Learning Goals, setting outwhat the majority of children should achieve by theend of their reception year.

2.11 These are major advances, which few othercountries yet have in place. OFSTED has found thatthe quality of nursery education has improvedmarkedly. In March 1998, only 66 per cent of provisionwas judged to be acceptable; by March 2000OFSTED found that 89 per cent met an acceptablestandard. Parents can increasingly be assured thatchildren will learn through play with enjoyment andchallenge, and that a framework is in place to enablechildren to acquire those key skills, such as listening,speaking, concentrating and working as a group,which make for later effective learning.

2.12 We have supported this new phase byproviding resources for training and developingnursery staff. Local Education Authorities are alsoinvesting in this phase of education and recognisethe benefits of providing children with high-qualityearly learning experiences.

2.13 Early identification of children’s SpecialEducational Needs is a key part of our early yearsstrategy. The earlier we can identify and support achild’s needs, the greater the likelihood of that childdeveloping their full potential. There is also evidencethat early intervention will enhance the child’s chancesof being able to be educated in mainstream schooling.We have introduced measures to ensure that SEN isidentified as early as possible, and assessedsensitively by the appropriate qualified professionals,and now require Early Years Partnerships to developstrategies for children with SEN.

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THOMAS CORAM EARLY EXCELLENCE CENTRE

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The Coram Community Campus provides a one-stopshop for local parents and children, drawing togethera range of services. The Early Excellence Centre is a partnership between Camden Local Authority andCoram Family, the children's charity. The Centre has108 children undertaking nursery education, and 400families use the campus each week. The key factorsin its high quality provision include the following:

• Parents are involved in all aspects of children'slearning. When a child is offered a place, parentsare involved in assessing their child's current levelof understanding across the curriculum. Learningpriorities are set for each child, and staff andparents regularly review progress. Children help

to assess their work and choose samples of it forinclusion in their portfolios. Staff meet at the end ofeach day to evaluate and plan the children's workagainst learning intentions. Parents also attendgroups on different aspects of the curriculum andpractical workshops.

• Full inclusion of children with SEN and children in need. The expertise of a range of practitioners,such as speech therapists, health visitors, socialworkers and clinical psychologists, is used toensure that there is a comprehensive assessmentand detailed plan for each child. The campus alsohosts KIDS, a charity which provides support forchildren with SEN.


• A strong emphasis on creativity. Children areencouraged to develop their creativity using a wide range of resources and equipment. They have worked on innovative projects with a varietyof outside experts, including musicians, dancers,an architecture student, artists and music teachers.

• Extensive community links, including a drop-incentre which also provides outreach, a toy libraryand works with parents in local primary schools.There are classes every afternoon for parents and carers in, for example, effective parenting.Childminders study for qualifications in Childcareand Education.

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2.14 As part of our effort to support integration ofearly education with day care and to spread goodpractice we have developed a pilot programme of 29Early Excellence Centres (EECs) delivering high-quality integrated early education, childcare, familysupport services and training opportunities from thesame site. Early findings from the evaluation of theEarly Excellence Programme suggests significantbenefits to children and their families. We have alsofound that for every £1 spent on joined-up services inEECs, £8 is saved in alternative services. The Parentsas Partners study described earlier illustrates the workthat one such centre is carrying out.

2.15 We are also introducing National Standards forthe regulation of day care to ensure consistent qualityacross the country. In future, OFSTED will inspectchildcare as well as early education provision, furtheringour vision of seamless provision. As well as supportingimprovements in quality, this will reduce the regulatoryburden in many cases, since early education provisionwill now face only one rather than two inspections.

… BUT WE NEED TO DO MORE TO ACHIEVEOUR AMBITIONS

2.16 We have made a tremendous start on achallenging agenda. We have made majorimprovements in the amount of provision and thequality of services provided. We have made greatstrides in integrating services ever more effectively withrelated agencies and service providers. But we knowthat we need to do much more if we are to achieve ourambitions for early education and childcare.

2.17 First, we will continue to extend the Sure Startprogramme, initially to 500 local programmes, so thatit reaches 400,000 under 4s, a third of all childrenunder 4 living in poverty. The support provided bySure Start includes significant opportunities for adultlearning and support for parenting, leading to realgains in the development of children. It supports theGovernment’s drives to eradicate child poverty and tocreate an equal start in life. In total, we will beinvesting £500 million each year by 2003–04.

2.18 We will encourage the development of newintegrated early years centres which draw on thestrengths of the public, private and voluntary sectors.Through the Early Excellence Centre programme,Sure Start, Neighbourhood Nursery centres and otherprogrammes we will create, and encourage others tocreate, up to 100,000 new full-time nursery educationplaces where childcare is available to cover a normalor extended day. Many of these places will alsoprovide for children aged under 3.

2.19 Research shows that children are eager and highly capable learners between birth and theage of 3. For these youngest children, we also wantto build on our work with parents, in particular byextending family learning programmes, recognisingthe evidence that early reading activity in the home isa key to later success. We will therefore develop aframework of best practice for supporting childrenbetween these ages.


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2.20 Recent research highlights the very strong linkbetween the shared reading and literacy activities ofparent and child and later attainment. We want tobuild on this, drawing on the excellent work done inprojects such as PEEP in Oxford (see page 19) andparental support strategies at Early ExcellenceCentres such as Pen Green in Corby. We will alsocontinue to support Home Start, which providesvaluable assistance to families at times of particularstress. All our activity in this area will be aimed atsupporting the youngest children and their parents.

2.21 Secondly, we will steadily extend earlyeducation provision, so that from September 2004,every 3 year old whose parents want one will have afree nursery place. In total, we will invest some £390million by 2003–04 to provide universal pre-schooleducation for 3 and 4 year olds, thus completing atransformation talked about for 30 years, but neverpreviously carried out. It will be based onpartnerships between the public, private andvoluntary sectors – so that parents have a real choiceof early education provision, including playgroupsand public and private sector nurseries.

2.22 The National Childcare Strategy aims to ensurethat affordable, accessible, quality childcare isavailable in every neighbourhood for working familiesand their children. By March 2004, the goal is to havecreated places for 1.6 million children: a million morechildren being provided with childcare than everbefore, taking into account turnover. Employmentlevels in this sector already grew more in absoluteterms between spring 1997 and spring 2000 than inany other and we estimate that at least 150,000 newpeople will need to be recruited by March 2004 forthis further expansion.

2.23 Over the next three years, the Government willbe providing extra help to start up childcare indisadvantaged areas, which will include establishing45,000 new nursery places in up to 900Neighbourhood Nursery Centres. Many of these willbring together services for families and childrenthrough combined nursery education, childcare andfamily support. The Government is committed tojoining up funding streams as far as possible forchildcare, nursery education and other programmestargeted on families and disadvantaged areas so that services are integrated and bureaucracy forproviders is reduced. One hundred and forty-fivethousand new childminder places will also be startedup by March 2004 and 450 networks will beestablished to support childminders.

2.24 Thirdly, we will continue to push up the qualityof provision. By 2004, virtually all early years provisionwill provide satisfactory or better progress towardsthe Early Learning Goals. Any that do not will have toput in place a clear improvement plan. We willcontinue to develop the Foundation Stage as adistinct phase, so that, before entry to Year 1,children work towards the Early Learning Goals inspecialist early years provision, taught by specialistearly years practitioners.

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2.25 We will develop a national quality star-ratingscheme, which signals good quality care and learningfor children, inspires the confidence of parents, and isseen as good for business by providers. By buildingon existing accreditation schemes we will create arigorous evaluation process, which will encourageproviders to raise standards and enable parents tomake informed choices for their children.

2.26 We will promote the development of excellencethrough an expansion of Early Excellence Centres,which both provide integrated early education andchildcare, and develop and spread best practice. Ouraim is to have 100 centres by 2004. We will also support nursery schools in developing a widerrange of services so as to serve their community more broadly. We aim to help 250 schools in this wayby 2004.

2.27 There will be much greater investment in trainingthe workforce. It is critical that those working withyoung children are trained to high professionalstandards, and that qualifications support thedevelopment of an integrated sector. The newLearning and Skills Council has already been set atarget to give 230,000 people new or higher childcarequalifications by March 2004 and will be working withlocal partnerships to achieve this. We will plan closerintegration of qualifications for early years andchildcare workers, building on work that has alreadybeen done. This will enable people to move around thesystem more easily and to progress in manageablesteps. Although some qualifications may still focus onone aspect of care and early education, we will bringthem closer together, for example, by requiringcommon modules, so that all individuals train inimportant common areas. And we will ensure that allearly years practitioners have the benefit of at leastfour days training each year, to support their work withchildren in the Foundation Stage.

2.28 We also want more early education specialiststo come through teacher training. We will work onnew routes into teaching and other senior early yearspractitioner posts so as to make the best of the skillsand experience of the very large early years andchildcare workforce. By 2004 we will support up to1,000 people in obtaining qualified teacher status orsenior practitioner status through our new frameworkof qualifications. We will also ensure that good qualityleadership training is available to those in or aspiringto leadership positions in the sector.

2.29 In introducing the Foundation Stage, we made aclear commitment to support the early identification ofSpecial Educational Needs (SEN) and to improve theprospects of children with SEN. This is central to ourapproach to the early years. We are working closelywith the health and social services to ensure thatmedical and social services staff can work sensitivelyand effectively with young children and their parents.We will make significant resources available over thenext three years to help ensure that all staff deliveringthe Foundation Stage are equipped to meet this keypriority. This includes training for SEN Co-ordinators(SENCOs) working in the early years.

2.30 By 2004, Early Years Development andChildcare Partnerships will ensure that everywhereproviding early education will have access to a trainedSENCO. We have set a target for 2004 of one areaco-ordinator for every 20 providers. These area co-ordinators will support providers and make thenecessary links to specialist services provided by theLocal Education Authority and other agencies. Andwe will look for means of helping to develop theservices offered by Local Authorities to parents andchildren whose Special Educational Needs areidentified in their very early years.


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WE WILL CREATE A SMOOTHER TRANSITIONINTO SCHOOL

2.31 As the Foundation Stage and Early LearningGoals become embedded in our education system, itis critical that the transition between early educationand the greater formality of school is made smoothly.We want to work with headteachers and teachers todevelop the full potential of this new and distinctphase in education and to build strong and clear linkswith infant education. We want to support thedevelopment of more provision which sees childrenthrough the whole Foundation Stage in one place, toimprove continuity and enhance parental choice.

2.32 We will also work to improve contact betweenprimary schools and the early years, improvingrecords transfer, and encouraging clusters of earlyyears providers to link to schools. In the longer term,other forms of co-operative working, including staffexchanges and joint approaches to professionaldevelopment can also be used to ease the transition.Early years services will continue to be incorporatedinto our targeted programmes, such as Excellence inCities and Education Action Zones.

2.33 This important investment in the early years of achild’s education is vital to our ambition of enablingevery child to develop their potential. By expandingservices, promoting greater integration of early yearsservices and enhancing the quality of services,children will begin their primary education betterequipped than ever before.

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IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

We will:• achieve our targets for English and mathematics at

11 – that 80 per cent achieve the standard set fortheir age (Level 4 or above) in English and 75 percent in mathematics by 2002;

• consult on targets for 2004 that 85 per cent of 11year olds achieve the standard set for their age inEnglish and in mathematics, and that 35 per centachieve the advanced Level 5 in each subject; and

• make sure that every child receives a rounded and enriched education, with a broad curriculumand opportunities for extra-curricular activities,including access to sport, the arts and to citizenship programmes.

TRANSFORMATION HAS BEGUN …

3.1 At primary school, the essential building blocks offuture learning, including reading, writing andarithmetic need to be established. That is why wehave given the highest possible priority to raisingstandards of achievement in the basics for all primarypupils. The investment of an average of £190 millioneach year for the next three years in the NationalLiteracy and Numeracy Strategies, on top of otherincreases in resources for primary schools, showshow great a priority this remains. The strategies mustbe seen through and have a deep and irreversibleimpact on pupil performance.

3.2 The wholehearted commitment of governors,teachers and non-teaching staff across the country hasbeen the key to the success so far in raising standardsof English and mathematics. Every day, in all 18,000primary schools, they are using their professionalism totake forward the national strategies and integrate themwithin the wider curriculum. All the evidence shows thatprimary heads and teachers are now enthusiasticallycommitted to the teaching methods they have learntfrom the national strategies, not least because they cansee they make a real difference to what their childrenachieve. In a survey of Year 4 and 5 teachers 91 percent said that they supported the principle of a NationalLiteracy Strategy and 75 per cent said that they enjoyedteaching it. Ninety-seven per cent supported theprinciple of a National Numeracy Strategy and 92 percent enjoyed teaching the daily mathematics lesson.The Literacy Hour and daily mathematics lesson havealso been immensely popular with parents. Thestandards achieved in mathematics (across the board,and not just in mental arithmetic) have risen sharply. Andthe appreciation of all kinds of writing including poetry,fiction and non-fiction has improved dramatically. Writingtoo is beginning to improve especially among youngchildren. Cleeve Primary School (see page 30) is adramatic example of what schools have achieved.

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CHAPTER 3 PRIMARY EDUCATION TRANSFORMED


3.3 A key part of the strategies has been the high-quality training in best practice provided for allteachers and headteachers in every primary school.We introduced changes to initial teacher training fornew teachers and suitable in-service training forserving teachers to support the Strategies. As aresult, all teachers are able to teach English andmathematics in the ways that have been proven towork best. Teaching assistants too have beeninvolved as an important part of this process.

3.4 The figure below shows how nationally thenumber of 11 year olds achieving the standardexpected for their age (Level 4 or above) has risen.Over the same period the number of childrenachieving Level 5 has risen too, by 12 percentagepoints in English to 29 per cent and 7 percentagepoints in mathematics to 24 per cent.

3.5 The Literacy Hour and the daily mathematicslesson have succeeded because of the skill andenthusiasm of teachers and pupils. As a result, weremain on course for, and determined to achieve, thetargets that, by 2002, 80 per cent of 11 year oldsshould have achieved Level 4 or above in English, and75 per cent Level 4 or above in mathematics.

3.6 It is encouraging that variations in achievementbetween areas are narrowing. Critically, the fastestimproving areas in the country are among the mostdisadvantaged. In 2000 the lowest scoring LocalEducation Authority in the English tests for 11 yearolds achieved better than the national average of justfour years ago. Moreover, the achievement differencesbetween ethnic groups are beginning to be addressed.Education Authorities with high ethnic minoritypopulations are amongst the most rapidly improving inthe country and in Education Action Zones, progress isfaster than in the rest of the country.

3.7 There is evidence too that the strategies arebenefiting children with Special Educational Needs.They have been welcomed by a range of bodiesrepresenting those with Special Educational Needs.

3.8 Underpinning this progress has been thecommitment of governors and staff in schools,growing investment per pupil in primary education,the class size reductions at infant level and theprovision of many more trained classroom assistants.Our homework guidelines, proposing moderate andsensible amounts of homework at this level have beenwidely welcomed. We have provided funding for anadditional 23 million books across the school system,making a real impact on the quality of resourcesavailable in the classroom.

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50

55

60

65

70

75

1998 1999 2000

English

Maths

Percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above in Key Stage 2 tests


30

CLEEVE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Cleeve is a mixed infant and junior communityschool, with 311 pupils and 52 nursery age pupils.The school serves the socio-economically deprivedNoddle Hill area of the Bransholme Estate in Hull.The percentages of pupils eligible for free schoolmeals, and with Special Educational Needs are wellabove the national average. Pupil mobility is highwith significant numbers of children being admittedto the school in each year group.

Results for the school have risen dramatically thisyear: the percentage of 11 year old pupils reachingthe expected level rose between 1999 and 2000from 32 to 78 per cent in English, from 37 to 71 percent in mathematics and from 78 to 98 per cent inscience. Some of the keys to this success include:

Getting the basics right. The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies have played a verysignificant part. These have been underpinned by the high-quality of teaching; the excellent behaviourof the children; comprehensive pastoral support; thecontribution of support assistants in the classroomand around the school; and effective leadership bythe management team.

A rigorous approach to self-evaluation. Theschool has a rigorous approach to self-evaluationand sets targets for each pupil. It is a member of the local Education Action Zone, which has createda climate for change by raising expectations andaspirations both within the school and amongst the wider community.


3.9 We are also providing additional support to smallprimary schools in particular. We have made availablean additional £80 million a year through the SmallSchools Administration Fund to enable small schoolsto purchase administrative support and so relieveteachers of burdens. We have encouraged schools todevelop innovative approaches to sharing resourcessuch as bursars, technicians and specialist teachersand increased co-operation between schools.

3.10 For example, two or more small schools,working together, can employ a bursar between themto carry out the administrative work of the schools.This approach can make a significant difference toreducing the workload of heads and other seniorteachers in small schools. Horton Primary School(overleaf) demonstrates the use of Support Fundmoney.

…AND WE WILL ENSURE IT CONTINUES

3.11 Building on this progress, we can now gofurther and complete the transformation of primaryeducation. To do so, we must address a number ofimportant challenges. The five key ones are:• Continuing to make progress in the basics, to the

2002 targets and beyond.• Continuing to narrow inequalities in achievement

through targeted support to those areas and groupsof children who need most help.

• Continuing the drive to transform the pupil:adult ratio(average number of children per adult) in schools.

• Enriching the curriculum for every child.• Strengthening the transition from primary to

secondary school.

All children must have sound foundations in the basics

3.12 Achieving the 2002 targets for English andmathematics will represent a step-change to primaryeducation, but we have never believed that would bethe end of the story. Every child matters, so we wantto ensure that every child is either on track to achieveat least Level 4 or receiving additional targeted supportto help them towards that. We will never give upseeking to ensure that every child learns the '3 Rs' tothe highest standards of which he or she is capable.

3.13 We will consult on targets for 2004 that 85 percent of 11 year olds should achieve Level 4 or abovein each of English and mathematics. And all childrenat whatever level should be making progress. Thosewho are capable of achieving more should bepushed to do so, which is why we also want to buildon the already significant increases in the number of11 year olds achieving Level 5. We will also consulton a target that at least 35 per cent of 11 year oldsreach that level by 2004.

3.14 We intend to ensure that all children who fallbehind their peers receive additional support either insmall groups or, if necessary, one to one. We knowthat early intervention is the most effective; so wewant to ensure that problems are identified early, andthat support is then targeted to address them. We willensure that children who have Special EducationalNeeds are identified quickly, but also that childrenwho simply need some catch-up support do not haveto go through a lengthy or bureaucratic process toreceive it. We will promote better, more relevant andmore comparable baseline assessment information atthe end of the Foundation Stage, so that teachershave an accurate picture of what children can do atthe start of their primary years. This will support theearly identification of Special Educational Needs, andprovision of catch-up support.

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HORTON PRIMARYSCHOOL

Horton primary school has transformed its ICTprovision by working with other local schoolsusing money from the Small Schools SupportFund. The school, located in rural SouthGloucestershire, has 46 pupils, one full-timeteacher and two part-time teachers. It pooledmoney from the Support Fund with three othersmall local schools – Old Sodbury, Trinity Schoolin Acton Turville, and Hawkesbury to employ afreelance ICT teacher.

Since September, the new teacher has used newnetworked computers bought with NGfL Fundingto train groups of up to 16 children in theessentials of the new technology. Children fromthe 4 schools are taught together. With expertadvice, the schools have already invested in animpressive range of software and equipment –including digital cameras, scanners and a CDwriter. Now the school would like to developvideoconferencing facilities and make links withschools abroad.

3.15 We know that ICT can help schools to providethis more individualised learning and support.Research by the British Educational Communicationsand Technology Agency (BECTa) demonstrates that atKey Stage 2 the standards achieved at schools withgood ICT provision are higher on average than atschools with poor ICT provision. Primary schools areembracing ICT: 86 per cent are connected to theInternet; on average there is now a computer for every13 primary pupils. Increasingly, teachers see ICTas one of the key resources available to them inraising standards. The Horton and Priory case studiesillustrate this.

3.16 We are determined that all ethnic minority pupilsshould secure results which are as good as those forother pupils. Many ethnic minority children havebenefited from the recent rise in school standards,and children from some minority ethnic groupsachieve highly. But for others, there is still anunacceptable inequality in levels of attainment whichmust be reduced. Through our analysis of the impactof our reforms we will enable schools to understandthe reasons why some pupils make slower progressand encourage them to set high expectations for all.Where necessary we will provide the extra supportthat may be needed.

3.17 The integration into the National LiteracyStrategy of the teaching of English as an additionallanguage is already bringing substantial benefits. Wewill ensure that the emerging best practice in teachingchildren whose first language is not English is adoptedacross the whole curriculum. We will invest over £150million a year for the next three years in raising theattainment of ethnic minority children with the aim ofclosing the differences that exist between theattainment of different groups.

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3.18 Marion Richardson Primary School in TowerHamlets shows what can be achieved. Some 400 ofthe 489 pupils in the school have English as a secondlanguage, and there are high proportions with SpecialEducational Needs and receiving free school meals.OFSTED recently described the school asdemonstrating ‘superb’ racial harmony. All pupils havebenefited from successful implementation of theNational Literacy and Numeracy Strategies: theschool’s Key Stage 2 results were amongst the best inthe country. The school has strong support fromparents and governors.

3.19 Other important gaps in achievement exist,including that between girls and boys in English. Weare determined that our policies should progressivelyaddress these gaps. We will continue to challengeunderperformance and disseminate good practice,including the effective pupil tracking systems whichenable schools to monitor the progress of each pupiland target support accordingly. We will continue topromote high expectations and ensure that thecurriculum includes and motivates all pupils. ThePriory School case study on page 34 sets out anexample of how some of these methods cantransform a school.

We will continue to improve pupil: adult ratios

3.20 We promised that by 2002 infant class sizeswould be reduced to 30 or fewer pupils. Already thishas been achieved for 98 per cent of 5, 6 and 7 yearolds and we are on course to meet the pledge aheadof schedule in September 2001, thanks to ourinvestment of £620 million. Research has shown thatclass size makes most difference at this early age.Some 450,000 children are benefiting from classes of30 or under as a result of our policy. And 176,000more children are benefiting from being in classes ofunder 25.

3.21 As children get older and become more used tothe disciplines of school, the size of their class orgroup becomes less critical, but high levels ofpersonal contact with adults remain crucialthroughout primary education. Good pupil: adultratios in primary schools mean more personalattention to meet the needs of all children and theopportunity to provide targeted support to childrenwho have Special Educational Needs, special talentsor have fallen behind their peers in a specific aspect ofthe curriculum. We have supported greatly improvedtraining for teaching assistants, who are increasinglyprofessional and provide important support in theseclearly-defined roles.

3.22 For these reasons, for older children in primaryschools, we want to see extra staff and expertiseavailable to enable schools to target support flexiblyto meet the talents and aspirations of individuals.Different mixtures of teachers, support staff andtechnology can be used to teach different types oflesson. Headteachers in consultation with their staffand governors should be able to decide how staffshould be deployed for the benefit of the children inthe school.

3.23 As the figure on page 35 shows, we haveimproved the pupil:adult ratio over the last threeyears from 18.4 to 17.2 for infants and equallysignificantly for juniors – from 23.1 to 21.7. Weexpect to see continued year-on-year improvementsin the national average pupil:adult ratio. We areinvesting £73 million to begin to spread the benefitsof smaller classes to the junior years, and trainingand funding 20,000 additional teaching assistants toimprove support in the classroom.

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PRIORY SCHOOL

34

Priory School in Slough is an example of aninstitution that mixes innovation and newtechnologies with good teaching and strong parentalsupport. The school has 786 pupils aged 3 to 12,including 25 per cent from ethnic minority groupsand 25 per cent with Special Educational Needs.

Priory has led the way in embracing Information andCommunications Technology (ICT) as both a tool toenhance effective teaching and learning and a furthermeans by which to engage and interact with pupils.

Priory’s effective use of ICT includes:• multimedia whiteboard presentation aids

in the classroom;• use of electronic pencils by pupils;• use of computer painting and image

manipulation packages;• word processing for all 8 year olds, and

spreadsheet use by the age of 11.

The school recently received an outstanding OFSTED inspection report.


35


3.24 As additional adults are brought in to theclassroom to carry out a variety of roles, pupil: adultratios will become the best measure of the level ofsupport and attention that older primary childrenreceive. More trained teaching assistants will provideincreased support for class teachers; and other trainedprofessionals will provide increased catch-up supportfor children who fall behind. The Dalton FoljambeSchool case study on page 38 is an example of howassistants are helping to raise standards already.

All children should experience a broad curriculum

3.25 High achievement in the basic areas of reading,writing and mathematics unlocks achievement inother subjects; it is essential if children are to haveaccess to a range of opportunities later in life; it opensnew worlds to children; and is itself motivating andenjoyable. But it is not enough on its own.

3.26 Primary education must open up for children abroad curriculum and a wide range of experiences.We know that schools and parents rightly continue tosee creativity, art, music and sport as important partsof school life. We want every pupil to haveopportunities to achieve in these areas.

3.27 Sport and physical education are a vital part ofschools’ activities and we want to increase the amountthat takes place in schools at all levels. Apart fromcontributing to the health of pupils, they can alsoencourage personal development, boost pupils’ self-confidence and increase commitment and attendance.

3.28 The Government’s ambition for sport in schoolswas set out in A Sporting Future for All in April 2000.Since then, we have announced several significantdevelopments including a doubling of funding for theSchool Sport Co-ordinator programme, so that by2004 there will be a network of 1,000 Co-ordinators insecondary schools ensuring high-quality PE andsporting opportunities. They will work with SpecialistSports Colleges and link with families of primary andsecondary schools. About 5,000 primary schools willbe involved. We have also made available £580 millionfrom the New Opportunities Fund for sport in andaround schools and remain committed to the goal ofincreasing the amount of time that pupils spend onsport and other extra-curricular activities. This is whywe recently announced our intention to offer anentitlement for school PE and sport so that any childwho wanted would have access to 2 hours of high-quality sport or PE each week during and after-school.This is supported by the Healthy Schools Programme.

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

1997 1998 1999 2000

Pupil:adult ratios in primary schools

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

Primary


NEWDIGATE PRIMARY SCHOOL

363636

Newdigate Primary School has shown what can beachieved through the commitment of staff in takingforward the national strategies. The school, of 276pupils, came off special measures in November 1999and has been one of top 10 improving schools overthe last two years. A number of strategies havecontributed to the school’s success.

Children have targets in their books so they knowwhat level they are working on and what they needto do to achieve the next level. In writing, Year 6children are shown what Level 4/5 achievementlooks like. Past papers are also used forcomprehension skills – children mark their ownpapers and see the answer modelled, using anOHP, by the teacher.

The school has also used its data to pair boys inYear 4 and Year 6 on reading and spelling and hasintroduced an hour of independent writing per weekfrom Year1 upwards. A weekly ‘flexi-time’ period forextra English and mathematics focuses on areaspupils find difficult.

Headteacher Rachael Waterfield says: “We are very open and honest with our children. We place a strong emphasis on setting clear targets forindividual pupils.”


3.29 Our investment in music has given a real boostto music in schools and to help talented youngmusicians. We have done much to support betterteaching and learning of music. In 1999, weestablished the Music Standards Fund, designed totackle the problem of decline in Local EducationAuthority music services, including facilities such asinstrumental tuition and specialist teaching. Between1999 and 2004, we will be investing £270 millionthrough the Fund (£60 million a year by 2003–04), toprotect existing services and allow their expansion.

3.30 We are also strengthening significantly oursupport for artistic, cultural and creative activities. Weare supporting the Space for Sport and Artsprogramme which will create multipurpose sports andarts facilities in around 300 primary schools in some ofthe most deprived areas of the country. Furthermore,we have introduced a national strategy – CreativePartnerships – which will enable children to developskills in, and understanding of, creativity, through anenhanced programme of artistic and creativeopportunities. It will bring schools together withtheatres, galleries and other providers of the arts andcreate sustainable partnerships between them. FromApril 2002, 15 new Creative Partnerships will beestablished in areas around the country wherechildren will be most likely to benefit from thepartnerships’ services and activities, in areas ofeducational, socio-economic and cultural need.

3.31 Our innovative Museums and Galleriesprogramme, launched in 1999, is supporting over 60projects aimed at developing educational linksbetween schools and museums and galleries. Theprojects cover a wide range of subjects, some with anICT focus. They all provide examples of how childrencan experience new, exciting ways of learning aboutcurriculum subjects through visits and working withprofessional educationalists employed in museumsand galleries. We are evaluating the programme tolearn lessons about how schools can buildsustainable partnerships with local arts providers toenrich the styles of teaching that children are exposedto throughout the learning day.

3.32 Culture Online will also provide a new resourcefor schools. Culture Online will offer millions of childrenand their teachers the chance to interact onlinewith artists, museums, galleries, theatres and digitalcreators to explore all aspects of British culture andheritage, and to develop their own creative skills in allaspects of arts, film and design. Culture Online willcommission interactive material from culturalorganisations and artists which support teaching andlearning of the curriculum at all stages. Culture Onlinewill start piloting at the end of 2001, and by 2004would expect to be getting more hits from Britishschool students than any other website worldwide.

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DALTON FOLJAMBESCHOOL

Dalton Foljambe School provides an example ofhow a primary school has used classroomassistants to develop all pupils’ performance,particularly those with Special Educational Needs.Support staff have been crucial in increasing theindividual attention that all pupils receive, helpingboth to identify and overcome difficulties. This isan important factor in the school’s recentimpressive performance in the key areas ofEnglish, mathematics and science.

Pupils experiencing difficulties are identified earlyand prompt provision is made by the school toresolve them. Teachers plan adapted work forpupils and support assistants, who have beentrained to give additional literacy supportsensitively. Pupils work in small groups orindividually on programmes devised to meettheir individual targets.

All pupils including those with behaviouraldifficulties, make very good progress towardstheir targets.

3.33 We also want to enable children in primaryschools to get an early start in skills that will beimportant as they grow older such as Modern ForeignLanguages. We have done a great deal to supportModern Foreign Languages teaching in primaryschools. Around 20 per cent of primary schoolsalready offer language learning in some form, whichwe aim to support and enhance. In September 1999we began an Early Language Learning (GoodPractice) Project. This Project has 18 pilots coveringaround 150 schools. An early years languagesframework is now being developed, which may bebuilt on to produce further Schemes of Work or othercurriculum support and guidance.

3.34 We also intend, as a specific response to lastyear’s Nuffield report on this issue, to make it easierfor primary schools to access the language facilities ofSpecialist Language Colleges. The increase in thenumber of Specialist Language Colleges and theincreased focus on their role as 'hubs' of excellencewill provide access for primary schools to ModernForeign Languages expertise and help to raisestandards in the neighbourhoods around theLanguage Colleges.

38


3.35 We would also like, as resources permit, to see more primary schools, initially in areas ofdisadvantage, using more specialist teachers (who insome cases might be Advanced Skills Teachers) toprovide lessons in music, art, drama and sports forexample and to develop the skills of primary teachersin these areas, sharing specialist teachers betweenschools where that makes sense. Extending the useof these teachers will not only bring fresh expertiseinto schools, but also provide more time out of theclassroom for class teachers to plan collaborativelyand take part in professional development. We are particularly keen that we provide time to supportthe vital work of SEN Co-ordinators (SENCOs). Wewill examine effective and innovative approaches to deploying staff and making best use of their time and disseminate best and innovative practicearound the system.

3.36 The Government is also determined thatchildren should have greater access to extra-curricular activities and after-school clubs. Already, 97per cent of schools provide some support of this sortand 7 out of 10 schools increased their provisionbetween 1998 and 2000. We intend to move further,so that in time, every child at primary school whowants to has the opportunity to learn a musicalinstrument and try one of a range of sports. To makethis possible we will expand the availability of out-of-school learning opportunities and continue to invest inschool music at the new higher levels.

We will provide support to help children to overcome social problems

3.37 A range of social problems can preventchildren achieving their potential. The Governmenthas introduced policies to tackle social exclusionand to eradicate child poverty. As part of this, wehave established the Children’s Fund to supportservices which will identify children and youngpeople who are showing early signs of disturbanceand provide them and their families with the supportthey need to get back on track. Its aim is to preventchildren falling into drug abuse, truancy, exclusion,unemployment and crime.

3.38 The Fund will provide £450 million over threeyears, of which £380 million will be targeted atpreventive work for children aged 5 –13. The Fund willhelp vulnerable children and young people particularlyby helping them before a crisis. The Fund will pay forservices such as mentoring programmes, parentingeducation and support, counselling and advice. Theremaining £70 million will be for a local network ofChildren’s Funds to be administered by the voluntarysector, for children of all ages, and will focus onhelping local and community groups to provide localsolutions to the problem of child poverty. It will includea strong emphasis on children's and young people’sown aspirations and views.

3.39 The Children’s Fund will play an important partin ensuring that schools are able to concentrateeffectively on their key task of raising standards for allchildren. In the past, children who have experiencedproblems have often slipped into truancy or exclusion,and into a downward spiral from which it can bedifficult to escape. In seeking to support children likelyto face a crisis, and in helping to break the cycle ofpoverty and disadvantage, the Children’s Fund willseek to head off some of the most difficult problemsthat children and, by extension, schools face.

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3.40 We are working with the families of primaryschoolchildren, to support parents and to raiseawareness of the importance of home support forschools. We will also look to promote Family FocusedSchools in areas of high disadvantage, providingchildcare, study and family support, using schools as acommunity resource. Such schools could:• Provide a longer, more flexible day through a variety

of forms of childcare.• Provide support for parents by, for example, making

parenting classes available.• Ensure that parents are involved in identifying the

services they need, including for example healthcareand social services.

• Be sponsored by local employers as a way ofencouraging a greater contribution from them tochildcare.

There are already good examples of such schools inthe system. We intend to draw out and build on thatgood practice.

WE WILL IMPROVE THE TRANSITION TO SECONDARY SCHOOL

3.41 Transitions between different institutions andphases of education are always important. It is criticalthat, although children may move school, they do notexperience a break in their education, or ‘mark time’as schools work out the level they are working at.From the Sure Start programme in the earliest years,through early years education and the betterintegration of baseline assessment in the first years ofprimary school, the Government is paying particularattention to making sure that transitions are made assmoothly and effectively as possible.

3.42 For many years transition from primary tosecondary school has been inadequate. Far too many11 year olds have lost momentum in the last fewweeks of primary school and over the summer holidaybefore they start secondary school. All too often whenthey do start secondary school, teachers start with ‘a clean slate’ and set expectations lower than theyshould be. The result has been that by the end of thefirst year in secondary school many pupils have madelittle progress and lost motivation and as many as 30per cent actually achieve lower standards than in thelast year of primary school. Both primary andsecondary teachers acknowledge that this state ofaffairs is unacceptable. The step-change in theperformance of primary schools in recent years hasadded to the overwhelming view that action isneeded. We have therefore begun to address what,for the last generation or more, has been neglected orswept aside as an intractable problem.


40


3.43 Already we have:• Introduced a common transfer form for pupil

performance data and other information, which canbe used electronically, and which reducesbureaucracy as well as improving the transfer for pupils.

• Provided 2,500 summer schools for 75,000 11 yearolds each year.

• Developed ‘transition modules’ in English andmathematics for teachers to use in the last term ofprimary school and the first year of secondary,which enable continuity and progression for pupilsas they transfer.

• Enabled thousands of secondary teachers to watchskilled primary colleagues teaching literacy hoursand daily mathematics lessons, thus raisingexpectations of 11 year olds and strengtheningprofessional relationships.

• Piloted in Education Action Zones a number ofideas for improved collaboration between primaryand secondary schools. Schools in many zonesshare both staff and premises, run peer mentoringprogrammes across the phases and link up moreclosely to plan and try out new ideas. In Newham,for example, a ‘virtual learning space’ gives zoneschools common access to curriculum materialsand best practice via an EAZ Intranet.

3.44 There are many models of good practice fromwhich we can learn. For example, The ArchbishopBlanch Church of England School in Liverpool workswith local primary schools to develop cross-phaseprojects, which aid transition. These include jointcurriculum schemes, interactive learning for literacyand numeracy, portfolios of examples of work insubjects taught in both phases and masterclassesdelivered to exceptionally able primary children.

3.45 In the future we plan to develop this work and tomake further improvements including:• Ensuring better use of the second half of the last

summer term at primary school, by providingtraining in the use of transition and encouragingsecondary schools to receive some or all of theirnew pupils for two or three weeks in advance of thesummer break.

• More extensive provision of summer schools so thatultimately there would be summer school provisionat every secondary school.

• Teaching frameworks and materials that cross thedivide. These are already available in English andmathematics: the frameworks which have beensuch a crucial part of the primary strategies havenow been extended to cross the transition andinclude Years 7, 8 and 9. Meanwhile nationallyproduced Schemes of Work, which have provedimmensely popular with teachers, are available inevery National Curriculum subject for ages 7–11and 11–14.

• Joint training for primary and secondary teachers.• Introducing the new ‘Common Basic Data Set’ by

2002, which will enable schools and the system totrack each individual pupil’s progress effectivelyeven when they change schools, and will reducebureaucracy for schools.

• Raising expectations and better catch-uparrangements for those who need them betweenthe ages of 11 and 14 (see the next chapter).

• Providing better advice and support to parents sothat they can play their part in their child’s transitionfrom primary to secondary school.

3.46 With these building blocks in place, children willbe better prepared than ever before for secondaryeducation. The loss of pace and progression, whichhas characterised the transfer from primary tosecondary school for so long, can become a thing ofthe past.

41



FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION, OUR GOALSARE HIGHER STANDARDS, MORE SCHOOLAUTONOMY AND DIVERSITY, AND MORESUITABLE AND CHALLENGING PATHWAYS FOR PUPILS BEYOND 14.

We will:• significantly enhance the diversity of secondary

education, with every school having a distinctivemission and ethos and contributing to thecommunity or to the wider education system;

• ensure a step change in performance in the earlysecondary years, including demanding targets forachievement in national tests at age 14;

• from age 13 or 14, ensure that the educationsystem focuses far more than in the past on theindividual talents and aspirations of pupils, withmore early entries for GCSE and much greaterchoice of vocational and work-based routes;

• significantly increase the support available toschools in the most challenging circumstances, oncondition that they sign up to demandingperformance targets;

• narrow significantly the achievement gaps that existby ethnic group, geographical area and gender, sothat the education system delivers real equality ofopportunity; and

• promote ‘education with character’ that stressesnot just a broad curriculum but also opportunitiesfor pupils to become active citizens of their schooland community, and to develop all their talentsincluding in sports and the arts.

4.1 In the 21st century, it will not be acceptable foryoung people to leave formal education with few skills.Everyone will need to be knowledgeable, to be able toreason, to think logically and creatively and to continueto learn throughout their lives. Only with this groundingwill they be prepared for the fast-changing society andemployment opportunities ahead. The Literacy andNumeracy Strategies in primary schools have begunthe process of ensuring that everyone can read, writeand add up. The National Grid for Learningprogramme has done the same for the use ofinformation technology. We need to ensure that webuild on, rather than lose, this momentum whenchildren enter their secondary phase of education. Thiswill require much higher expectations of all, greaterdiversity of provision and secondary education muchmore closely tailored to the talents of individuals.

4.2 We want to make current best practice the norm,and we want some schools to go beyond this, so thatthe best schools provide a leading edge.

WE HAVE MADE PROGRESS…

4.3 The framework for continuous improvement,described in Chapter 1, has enabled many secondaryschools to improve steadily in recent years. Moreyoung people are achieving high standards at age16 and 18 than ever before. Fewer than ever areleaving school without qualifications: 33,000 in 2000,down from 45,000 in 1997.

4.4 Policies have been put in place to enhanceprogress at secondary level in the most challengingareas. The Excellence in Cities programme, describedon page 45, will involve 1,000 secondary schools inurban areas by September 2001. New fundinghas been allocated to enable over 500 secondaryschools with the lowest attainment to develop plansto meet ambitious minimum performance targets for2004 and 2006.

CHAPTER 4 TRANSFORMING SECONDARY EDUCATION

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George Spencer’s success is based on a mixtureof innovation, willingness to utilise the potential ofICT and the dedicated commitment of its staff. Its average GCSE score is amongst the highestin Nottinghamshire.

The school’s Technology College status has helped it to pioneer a ‘virtual learningcommunity’. Its whole-school, industry-standardcomputer network allows staff, parents andstudents to access the school intranet 24 hoursa day, 7 days a week. Curriculum and learningmaterials and all work files can be accessedremotely, ensuring maximum flexibility to meetlearners’ needs on demand. As a Beacon school,George Spencer is developing distance learningpackages which will be accessible to staff inother schools.

As a Training School providing initial teachertraining, George Spencer demonstrates anddevelops excellent teacher training practice. The school has employed many adults whoprovide learning support to students whiletraining for Qualified Teacher Status and it alsorecruits adult learning support for other schools in the region.

4.5 Progress has also been made in giving moresecondary schools a distinct identity. The number ofspecialist schools with specialisms in technology, thearts, sport and modern foreign languages has beenrapidly increased to around 600. In addition just twoyears after the start of the programme there are already182 secondary Beacon schools. By September 2001,there will be 1000 Beacons, including some 250 atsecondary level.

4.6 Above all, secondary schools have benefitedfrom increased funding over the last four years, andfrom taking increased control of their own destiny. Onaverage, schools will have some £700 more per pupilin 2003–04 than in 1997–98. Similarly, tripling thecapital investment, including significant amountsdevolved to schools themselves, has led to realimprovements in the quality of many school buildings.Schools are benefiting from increased autonomy, andare innovating in a variety of ways, including by usingtime more flexibly and through the use of ICT (see theExcellence in Cities model).

4.7 As at primary level, we have emerging evidencethat schools are narrowing the achievement gapbetween boys and girls and enabling all pupils,irrespective of ethnic background to achieve more.The most recent GCSE data shows that the childrenof unskilled manual workers have made the fastestprogress of any social class – with a 10 per centimprovement between 1997 and 1999, from 20percent to 30 per cent, in the numbers achieving 5 ormore A*– C grade GCSEs. Furthermore, theachievement of some minority ethnic groupsimproved much more rapidly than the nationalaverage over the same period.

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GEORGE SPENCERFOUNDATION SCHOOL ANDTECHNOLOGY COLLEGE



44

… BUT TRANSFORMATION IS NOW THE TASK

4.8 The central task in the next five years is to bringabout that transformation with higher standards andgreater equality of opportunity. We want to enable allschools to develop three key characteristics ofsuccessful secondary schools: effective leadership; aresolute focus on raising standards throughout theschool; and a strong ethos. Successful schools areproud of their distinctive identity and passionate abouttheir mission. Many secondary schools exhibit thesecharacteristics already. A key step to replicating thesecharacteristics across the system is the sustainedimplementation of the Excellence in Citiesprogramme. In addition it will require the followingmajor developments:

• A major extension of diversity in the secondaryschool system, and a variety of new approaches toencouraging each school to develop its owndistinctive mission and ethos, including furtherexpansion of the specialist schools programme.

• A continued increase in schools’ autonomy,particularly where they are successful.

• A concerted drive to improve the quality of teachingand raise standards in the first three years ofsecondary school.

• The development of a new choice of flexiblepathways for 13/14–19 year olds to enable muchgreater tailoring of education to the talents andaspirations of individuals.

• Further substantial improvements in achievement atschools in the most challenging circumstances.

• A new emphasis on enrichment, offering all pupilsnot just a broad curriculum but also opportunities todevelop all their talents, become active citizens oftheir school and community and benefit fromoutdoor adventure activity.

EXTENDING DIVERSITY

4.9 The individual school taking responsibility forimproving its performance is the key to higherstandards. Success results from good leadership,good teaching, clear goals and supportivepartnerships. We have progressively given all schoolsgreater control over their own future by removingconstraints and providing greatly increased resources.The premise of our policy is intervention in inverseproportion to success. We have encouragedsuccessful secondary schools to make the most ofthe increasing levels of delegated funding to innovateand to develop and spread best practice.

4.10 Schools are now responsible for their ownperformance, for the conduct of the school and itsdiscipline, for the control of school premises, the repairand maintenance of buildings and, in the caseof foundation and voluntary aided schools, foradmissions. We have also helped to ensure thatgovernors, heads and teachers have the right support,from reformed Education Authorities and fromelsewhere, to do their jobs as effectively as they can.All schools now enjoy many of the freedoms that wereformerly only available to the grant-maintained sector.The 1998 legislation gives schools greater choiceabout their category, and permits any communityschool that wishes, with local agreement, to proposetransfer from community to foundation status.

4.11 One of the benefits of giving schools thisfreedom to deploy their own resources, while holdingthem accountable for their performance in raisingstandards, is that it enables schools to develop theirown character. The evidence suggests that schoolswith a strong sense of identity or ethos perform best.


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The success of EiC is underpinned by strongpartnerships between all secondary schools and their Local Education Authority. The schools worktogether for the benefit of the whole community.There is no bidding involved. Resources go wherethey are most needed. The approach has beenwidely welcomed by schools and teachers.

The programme is still in its infancy but already,schools in EiC areas have shown faster improvementthan schools elsewhere, both in terms of theproportion of pupils achieving 5 or more A*– C grade GCSEs and those getting at least one GCSE.Encouragingly, improvements have been fastest in the most deprived schools.

Excellence in Cities (EiC) is designed to tackleunderachievement in some of the country’s mostchallenging areas. It was launched in March 1999,and by September 2001, will cover around a third of all secondary age pupils in 1,000 schools. FromSeptember 2001, for the first time, the approachadopted in the programme will be introduced insmaller areas of deprivation beyond the big cities,through new Excellence Clusters.

EiC aims to raise standards and at the same time to give parents renewed confidence that theirchildren will receive a high-quality educationwherever they go to school. It is based on theprinciples that there should be high expectations of all pupils, whatever their background; that thereshould be greater diversity beyond the basic NationalCurriculum; that schools achieve more when theywork together to raise standards; and that we needto extend learning opportunities for pupils of allabilities, building on the talents and aspirations of each one.

Through the programme additional resources areprovided to: • extend opportunities for Gifted and Talented pupils

by providing focused programmes within schoolsand university summer school places;

• provide access to Learning Mentors who helppupils to overcome barriers to learning outside the school and free teachers to teach;

• put in place Learning Support Units to tackledisruption alongside improved provision forexcluded pupils;

• increase the numbers of Beacon and specialistschools in city areas;

• introduce new City Learning Centres with state of the art ICT; and

• establish small Education Action Zones to raiseperformance in small clusters of schools.

THE EXCELLENCE IN CITIES MODEL


THOMAS TELFORD

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Thomas Telford School’s outstanding examinationresult success can be explained by a number of keyfactors.

High standards are expected from students and allachievements are recognised and celebrated. Pupilsset their own targets with guidance from teachers.There are ten reports to parents during the year andthere is a very high level of parental participation.Bullying is not tolerated. The school has a balancedintake from across a wide area.

ICT pervades the school. It has more than 20interactive whiteboards, all linked to the Internet.The videoconferencing facility can link to a numberof other schools including five local primary schoolswho are partners under the Beacon schoolsprogramme. The school has created an interactiveonline 'live' curriculum. This allows students and theirparents to access the school curriculum from anycomputer with an Internet connection.

The longer school day, developed by the staff of theschool, embraces the imaginative use of technology,and innovative use of time, coupled with proventraditional teaching methods. Over 150 pupils a yearplay sport in district, county and regional teams.

Kevin Satchwell, headteacher, said, “Everyoneinvolved with this school knows what is expectedof them and enjoys being part of a verysuccessful team.”


4.12 Furthermore, greater diversity of provisionmeans that schools will be creating a wider array ofinnovative practice, which can be spread to the wholefamily of schools. As a result, the system as a wholewill become more capable of meeting the differenttalents and aspirations of individuals. For thesereasons we want to encourage all secondary schoolsto develop a distinctive mission and ethos. Of course,we want to foster schools’ initiative and providesupport, not to impose on the leadership,management and staff of a school particularcharacteristics or non-teaching requirements whichthey do not believe they are capable of managing. Forthis reason, our approach at secondary level isdifferent from that at primary, where small schoolsoften do not have the capacity to take on additionaladministrative tasks.

4.13 Every school must be highly effective in teachingthe main subjects of the National Curriculum. Ourstrategy for lower secondary and other changes willensure that this is achieved for those currentlyunderachieving (see paragraph 4.27). But we alsowant every school to develop its strengths and makea contribution beyond. In some cases thiscontribution will be as a faith school; in other cases itwill be as a specialist school or Beacon school or atraining school. Others will contribute throughparticipation in an Education Action Zone or anExcellence in Cities partnership. Some schools maytake on more than one of these roles. The importantpoint is that every school should have the opportunityand responsibility to make a contribution to a family ofschools, to the development of the system as a wholeor to the local community. As the inspection systemevolves, we would want to see it examining the waythat each school plays its wider role as well ascarrying out its core function.

4.14 In order to realise this vision of every schoolmaking a wider contribution, we will increase thenumber of ways that schools can do so. Specialistand Beacon schools are already funded for theirresponsibility to develop and spread best practice.We will enable more schools to achieve specialist orBeacon status. We have already announced that wewill increase the number of specialist schools to 1,000by 2004. We now want to accelerate that target, sothat there will be 1,000 by 2003. In addition, we will liftthe current restriction on the number of specialistschools in Education Authorities where there isalready a high proportion. This will mean that schoolswanting to take on a specialism will not be restrictedjust because other nearby schools already have aspecialism. By 2006, we will seek to increase thenumber of specialist schools further, to 1,500,considerably more than double the number atpresent, and eight times the number in 1997.

4.15 As well as increasing the number of schools that can make a wider contribution through developinga specialism, we will also broaden the range of specialisms available. In addition to technology,languages, sport and the arts, we will offer schoolsthree new specialist options: engineering; science; and business and enterprise. Business and enterpriseschools will be expected to develop strong curriculum-business links and develop teaching strengths inbusiness studies, financial literacy and enterprise-related vocational programmes. Widening the optionsin this way will mean that schools will spread goodpractice and promote innovation through the system inmore subjects. They will be assisted by the TechnologyColleges Trust broad bandwidth Intranet.

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4.16 It is also critical that the system has a ‘leadingedge’ of schools with a mission to promote innovativepractice and exemplify the school of the future. Wewill, therefore, introduce in due course a new categoryof advanced specialist school which would be open tohigh-performing schools after five years in thespecialist schools programme. They could volunteerto take on a number of innovative ideas from a ‘menu’developed centrally in dialogue with existing,successful, specialist schools. In return they wouldreceive an additional capital investment to strengthentheir centre of excellence. The ‘menu’ might includesuch items as experimentation with distance learningor the preparation of high-quality curriculum materials.An important part of the advanced specialist rolemight also be initial teacher training, with many of theschools taking a leading role as training schools.Alternatively, some might contain a centre forleadership and management training in associationwith the National College for School Leadership.

4.17 In addition, we will expand the number ofsecondary Beacon schools. By September 2001there will be 1,000 Beacon schools, including some250 at secondary level. We will seek to expand thenumber at secondary level to 400 in the longer term.We will also designate some schools as Beacons thatachieve particular effectiveness in teaching the skillsrelevant to the emerging economy, includingpromoting creativity and the use of ICT. And we willoffer Beacon status to some schools thatdemonstrate excellence in working with theircommunity. This would enable the many schools,which have an excellent record of working withparents and the wider community, to promote theirsuccessful practice.

4.18 We have increased the number and variety ofschools within the state system supported by thechurches and other major faith groups. Some 560secondary schools are now provided by the Church ofEngland or the Catholic Church. For the first time,Muslim, Sikh and Greek Orthodox schools have beenbrought inside the state system, and are being fundedon the same basis as, for example, Church of Englandand Catholic schools have been for some time. Wehave also increased the number of Jewish schools.And we have indicated that we are ready to discusswith other community or privately-run schools the conditions on which they might enter the publicly-provided sector.

4.19 Schools supported by the churches and othermajor faith groups are, of course, valued by membersof those groups. They also have a good record ofdelivering a high-quality of education to their pupilsand many parents welcome the clear ethos of theseschools. We therefore wish to welcome more schoolsprovided by the churches and other major faithgroups and by other voluntary and communitygroups, where there is clear local demand fromparents and the community. We are pleased, forexample, to see that Lord Dearing’s report to theArchbishops’ Council recommends that the Church ofEngland increase the number of secondary schoolsthat it supports, particularly in areas where there arefew or no Anglican schools. We know other faithcommunities are also interested in extending theircontribution to education. We intend to change thecapital funding arrangements to make them morefavourable to enable this to occur (see Chapter 6).The new school sponsorship proposals set out inparagraph 4.23 will also be of interest to faith groupsand schools seeking to acquire faith sponsors.


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4.20 The City Academy programme, launched lastApril, enables sponsors from the private and voluntarysectors to establish new schools whose running costsare fully met by the state. City Academies offer aradical option to help raise achievement in areas ofhistoric underperformance by bringing a new anddistinctive approach to school management andgovernance. We will expand the programme and, infuture, will welcome proposals from those who wantto establish all-through (age 5–18) schools as well assecondary schools.

4.21 City Academies are all-ability schools with thecapacity to transform the education of children in areasof disadvantage and need. They will raise standards byinnovative approaches to management, governance,teaching and the curriculum, offering a broad andbalanced curriculum with a specialist focus in one area.City Academies will involve major investment forrefurbishment, ICT and learning resources.

4.22 Six City Academy working partnerships have sofar been announced in Brent, Haringey, Hillingdon,Lambeth, Liverpool and Middlesbrough. Sponsorsfrom the voluntary and private sectors, Church andother faith groups are involved as sponsors. We will beannouncing more Academies shortly. We intend toextend the programme year on year and welcomeproposals from sponsors and interested local partners.

4.23 In addition, we intend to develop a new modelwhich would enable an external private or voluntarysector sponsor to take responsibility for a weak orfailing school against a fixed-term contract of, say,five to seven years with renewal subject toperformance. This would create a new way for privateand voluntary sponsors or existing successful schoolsto support the management of weak or failingschools. This will further develop the model used atKing’s Manor, Guildford, where ‘3Es’, a charitablefoundation from The City Technology College,Kingshurst, was responsible for establishing the newschool (Kings College) and is currently supporting itsmanagement and development for a period of tenyears. It also builds on the successful experience ofspecialist schools, where a formal assessment ofmanagement quality, and performance targets andreview, are integral to the process of gaining andretaining specialist status.

4.24 This option will also enable successful schoolsto work in partnership with sponsors from the privateand voluntary sectors, including recognised faithgroups. Such a change might be attractive to schoolsembarking on a radical improvement strategy orseeking to develop a more distinct identity. Schoolsoperating within this framework would remain subjectto national policies on admissions and SpecialEducational Needs, and to local procedures for SEN,determining admissions arrangements and planningnew places.

WE WILL OFFER GREATER AUTONOMYTO SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS

4.25 Taken together, this range of opportunities willenable every secondary school to have a distinctmission, ethos and contribution to make to thesystem as a whole. We also want to ensure that,whatever their mission and ethos, schools that aredemonstrably successful earn greater autonomy.

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4.26 We have already changed the inspectionarrangements so that successful schools receive a‘short’ or light-touch inspection which places muchgreater emphasis on school self-evaluation. The earlyevidence suggests that this approach is workingextremely well. We want now to extend their autonomyby offering greater freedom over the curriculum andover pay and conditions, as we did for EducationAction Zones in the 1998 legislation. It will be entirely amatter for the schools concerned to decide whether totake advantage of the greater flexibility. The strongmessage we want to convey is that successful schoolsshould, increasingly, be able to manage their ownaffairs. Minimum national standards will be respected.Schools need to have demonstrated continuousimprovement or sustained excellence.

RAISING STANDARDS FOR 11–14 YEAR OLDS(KEY STAGE 3)

4.27 Standards for pupils aged 11–14 are not highenough. Teaching has generally been of lesser qualityfor this age group. Expectations have been too low.Pupils make far too little progress during these years.Attitudinal surveys show motivation falling anddisaffection rising. It is at this age that for many pupils,especially boys, the roots of later failure areestablished. These problems are not confined to theEnglish education system but the success of ourNational Literacy and Numeracy Strategies at primarylevel and the improvements we are making intransition arrangements, added to steadily increasedfunding, make us exceptionally well-placed to solvethem. Only if we do, will we be able to see a stepchange in performance across the system not only at14 but also 16, 18 and beyond. The evidence showsthat level of attainment at 14 is a key determinant ofGCSE performance: 93 per cent of those at Level 6and 52 per cent of those at Level 5 go on to achieve5 or more A*– C GCSEs at 16, but only 9 per cent ofthose at Level 4 do so.

4.28 Key components of the success of our NationalStrategies at primary level were high-qualityprofessional development for teachers and stretchingtargets, focused on pupils’ results. We intend to setambitious targets in English, mathematics, scienceand ICT for 14 year olds in 2007 with milestonetargets for 2004. We intend to announce the outcomeof our consultation shortly.

4.29 The goals of our Key Stage 3 strategy are toensure that by age 14, the vast majority of pupilshave:• Reached acceptable standards (Level 5 or above in

the National Curriculum) in the basics of English,mathematics and science.

• Benefited from a broad curriculum, includinglearning each of the National Curriculum subjects.

• Learnt how to reason, to think logically andcreatively and to take increasing responsibility for their own learning.

4.30 We also want to ensure that those who fallbehind their peers in English and mathematics benefitfrom extra support through catch-up classes.

4.31 Increasingly after age 14 students will havegreater choice among a variety of pathways to highstandards. We therefore also want pupils to reach thatage ready to make some important (though by nomeans irrevocable) choices.


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4.32 Our pilot programme in 205 secondary schoolsin 17 different Local Education Authorities began lastSeptember. It builds on the success in recent years atprimary level, on the improved transitionarrangements and particularly on best practice inexisting secondary schools. The early feedback fromthe pilot is encouraging. From September 2001 weintend to implement nationally a Key Stage 3 strategyas rigorous as the primary strategies have been, buttaking account of the greater complexity of secondaryschools and the secondary curriculum. We arealready committing £82 million to support the newstrategy next year and will shortly be announcingadditional funding for implementation in future.

It will:• Include annual targets for schools and Local

Education Authorities for the performance of 14year olds in English, mathematics and science, setin the context of the national targets.

• Extend the primary strategies for English andmathematics into lower secondary education,ensuring excellent materials and extra targetedsupport for those pupils and schools which havefurthest to go to meet the targets.

• Strengthen the skills of all secondary teachersof English and mathematics, especially heads ofdepartment.

• Provide similar support for heads of science andscience teachers.

• Enable all teachers, whatever their subjects,to support the teaching of literacy and numeracy.

• Promote ICT skills and the achievement of the newnational ICT targets.

• Offer support to all teachers of all subjects to improvetheir skills in assessing pupils’ work, setting individualtargets for pupils and teaching reasoning and logicaland creative thinking through their subject.

• Enable pupils whose first language is not English to take full advantage of teaching across the whole curriculum.

4.33 As part of this strategy we want to see all pupilsstretched so that they achieve their full potential. Thisis as important for those with Special EducationalNeeds as for the most able. We want to see furtherincreases in the extent of setting within subjectsincluding express sets to enable those who arecapable of doing so to advance beyond the levels setfor their age and to take Key Stage 3 tests early.Those who are not making sufficient progress will getextra help and assistance. We intend over time toexpand the existing summer school programmes sothat, if necessary, pupils can get extra help beforemoving up to the next school year and so that extraopportunities can be offered to the most able.

4.34 For pupils with Special Educational Needs, wewill adopt similar approaches. We need to have highexpectations of these pupils, to tailor the curriculum totheir needs and to ensure that teaching challenges andstretches them. We will build on our new framework,to ensure that children’s needs are identified, assessedand met effectively. Critically, we will seek to ensurethat problems are spotted quickly so that, for example,children with emotional and behavioural difficulties arehelped as far as possible before they significantlydisrupt the education of others. ICT can play asignificant role in enhancing the educationalopportunities for many children with learningdisabilities, and we will look at a range of innovativeapproaches to promoting its use, including makingtechnology available for pupils to use at home.

4.35 We intend to establish a new Centre for Giftedand Talented Youth, which will promote provision forgifted children in schools and establish intensivesummer schools along the lines of those pioneered byJohns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. Its firsttask will be to pilot university-based summer schoolsfor young people with exceptional talent in one ormore subject areas.

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4.36 The new World Class Tests which will benationally available from next year in mathematics andproblem-solving will ensure that gifted students cantest themselves against the best anywhere in theworld. We are working with other governments in, forexample, Australia, the USA and Singapore indeveloping these tests.

The longer term for Key Stage 3

4.37 We expect these plans for the next three yearsto bring substantial progress. Beyond 2004 we maywish to consider shortening the current three-year keystage for 11–14 year olds to two years. If doing thiscontributed to tackling the perceived lack of pace andso increased motivation and engagement, then therewould be potential for significant gains in pupilperformance. We will pilot that idea over the nextthree years with a representative group of schools.

4.38 By 2004 the pupils transferring to secondaryschool will have had a full primary education since theintroduction in 1998 of the National Literacy andNumeracy Strategies. At that point, we wouldtherefore be in a position to extend nationally theshortened Key Stage 3, if the pilots had provedsuccessful. However, we recognise that this would bea major change, and would want to consult fully withteachers and others before any decision to proceed. Ifthis decision were taken, then we would providesufficient time and support to enable it to beimplemented effectively.

4.39 If pupils did complete Key Stage 3 a year earliersome could then make accelerated progress to GCSEor equivalent level, taking their exams a year ahead ofthe current schedule. Others would be able to takelonger to complete GCSE, vocational GCSE or work-based courses and so achieve higher standards thanthey otherwise would. Clearly, if we were to makethese radical changes we would need to examine theimplications for the curriculum, the organisation ofschools and for national, local and school leveltargets. These issues can be explored through theproposed pilot and will need to be widely discussed.

WE WILL INTRODUCE NEW PATHWAYS FOR 14 – 19 YEAR OLDS

4.40 As the quality and standards of learning in thelower secondary years improve, so young people willemerge at age 14 with a broad educational base ofknowledge and understanding as well as advancedskills in the basics. They will also have developed thereasoning capacity and self-management which willenable them, with their teachers and personal advisers,to pursue a learning programme which reflects theirown talents and aspirations. The more able will havethe opportunity to proceed at a faster pace to GCSEsand beyond. We would expect many more to bemaking accelerated progress than is currently the case.


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4.41 From 14, the curriculum will offer a significantdegree of choice. Every pupil will still take GCSEs, butincreasingly they will be able to mix academic andvocational GCSEs and work-based options. A varietyof opportunities will be tailored to each person’saptitudes, abilities and preferences, but all willdemand high standards. The culture of leavingeducation for good at 16 will cease. GCSEs will be aprogress check for most at the midpoint of the 14–19programme. Increasingly, GCSEs will be taken at theend of Year 10 or in the autumn of Year 11 as well asthe summer, enabling those who are ready, to moveon to advanced level study early.

4.42 The individual pathways chosen at 14 willprovide a broad programme and each will prepareyoung people for the world of work and for furtherstudy. There will be no compromise on standards –individual choice will be between high-quality routesproviding high-quality education. And each route willoffer a broad curriculum that prepares young peoplefor an active and fulfiling adult life, whether at work,home or in the community. We will also beencouraging students to mix and match – to takevocational and academic GCSEs, but also to takeGCSEs with work-based experience. We aim to breakdown the historic antagonism to vocational educationas a route to success.

4.43 We intend to increase the percentage of pupilsobtaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*– C (orequivalent).

By 2004, we will:• Increase the proportion achieving the standard by

4 percentage points between 2002 and 2004. • Ensure that at least 38 per cent achieve the

standard in every Local Education Authority.

The Centre for Talented Youth at Johns HopkinsUniversity was founded in 1979 to providerigorous programmes to challenge very ablestudents from 13 upwards. It uses aninternational talent search to identify those who will benefit most from what it can provide,and offers highly individualised programmestaught by top professionals in three-weeksummer programmes on teaching universitycampuses each year.

The aim is not to provide a curriculum which isradically different from that studied elsewhere, but rather to vary the pace and level of instruction.It also offers a range of subjects going wellbeyond what schools are able to provide, includingpaleobiology, geopolitics, astronomy and logic.

Starting on a small-scale in 1979, the Centre now runs programmes for more than 10,000children each year across the United States, and approximately 100,000 young people applyannually for the Talent Search which affordsentrance to the academic programmes.

THE CENTRE FOR TALENTED YOUTH, JOHNSHOPKINS UNIVERSITY

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We are developing new high-quality pathways for learning…

4.44 Young people will be able to study vocationaland technical education as part of the normal schoolprogramme. High standard vocational options will beavailable to students across the ability range – thosewho excel at mathematics and the sciences, forexample, will often want to study specialistengineering or design and technology options. Butthose young people who want a future career basedon technical skills will be able to choosepredominantly vocational programmes of study fromage 14. We will strengthen and clarify the vocationaloptions available in the later years of secondaryeducation to enable this to happen. In particular, wewill consult on the scope for increasing the timeavailable for vocational study within the statutoryframework of the National Curriculum, and inparticular work-based options for craft and vocationalstudy leading to an apprenticeship option.

4.45 This will not be a formula for determining ayoung person’s future irrevocably at age 14. Thepathways available will be flexible, allowing youngpeople to mix academic and vocational study andswitch between options as new abilities and interestsbecome apparent. Whether students chooseacademic, vocational or a mixture of options at 14, aclear ladder of progression will be available to them at16 in sixth forms, in colleges and in the workplace.Whatever their programmes of study – A levels,vocational A levels, a combination of these, or aModern Apprenticeship – they will be able to pursuetheir studies to degree level if they reach the entrancestandard for university. Foundation Degrees are beingdeveloped for those looking for a two-yearprogramme with a strong vocational focus.

4.46 In the future, a 14 year old who wants to pursuea career in the hotel and catering industry maychoose a Hospitality and Catering GCSE in a widerprogramme involving practical activity in theworkplace and vocational study at a nearby college.Mathematics and science options would then havereal practical value in relation to vocational study. At16, after achieving GCSE mathematics and English,together with vocational GCSEs, he or she might takevocational A levels in Hospitality and Catering,Business, and Information and CommunicationsTechnology, leading to a Foundation Degree in HotelManagement. Equally, a 16 year old who has takentraditional GCSEs may go on to take vocational A levels or become employed as a ModernApprentice, making progress in learning from theworkplace and at college.

4.47 Directly, work-related learning will also be avaluable option for many 14–16 year olds.Progression routes into Foundation, and thenAdvanced, Modern Apprenticeships in skilledoccupations will be routed back into work-relatedlearning and placements for 14–16 year olds – givingconfidence to young people to further develop theirskills after leaving school. Qualifications towardsapprenticeships could be gained while the youngperson was still at school – accelerating their learningprogression. For example, a young person mightstudy for an engineering GCSE alongside an NVQ in aspecific occupation which they could then enter as aFoundation Modern Apprentice. Work placementswould be arranged with local companies offeringapprenticeship places. Evaluation work shows clearlythat, when placements are of good quality and meetthe aspirations of those undertaking them, standardsof attainment rise, as do levels of attendance inschool. We will expect all schools to offer work-relatedopportunities to their pupils, often in partnership withlocal colleges. All of these opportunities will need tobe effectively tailored to students’ needs.


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4.48 As a consequence of these reforms, there willbe hugely expanded opportunities for students to dopart of their learning in colleges, the workplace andthe community. Schools will remain at the heart of thelearning process up to 16 (and in some casesbeyond) but will need to rethink the role of teachersand mentors, who in some cases will spend some ofthe working week outside the school boundaries,teaching wherever the pupils are. Increasingly,schools, colleges and local businesses will workclosely together to deliver these opportunities moreeffectively, and the students involved will besupported by a network of advisers and mentorsincluding the Connexions Service.

4.49 Further Education colleges will have a major rolein supporting our vision of more individual learning for14–16 year olds. Schools and colleges will work inclose partnership, drawing on their respectiveexpertise, equipment and other resources. Theapproach may vary: pupils may spend considerabletime in colleges or college staff may go to schools. Ineach case, learning can be effectively supported bythe use of ICT and we will expect schools andcolleges to build on existing good practice.

4.50 A secondary school with an emphasis onvocational pathways might establish close links withone of the Centres of Vocational Excellence currentlybeing established in further education. Gifted andtalented pupils at an 11–16 school could benefit fromlinks with strong academic specialisms in the localsixth form college or centre, which itself would have aclose relationship with higher education.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CHALLENGINGCIRCUMSTANCES

4.51 Extending diversity and encouragingdissemination of best practice will help all schoolsto improve. For schools in challenging circumstances,however, additional targeted support is vital if they areto enable their pupils to achieve high standards.

A great deal has already been done.• The inspection process ensures that schools which

are under-performing are identified and action takento resolve their problems. The number of schools inspecial measures has fallen steadily and turnaround times have been significantly reduced.

• Reformed Education Authorities are beginning toprevent failure as well as tackling it after it hasoccurred. The number of schools going into specialmeasures was much lower in autumn 2000 than theprevious autumn.

• Clear minimum performance targets for the lowestattaining secondary schools have been set: that by2003 none should achieve fewer than 15 per cent ofpupils getting 5 higher grades at GCSE; by 2004none fewer than 20 per cent; and by 2006 nonefewer than 25 per cent.

4.52 These targets are not set in a vacuum. Ourpolicies will ensure that every secondary school withfewer than 25 per cent achieving 5 or more A*– Cs atGCSE or more than 35 per cent on free school mealsreceives extra targeted assistance and theopportunity, school by school and community bycommunity, to improve performance.

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We have introduced programmes to supportschools facing problems…

4.53 Three programmes have already been designedand implemented to deal with underperformanceacross a geographical area.

• 73 Education Action Zones have been establishedto promote innovation and higher standards in smallpockets of deprivation, whether urban or rural. Theynormally involve two or three secondary schoolsand their feeder primary schools. There is growingevidence of their positive impact, especially so faron primary schools and on transition. As theirprogrammes continue, we would expect to seeimproved performance feeding through atsecondary level in the years ahead. We intend toencourage all EAZs to include early education withintheir scope, so that universal provision of earlyeducation for those whose parents want it is seenas the foundation for future learning and success.

• Excellence in Cities has been introduced in threephases (see Excellence in Cities scheme, page 42)and will include 58 Local Education Authorities,1,000 secondary schools and a third of allsecondary pupils by September 2001. The earlyevidence suggests that the schools in the mostchallenging circumstances in EiC are making thefastest progress. We expect the programme tomake an increasing impact in the years ahead.

• Excellence Clusters are being established in sevenareas: based on the experience of the EAZprogramme and Excellence in Cities, they willpromote high standards in pockets of disadvantageoutside the major inner cities, such as the WestCumbrian coastal towns or Folkestone in Kent. Weintend to expand this programme by announcingfour more clusters to start in September 2001 andto include more areas over the next three years.

4.54 Each of these area-focused programmes will becrucial to achieving high standards across thecountry. However, we also need to target individualschools which face particular challenges, whetherwithin those areas or outside them. We recentlyintroduced a new programme, supported by £32million, through which each of over 500 low attainingsecondary schools in the country receive additionalfunding in return for a practical Raising AchievementPlan. Regular, constructive monitoring by OFSTED willhelp them to learn from best practice and adoptpractical, effective approaches.

4.55 Some of the lowest attaining schools in thecountry are secondary modern schools in areaswhere a selective system still exists. We want toencourage more partnerships between grammarschools and secondary moderns in the future so thatthey can share expertise and learn from each other, aswill happen in Ripon and Folkestone. We will provideadditional funding to encourage this collaboration andin due course to extend it to all selective areas.

4.56 Of those schools which are found to be failingabout 80 per cent are turned round successfully. Theaverage time it takes for a school to emerge fromspecial measures has fallen. Encouragingly, onceschools have been turned round OFSTED’s evidenceindicates that they continue to improve. Four in five ofthose that are not turned round are closed, withneighbouring schools expanding to take the pupils.We see the expansion of successful schools as a keymeans of addressing failure and are prepared tosupport effective plans for doing so.


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BARKING AND DAGENHAMVOCATIONAL PATHWAYS

4.57 More recently we have made the City Academyoption (described in paragraph 4.20) available totackle historic underperformance. The proposal forexternal sponsors to take responsibility for a schoolagainst a fixed-term contract for 5–7 years (set out inparagraph 4.23) will provide a further option.

4.58 Only where a critical education presence in acommunity is necessary for purposes of regenerationand other options are unavailable should Fresh Startbe considered. To date, it has been used for just 3 percent of failing schools. This will never bestraightforward but we cannot countenance asituation where a school is continuing to fail and noaction is taken. If a Fresh Start does not succeedwithin a reasonably defined period (subject toconsultation, we believe that this should be threeyears), it will be necessary to close the school andmake whatever arrangements are necessary totransfer the pupils to the nearest available successfulschools. Our simple but important principle is that thepriority must be to ensure that pupils get a goodeducation as soon as possible.

… And we will go further to support the schoolsfacing the biggest problems

4.59 As these policies are put in place we expect tobe able to see significant and sustained improvementin the vast majority of secondary schools inchallenging circumstances. However, for a smallnumber of schools in exceptionally challengingcircumstances which, for example, are sited inextremely disadvantaged communities, have very highpupil mobility or a large number of asylum seekers,we intend to develop an option which is more radicalstill. Starting this year we intend as a pilot to offersubstantial additional support and funding to about 8 or 10 well-managed secondary schools in theseparticularly difficult circumstances.

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This project has developed pre-vocationalpathways in specific industrial areas of art andtechnology, such as print, engineering, industrialmodel-making or catering. The approach usesvocational GCSEs in eight secondary schools toemphasise the knowledge and skills of the field,while meeting the assessment criteria for thesyllabus. The aim is to provide a thorough andhigh standard of technical education to exploitfully the potential of GCSE to enable themaximum number of pupils to gain success and recognition.

Pupils use industrial standards and equipment,while working to assignments which makecommercial demands and provide access to thefull range of grades A*– G. For example, one pupilstudying Industrial Production GCSE as part ofthe Design and Technology College at the Warren Comprehensive School designed a highlyinnovative double action clamp, using precisiontooling techniques and achieved an A* GCSE.The school is currently seeking a patent for his design.

Results from the project have been veryencouraging, with schools reporting attainmentresults above predicted scores for project pupils.Additionally, schools report that pupils’attendance and standards of work have beendriven up in other subjects.


4.60 The pilot will include a strong emphasis onmuch smaller classes and more flexible approachesto the use of time. We want teachers who choose towork in these extremely challenging circumstances to have additional support and pupils to benefit from an extended learning day and weekend andholiday learning.

WE WILL PROMOTE GREATER EQUALITY …

4.61 These plans to improve all secondary schoolswill make significant inroads into the unacceptableinequality of opportunity which exists currently. Thereis no doubt that high expectations, focusing on individuals and examining comparative data are all essential.

4.62 Our plans to raise standards will also close theattainment gap for children from Caribbean, Pakistani,Bangladeshi and some other backgrounds, who havetended to be poorly served by their experience ofschool. There is often no lack of ability or aspiration inthese children or their families; circumstances haveconspired to limit their attainment. Through acombination of general and targeted policies, thosecircumstances can be changed. The recent YouthCohort Study data (see Chapter 1) shows significantgains, on which we can build.

Targeted measures will include:• A rigorous approach to monitoring the progress of

ethnic minority pupils, and to setting targets forunderperforming groups of pupils, aided by theincreasing effectiveness of national and local leveldata analysis.

• A focus on the progress of black and other ethnicminority pupils in Excellence in Cities. WithOFSTED, which is investigating the attainment ofblack pupils, we will develop a range of ways inwhich schools can engage them better, workingwith their families, with supplementary schools and

with Beacon schools which are succeeding inallowing ethnic minority pupils to perform at thehighest levels.

• A continued drive to tackle inequalities of attainmentthrough the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant, whichis now worth over £150 million a year, and increasinglyintegrated within our wider drive to raise standards.

• Setting the highest standards of teaching for pupilsfor whom English is their second language, throughlinking it closely to the literacy strategy in primaryand lower secondary education.

• Better induction of children who come as refugeesor asylum seekers to England through intensivecourses and support.

WE WILL SUPPORT INDIVIDUAL CHILDRENWHO MUST OVERCOME SOCIAL PROBLEMS…

4.63 We want to pilot a means of targeting funding toindividual pupils whose own social circumstances areexceptionally challenging. Pupil Learning Credits willprovide the secondary schools which these pupilsattend, with extra funding, to enable the schools tooffer them, both within the school day and outside it,the kind of opportunity that many more advantagedpupils take for granted: extra music tuition, museumand theatre visits, as well as extra support in the corecurriculum if it is necessary. The pilot will involve asmall number of schools in Excellence in Cities areasor Excellence Clusters with very high levels of pupils onfree school meals. We will announce the details shortly.

4.64 The pilot will examine the quality of the provision,the benefits to the pupils and schools involved and,equally importantly, the use of the Pupil LearningCredits as a means of targeting funding precisely to thepupils in need of support. If it were to be successful, itwould have important lessons, both for tacklingdisadvantage and for funding education. It is part of ourwork to ensure that funding follows the pupil and thateducation is tailored to the needs of the student.


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WE ARE TACKLING DISAFFECTION …

4.65 Over recent years pupil behaviour has improvedsignificantly as OFSTED recognised in 1998–99. Insome schools, especially those in challengingcircumstances, it remains a significant problem. TheChief Inspector of Schools’ 1999–2000 annual reportindicates that last year there was the first small rise inbehaviour problems for some time and that in someschools even good teachers are severely tested bysome of the behaviour pupils bring with them into theschool. We have recognised the importance oftackling this issue not just for the benefit of the poorlybehaved pupils themselves who, left unchallenged,could become seriously disaffected but also for otherpupils in their classes whose education is disrupted.

4.66 For the first time we have a fully-funded,comprehensive programme for tackling indiscipline,disaffection and disruption. It provides extra resourcesto schools which are willing to admit pupils who havecaused trouble elsewhere, additional support staff inschools and provision for those who are excluded. Wewill be investing more than £200 million each yearthrough the Standards Fund, the Children’s Fund andConnexions over the next three years to tackledisruptive behaviour, exclusion and truancy and tosupport the most vulnerable children in our society.This compares to just £17 million in 1996–97.

4.67 In-school units, where pupils who are disruptingthe classroom can be quickly removed from lessonsand can get intensive support to improve theirbehaviour and to catch up, have proved their value.We are therefore funding schools to establish 1,000Learning Support Units. Learning Mentors are alsoplaying an important role in solving behaviourproblems before they become so severe that exclusionis necessary. Where good alternatives like these havebeen in place for over a year, schools report significantimprovements in behaviour and attainment.

4.68 While the number of pupils permanentlyexcluded from school is falling from the excessivelevels we saw in the mid-90s, there is now improvedprovision for those pupils who used, all too often, tobecome involved in crime, drugs or other anti-socialbehaviour when excluded.

4.69 But we know that there are youngsters whosebehaviour is unacceptable and whose presence in theschool causes major discipline and educationalproblems for others. We have therefore made clearthat headteachers must be able permanently toexclude pupils whose behaviour is seriously disruptiveto other pupils, in the interests of good discipline inthe school and the learning of the majority of pupils.Where pupils are excluded, we have ensured thatEducation Authorities have the capacity to providethem with a full-time educational programme. Thereare now 1,000 more places and 250 more teachersworking with excluded pupils in out-of-school units(Pupil Referral Units) than in 1997 and a full-timeeducation will be provided for all excluded pupils by2002. We are determined that wherever possibleexcluded pupils get back on track and makeappreciable steps in learning. We will establish anational network of Pupil Referral Units to share bestpractice in educating excluded pupils. The oldapproach, which offered such young people only twoor three hours tuition a week, left them no prospect ofimproving their behaviour and too much time to driftinto trouble or a life of crime.

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4.70 However, we also know that much misbehaviourarises from indiscipline and lack of interest in thehome. We will therefore seek to strengthen the hand ofheads and teachers in dealing with parents whosechildren’s behaviour or attendance at school isunacceptable. The joint efforts of the Home Office andthe DfEE, in conjunction with Education Authoritiesand schools, is beginning to pay dividends as policeand education welfare staff join together in using thenew powers available to them to deal with persistenttruancy and misbehaviour.

… AND WE WILL PROVIDE INDIVIDUALISEDSUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

4.71 We are also putting in place additional supportfor young people in the most challenging city areas.The new Excellence Challenge programme, anintegral part of Excellence in Cities and in future ofEducation Action Zones and Excellence Clusters, willfrom September 2001 ensure that young people fromareas of disadvantage with the potential to reachhigher education get the support they need to achievetheir full potential, starting when they are 14 and goingthrough until they enter higher education. This is animportant way of extending opportunity where itpreviously did not exist. There will be a strand of theExcellence Challenge dedicated to ensuring that moreof the most able young people in those areas frommaintained schools and colleges can enter theuniversities with the most demanding entryrequirements. Opportunity Bursaries are beingintroduced as part of the Excellence Challenge, tosupport young people from these areas in highereducation. Mentoring will also be an important part ofthis work. We want to expand substantially theNational Mentoring Pilot Project, which providestraining and a small stipend to undergraduates whochoose to become mentors to 14–16 year olds at riskor in need of additional encouragement.

4.72 The Education Action Zones of EastMiddlesbrough and East Cleveland provide a goodexample of how the National Mentoring Pilot Projectcan work. Ninety-six students from the University ofTeesside have already proved themselves to be verysuccessful in their mentoring relationships with pupils.Children from 9 schools have been involved and thereis growing evidence that the programme has asubstantial impact upon pupils’ exam grades.

4.73 Young people need effective support andguidance particularly as they reach the end of theirschool careers and take decisions about their future.The new Connexions Service, which is beingprogressively implemented across the country from2001, focuses on the 13 –19 age group to ensure acontinuity of support is in place across this keytransition point. Its central aim is to provide allteenagers with the help and support they need toprepare for the transition to work and adult life.

4.74 As well as web-based and telephone services,there will be a range of Connexions Service PersonalAdvisers including those working with young peoplewho require more intensive help and support in dealingwith personal, family and other problems getting in theway of their learning achievement. Many ConnexionsService Personal Advisers will operate in schools andcolleges building on and strengthening existingpastoral support arrangements. In Excellence in Citiesschools Connexions Personal Advisers and LearningMentors will work side by side, complementing eachothers’ skills and knowledge base and linking in withexternal agencies.

4.75 This combination of reforms will transform theprospects of all young people, especially those fromdisadvantaged backgrounds. It will open entry tohigher education and high-quality workplace trainingand ensure more than ever before that it is based onmerit rather than background or place of birth.


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WE WILL PROMOTE ‘EDUCATION WITH CHARACTER’

4.76 Academic achievement is clearly crucial both toensure that individuals have a range of options whenthey finish school and to ensure the future success ofsociety as a whole. But no-one believes it is the onlyimportant outcome of schooling. It is also importantthat pupils learn to know right from wrong; to getalong with their fellow pupils, whatever theirbackground; to work in teams; to make a contributionto the school as a community; and to develop positiveattitudes to life and work. This is important, not just fortheir capacity to take control of their own lives and tocontribute to their family and community, but also tothe success of the emerging new economy.Employers increasingly emphasise, not just academicqualifications, but skills and attitudes such asentrepreneurship, motivation, teamwork, creativityand flexibility.

4.77 This combination of skills, attitudes and habitsof the mind we have called ‘education with character’.Perhaps the most important means of ensuring pupilsdevelop character in this sense is the ethos of theschool they attend. All the evidence suggests thatwhere schools develop a positive, respectful and can-do ethos not only do pupils develop better asrounded people, they are also likely to achieve higheracademic standards. Hence the importance weattach to school ethos. To ensure it is given theattention it deserves we will:• Discuss with OFSTED how inspection might give

greater recognition to the importance of the ethos ofa school in improving standards and discipline.

• Ask the National College for School Leadership andother providers of leadership training anddevelopment to give emphasis to training heads andprospective heads to understand how a positive ethosat school level can be established and sustained.

• Encourage schools to involve pupils much moreactively in decisions, not just about their ownindividual learning, but about their class and theirschool as a whole. This can be done through theestablishment of school councils, through regularsurveys of pupil attitudes and a range of othermeans. The Barking and Dagenham VocationalPathways scheme described earlier is an example.

4.78 All of these steps will be greatly reinforced by theintroduction of Citizenship into the National Curriculumacross the school system from September 2002 andby our continuing measures to ensure a broad and richcurriculum. Citizenship education will include politicalliteracy, social and moral responsibility and communityinvolvement. We recognise the important part that PEand sport play in encouraging a healthy lifestyle,increasing self-esteem, confidence and teamwork. Andinvolvement in music and art can change the waychildren and young people feel, think and act, stimulatecreativity and provide opportunities for self-expression,reflection and emotional development.

4.79 We have taken significant steps to increase thequality and spread of opportunities for secondaryschool children in these areas. The Music StandardsFund, Creative Partnerships, and the School SportsCo-ordinator programme, are all strengthening theframework for young people at school to enjoyrounded and varied learning experiences that willequip them more fully for the adult world. We arepleased to see that there has been an elevenfoldincrease in entries for the GCSE short course inReligious Education.

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4.80 In sport in particular, the measures describedearlier in paragraph 3.26 are making a majorimprovement to school sport provision. The SpecialistSports Colleges are Centres of Excellence spreadinggood practice throughout the education system, andwe have introduced a target that there will be at least150 of them by 2004. We are investing additionalresources to create opportunities for young people totrain in sport leadership and citizenship and toencourage them to volunteer; and £50 millionsupported by the New Opportunities Fund for outdooractivities with a focus on personal development for 16year olds. We have also put in place protection forschool playing fields, preventing their sale. Takentogether, these steps amount to a powerful packageof support for school sport.

4.81 Other steps we will take to build character include: • Ensuring good work experience opportunities for all

secondary pupils and a growing range ofopportunities for work place learning from 14.

• Further extending the range of out-of-schoollearning opportunities available, especially in sports,arts, music and drama.

• Developing Creative Partnerships between schoolsand arts organisations in deprived areas to open upa wider variety of out-of-school learningopportunities.

• Developing further the range of mentoring schemeswhich are available.

• Encouraging across the 14–19 age group theopportunity for pupils to complete awards such asthe Duke of Edinburgh Award which accredits thevarious aspects of character building. It offers pupilsaccreditation at bronze, silver and gold level forachievement in four areas: a new skill, a sport,community service and an expedition.

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ASHLEY SPECIAL SCHOOLCOUNCIL, HALTON

Ashley school has placed emphasis ondeveloping citizenship at the heart of its activities.It has had a school council for nine years, whichis central to the life of the school. A number ofsupporting committees ensure that most pupilshave a chance to be directly involved. Studentsreceive training for their roles in thesecommittees. Staff supporting thecouncil/committee meetings ensure that thelearning opportunities of council/committee areintegral to individuals’ learning programmes.

The full school council meets weekly in a purposefitted council chamber in the school. The schoolwas the first special school to receive an Eco-Schools Award and pupils have been to both theHouses of Parliament and to Brussels to talk toMPs and MEPs. The school has been awardedthe Schools Curriculum Award 2000.

The sculptor, David Gross, worked with pupils tomake a large sculpture with symbols representingthe rights and responsibilities of the schoolcommunity as recorded in the School Charter–Acorporate commitment to justice and globalcitizenship.


• Expanding the programme of summer activities for16 year olds, particularly focused on outdooradventure activities. We are investing £10 million inextended pilot projects before the programme isrolled out nationally from 2002, supported by theNew Opportunities Fund and integrated closely withthe Connexions Service.

• Offering all pupils from 5–16 an entitlement to 2hours of PE and sport within and beyond thecurriculum with increased opportunities to playcompetitive games.

• Through Culture Online, offering the opportunity foryoung people to develop their skills throughinteractive workshops, commissions, and events,working with established leaders in the creativefields, as well as develop their understanding ofculture by working with the best culturalorganisations in the country.

• Ensuring through individual pupil-level target-settingthat these developments link well with the academicand vocational curriculum and ensure each pupilhas a rounded education.

4.82 Taken together, the proposals in this chapter willcombine to produce the longer term transformation ofsecondary education: higher standards; greaterdiversity of provision; greater equality of outcome;schools with the most serious problems improving;and every child able to achieve his or her potentialacross a wide range of activities.

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FOR TEACHERS

We will:• continue our reforms of initial teacher training

by creating new routes into teaching, so that trainingto teach can be part of undergraduate degrees;

• implement a recruitment and retention package for schools in the most challenging circumstances;

• introduce a package of support for teachers’professional development backed by a total of £92 million;

• continue to build new career paths for teachers,including by developing joint appointments of teachers to schools and higher education;

• support teachers to teach by cutting unnecessaryburdens, bureaucracy and administration andinvesting in support staff and ICT; and

• continue to increase rewards for teachers to reflecttheir key role in society, with substantial newinvestment in performance pay between 2002 and 2004.

5.1 Schools and those who work in them are the realengine for improvement in education. That is why theteaching profession remains at the heart of all ourproposals. In the Green Paper Teachers: meeting thechallenge of change published in December 1998, weset out our vision for teaching:

“At the heart of what teachers do will remain thegood, well-taught lesson – which has proved itseffectiveness. But many new possibilities areemerging. Throughout the 20th century teachers hadto choose between prioritising the needs of largegroups or following up the diverse needs ofindividuals. Now for the first time they can do both.

New technology can add new dimensions to lessons,improving both effectiveness and presentation…Pupils’ capacity to undertake independent research isbeing dramatically enhanced. Pupils’ homes can benetworked to schools. Teachers, through interactivetechnology, will be able to teach their traditionallessons to pupils not just in one location but several.New technologies are giving pupils with SpecialEducational Needs improved access to learning.None of this is wishful thinking: it is already beginningto happen.

In the end, however, it is the quality of teaching andthe support available to teachers which will make thedifference. The increasing numbers of teachingassistants and support professionals in schools willchange approaches to teaching and learning…”

CHAPTER 5 TEACHING – A 21st CENTURY PROFESSION

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5.2 We want to make these new possibilities a realityfor all teachers – so that they can make their fullcontribution, individually and collectively, to the progressof the education service as a whole. All teachers shouldhave opportunities to update their skills, exploit moderntechnology to the full and develop new ways of working.The challenge is to make the best practice of someschools, the norm in every school.

5.3 This may seem an ambitious vision but it wouldbe a mistake to overlook how far the teachingprofession has already advanced towards itsrealisation. There is evidence throughout the systemthat teachers are making real changes.• OFSTED reports more satisfactory or better lessons

than ever before.• Schools are focused on classroom practice and

standards, and there is much better evidence aboutwhat works and much more sharing of ideas.

• Recent progress, especially at primary level, hasraised expectations; and target-setting at school,class and pupil level has been enthusiasticallyadopted throughout the school system. Performancemanagement is being put in place in all schools.

• Teachers are increasingly reaping benefits fromworking with a range of other staff includingclassroom assistants, learning support staff andLearning Mentors. And more schools are workingwith external partners such as other schools,businesses, community organisations and otherpublic services, often innovating as a result.

• Teachers’ experiences play a greater part informing policy and practice – through nationalprogrammes such as Beacon schools and activeconsultative processes, such as the Learning from Success conferences.

• The establishment of the General Teaching Counciland the National College for School Leadershipmeans that powerful new institutions can expressthe voice of teachers and school leaders.

5.4 The changing economy is increasingly placingnew demands on professionals in every field. In the20th century, the professional could often expect tobe treated as an authority, whose judgement wasrarely questioned, and who was therefore rarely heldto account. Despite this, professional judgementswere not always based on evidence, and particularlyin the public sector, services were arranged to suit theproducer rather than the user.

5.5 Teaching, by contrast, is already in many ways a21st century profession. More perhaps than anyother, the teaching profession accepts accountability,is open to the contributions that others can make andis keen to seek out best practice. Teachers know thatthey are there to serve pupils and their parents andthat they need:• To have high expectations of themselves and of

all pupils.• To focus on classroom practice and take personal

and collective responsibility for improving their skillsand subject knowledge.

• To exercise informed professional judgement,basing their decisions as far as possible on data andevidence and fully exploiting modern technology.

• To accept accountability, above all, for the results of their students.

• To welcome the contribution that governors,parents, business and other partners can make tosuccessful education.

• To promote innovation and increasingly tocontribute, individually and collectively, to thedevelopment and progress of the service as a whole.

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CHAPTER 5 TEACHING – A 21ST CENTURY PROFESSION


5.6 The vision of the 1998 Green Paper may not yetbe realised but progress towards it is remarkable. Thecombination of rising standards and funding andgrowing acceptance of accountability means that therelationship between teachers and Government canbe built more than ever before on trust. For example,now that the data systems, target-setting and theframework for school improvement are in place, wecan greatly enhance the role that school self-evaluation plays in the inspection process. In thisclimate, in partnership with teachers, we will takeforward the agenda of reform set out in the GreenPaper and complete the modernisation of theteaching profession.

REFORMING INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING

5.7 We made it an early priority to ensure that newteachers are able to make an immediate impact intheir first post. So we began a significant reform ofinitial teacher training: implementing a NationalCurriculum to establish high standards, and thencrucially, aligning it fully with the National Literacy andNumeracy Strategies. We have employed RegionalDirectors from the two National Strategies to focusspecifically on initial teacher training.

5.8 This has greatly improved primary teachertraining, so that for the first time, we can haveconfidence that all trainee teachers are being taughtbest practice in teaching English and mathematics. Atthe same time, we have through the Teacher TrainingAgency ensured that more direct use is made ofOFSTED inspection of initial teacher trainingestablishments, to hold providers accountable for thequality of their training. The Teacher Training Agencyhas reduced and in extreme cases closed down low-quality provision. We have linked the funding oftraining to quality, so that the best at teacher trainingnow train more teachers.

5.9 In support of this, we are introducing tests toensure that trainee teachers have good occupationalmathematics, English and ICT skills. And we continueto ensure that they spend the majority of their trainingworking in schools, developing and practising theirskills in the classroom, so that by the time they qualifythey will be effective with their classes. After training, anew induction year with a reduced 90 per centteaching commitment gives new teachers the chanceto consolidate their training and prove themselves inthe classroom, and provides a platform for them tocarry on developing their skills throughout their careers.

5.10 Alongside this, we have expanded school-centred initial teacher training, where schools ratherthan higher education institutions take the lead. Wehave enlarged the Graduate Teacher Programme,which offers salaried school-based initial teachertraining for mature students, from 84 places in 1997to 1,680 in 2001, and increased incentives for schoolsand trainees. We have identified a first group ofTraining Schools to provide high-quality, professionaland innovative forms of initial teacher training in aschool setting.

5.11 Taken together, these reforms have greatlyimproved the quality of initial teacher training.OFSTED has found that the standard of teaching ofthose in their induction year is almost as high as thatof the profession as a whole. Data from the TTA showthat satisfaction levels amongst trainee teachers arenow high, and more trainees are training inestablishments which received the highest inspectiongrades (65 per cent in 1999 compared to 56 per centin 1997).


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5.12 We want to continue to embed these reforms.We believe that there are a number of options forundergraduate teacher training. First, for existing BAand BEd courses, which lead to qualified teacherstatus, we wish to consider whether we should offer atraining salary and waive tuition fees for students whenthey reach their fourth year. Secondly, and on the basisof revised undergraduate courses, we wish toconsider whether we should move to a salaried fourthyear, along the lines of the Graduate TeacherProgramme. A third option for undergraduate courseswould be to allow the award of Qualified TeacherStatus to exceptional fourth year students, who couldthen be paid as teachers before the completion of their degree. We also wish to explore whether weshould offer all undergraduates opportunities to takeup placements as Teaching Associates during theirdegree, depending on the timing of university andschool terms.

5.13 We also wish to explore a new route to achievingQualified Teacher Status, which would allowundergraduates on traditional academic degrees totake education modules as part of their degree so asto take part of a PGCE while still an undergraduate.Weintend to pilot this final option in a number ofuniversities. If an undergraduate could take, say, threeeducation modules as part of an 18 module three-yeardegree and those modules could count towards boththeir degree and qualified teacher status, then theycould make good progress towards a PGCE whiledoing their undergraduate degree. Where subjectdemands meant that students could not take any ormany education modules in place of subject-relatedunits, these could be provided in summer sessions.

5.14 A student who opted to do a PGCE in this waycould be paid a training salary in installments while stillan undergraduate. Training could then be completed ina reduced period of time in school, througharrangements similar to the Graduate TeacherProgramme or other flexible routes, so that the newteacher earns a salary after three years rather than four.

5.15 Piloting this model will enable us to explore thepracticalities further – for example, assuring the qualityof teaching practice in schools; examining how muchmore training is needed after graduation before theaward of qualified teacher status can be made; andthe implications for other routes into teaching such asthe four-year BEd. Subject to the success of thepilots, we intend to develop this new approach as amajor route into teaching.

RECRUITING TEACHERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

5.16 The Government has developed a programmeto recruit and retain sufficient teachers of quality, in anincreasingly competitive labour market. Teaching is byfar the biggest recruiter of graduates in the countryand faces fierce competition. Over the last generation,teacher supply has only been solved as a problemduring economic recession. We are putting in placemeasures to solve it effectively in a period of sustainedeconomic growth.

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5.17 The work described here to improve the qualityof teacher training will have an impact on teacherrecruitment. We have introduced a new £6,000training salary, which is paid to postgraduate traineeteachers while they train, and made training moreflexible and adaptable to individuals’ needs. £4,000‘golden hellos’ in key shortage subjects also provide astrong incentive for recruitment, as does exemptionfrom tuition fees.

5.18 In addition, we are piloting new paths intoteaching. We are providing ongoing professionaltraining for teaching assistants and expanding theirroutes into the profession. Our new Fast Trackscheme, where trainee teachers with high potentialand talented qualified teachers can make fastercareer progress, is another scheme that will attractable graduates. It has already generated greatinterest. We are encouraging currently under-represented groups to move into teaching through all these routes.

5.19 We believe that offering undergraduatesopportunities to work in schools while studying fortheir degree will help to attract them into teaching. Wehave introduced a programme of associate teachers –undergraduate and postgraduate students whospend time working in schools. Currently 900students are part of our National Mentoring Pilot andwe hope that significant numbers will considerbecoming teachers.

5.20 The result of this is that we have reversed a declining trend of interest in teaching at a time ofeconomic success and through campaigns led by theTTA, we are translating growing interest into solidapplications. By the beginning of February 2001, over115,000 people had made enquiries and over 50,000had registered their details with the Teacher TrainingAgency, expressing interest in training to be a teacherand nearly 20,000 had applied for postgraduateteacher training (the equivalent figures for the previousyear were 43,000, 19,000 and 17,900 respectively).The number of students in training is now risingsignificantly for the first time since 1992/93: there arenow 2,250 more people training to be teachers thanin January 2000. And there are almost 7,000 moreteachers in service than in 1998.

5.21 We want to make teaching still more attractive,by giving extra support to those who commit to it as acareer. For shortage subjects and areas of difficulty inrecruitment, we will explore a scheme to assist newteachers who enter and remain in employment in thestate education sector to pay off, over a set period oftime, their student loans.


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5.22 We also want to solve the problems in the placeswhere it is hardest to recruit and retain staff. We wantto make it a much more attractive option for teachersand headteachers to work in schools in challengingcircumstances and we have taken action to helpschools facing some of the greatest challenges. Wenow want to put in place specific measures to supportthem in recruiting and retaining staff. There are alreadymany dedicated teachers deriving great professionalsatisfaction from their work in these schools, but it isnot enough to rely on this. For the pupils at suchschools, good headteachers and teachers are simplyessential. Our full range of measures will provide:• A dedicated recruitment and retention service

offering professional advice.• Much greater support for headteachers and senior

managers provided by the National College for SchoolLeadership. They will have access to mentoring bybusiness people and excellent professionaldevelopment and networking opportunities.

• Additional funding both through targetedprogrammes such as Excellence in Cities andEducation Action Zones and direct to schools, toenable them to offer extra support to teachers.

• Tailored recruitment packages to suit differentteachers at different stages of their careers, includingpension enhancements and salary bonuses.

• Specialist training packages to help teachers meet the professional demands of teaching inchallenging circumstances.

5.23 We also want to make it more attractive forteachers to work in some of our highest cost areas.There are now more on-the-job training places inExcellence in Cities schools in London. These placesattract a training salary of £150 per week. We aremaking it possible for Local Education Authorities inhigh-cost housing areas to help teachers buy theirfirst homes through obtaining funds from the StarterHome Initiative. We are now extending to other partsof the country facing shortages our successfulLondon scheme using refresher courses to helppeople to return to teaching, backed by £2.5 million ayear for the next two years.

5.24 We have also now introduced new flexibilities inpay. Schools will have complete discretion for the firsttime to offer recruitment and retention payments of upto £5,000 a year per teacher to help to tacklerecruitment difficulties, particularly in high cost areas.New retention bonus packages, worth up to £15,000per teacher, will help retain teachers in particularlychallenging jobs by carrying forward allowances forperiods of up to three years and paying them as abonus at the end of the period.

5.25 Taken together with across the board increasesin pay, new opportunities for good teachers to receivepromotion to a new higher pay scale and increases inLondon allowances, we believe that this package ofmeasures will significantly enhance schools’ ability torecruit and retain teachers.

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TALKING HEADS

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ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

5.26 The working environment is changing at an unprecedented rate. Like every other profession,teaching must keep pace if we are to prepare childrenfor a rapidly changing labour market. For teachers, as much as for their pupils, the issue is one of lifelonglearning: the need to continuously build andupdate skills.

5.27 The power of high-quality professionaldevelopment has been amply borne out by theLiteracy and Numeracy Strategies. Last year alone, forexample, all 18,000 primary headteachers received aday’s training on literacy, 38,000 teachers receivedadditional phonics training, 25,000 teachers weretrained in how to teach writing and 6,000 primaryschools received intensive support in the teachingof numeracy. Ninety-nine per cent of those whoparticipated in numeracy training rated itas satisfactory or better. The system has neverachieved anything like this volume and quality ofprofessional development before.

5.28 Our consultation on teachers’ professionaldevelopment in 2000 made very clear that teacherswant to keep their skills up to date and we willcontinue to invest in national strategic trainingpriorities. The Key Stage 3 strategy is being pilotedand will be available to all secondary schools from thenext academic year. Over 200,000 teachers areregistered for training in the use of ICT in theclassroom, and some 74,000 have completed it.

Talking Heads is the interactive online communityof the National College for School Leadership,and all headteachers in England are being invitedto join. It allows headteachers to network withother school leaders and experts from thiscountry and internationally and to debate freelyand in confidence current professional issues.Comments from headteachers participating in thepilot of Talking Heads include:• “Talking Heads is like meeting all your other

headteacher colleagues… and being able todebate when you choose, for as long as youchoose, the issues that are important to you.”

• “The biggest benefit is that it ends the isolationof being a Head… my confidence hasincreased and I feel that I’m part of a nationalnetwork, rather than acting in isolation…”

• “The difference it’s made to me… is having awhole load of Heads to speak to at the touchof a button, across the country… and to havesomeone to talk to, share my problems withand get immediate answers as well. There’salways someone who’s got some sort ofsolution out there.”


5.29 Last year we launched opportunities forteachers in three new areas: to carry out research intobest practice in teaching and learning; to visit othercountries to see how they were tackling particularproblems; and a new scheme gave teachersbursaries to spend on any professional developmentactivities meeting their needs.

5.30 We want to extend these into future years aspart of a new national strategy for professionaldevelopment. This will be backed by £90 million overthree years for a series of development initiatives. Oneis a new opportunity for experienced teachers inchallenging areas to take sabbaticals, allowing themto pursue development activities of value to them andtheir school. Another is increased professionaldevelopment for teachers in their second and thirdyears of teaching, building on the induction year.

5.31 Alongside these new programmes, we willspread across the school system the excellentpractice in a number of schools of placingprofessional development at the heart of theirapproach to school improvement. Successful schoolsare always outward facing and committed to sharingbest practice and seeking innovative thinkingwherever they can find it. This vital process ofnetworking and sharing knowledge is at the heart ofteachers’ professionalism because it involves bothlearning from what works and contributing to the poolof professional knowledge. We will continue toemphasise the value that can come from teacherslearning from each other – through observing lessons,feedback, coaching and mentoring – which manyteachers find the most effective way to improve their practice.

IMPROVING LEADERSHIP

5.32 Good leadership is an essential component of asuccessful school. We know that good leadership fromgoverning bodies, headteachers and their senior teamcreates an environment in which teachers can give oftheir best. We are committed to giving school leadersthe best possible preparation and development.

So:• We have launched the National College for School

Leadership. We want to establish it as a world classinstitution providing inspiration and support to allschool leaders and potential leaders. It will offer thevery best development opportunities, online andface to face (see Talking Heads opposite).

• The National College will link to the growingworldwide network of similar institutions so thatleaders here learn from and share with the bestpractitioners globally and will be a voice for schoolleaders in the debate about how to bring aboutfurther improvement over the years ahead.

• We are reviewing the national developmentframework for leadership. The revised NationalProfessional Qualification for Headship has alreadyattracted a record 3,000 applicants since its launchlast year. We are improving training for new heads,and refining the popular and successful LeadershipProgramme for Serving Heads.

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5.33 School leaders have played a vital role in bringingabout the changes of the last few years. We haverecognised the importance of school leadership in anumber of ways, including by setting up the new widerleadership group pay scale. We have also recognised theimportance of leaders of teaching and learning, such asAdvanced Skills Teachers. We have given more scopefor schools to use pay to recognise the importance ofheadteachers. The top of the pay scale has beenincreased sharply: in 1997 headteachers could be paidup to £57,400; from April a top headteachers couldreceive up to £78,800, and in exceptionalcircumstances much more than this.

BUILDING NEW CAREER PATHS

5.34 One of the important effects of our reforms hasbeen to create new career paths for teachers. Goneare the days when the only way for a teacher to makeprogress in his or her career was to move out of theclassroom and into management. We need top classleaders and managers in our schools more than ever.But our pay reforms provide a route for all teachers tobe promoted to a new pay scale by performing well inthe classroom, without having to reduce theirteaching commitments as a result.

5.35 We have also introduced important new roles for teachers. One is the new grade of Advanced SkillsTeacher (AST) for some of the very best classroompractitioners, who can earn up to £44,600 (£47,600 inLondon) in return for taking on additionalresponsibilities for spreading best practice. They alsohave a major role to play in interchange with andinforming practice in higher education institutions.OFSTED evaluation shows how these excellentteachers are beginning to be seen as important figuresin school improvement and we intend to increase thenumber of ASTs sharply.

Jackie Beere is an AST at a secondary schoolwhere she has introduced a new ‘Learning toLearn’ course as part of a national researchproject. She is now leading a team of teachershelping Year 7 students to take control of theirown learning. In a number of ways, the work ishaving an impact on the whole school as a resultof training delivered by Jackie in October. She isdelivering similar training in other schools to allphases with a very positive response fromteachers.

THE IMPACT OF AN ADVANCED SKILLS TEACHER (AST)


5.36 School improvement measures have giventeachers other new career opportunities to spreadexpertise across schools, for example as literacy andnumeracy consultants or leading mathematics orliteracy expert teachers helping to model bestpractice for colleagues. Over 40 per cent of primaryteachers have now been to a demonstration of a dailymathematics lesson taught by a skilled colleague andhad the opportunity to discuss its implications for their practice.

5.37 All of these developments are making teachinga more vibrant and varied career than it has been formany years. We want to continue to open up newpaths for teachers, so that all teachers are able toprogress in their careers while making a variety ofdifferent contributions to the education system. Manyteachers are passionate about their subject andwould like to be able to research and write about it aswell as teach it. Meanwhile in universities there isstrong demand for people who, in addition to expertise in their subject, are excellent teachers.We would therefore like to see the development ofjoint appointments, which would involve a teacherbeing on the staff of both a university and a school.We intend to explore the practicalities of piloting thiswith a number of leading universities and schools.

5.38 Similarly, we intend to pilot a universityfellowship scheme that will let school teachers withreal expertise in their subject take a secondment to auniversity. This would enable them to spend a term orso researching their subject and perhaps embarkingon a higher degree. Both these schemes, apart fromtheir intrinsic merit, would have the benefit ofstrengthening the links between the university andschool sectors to the advantage of both.

ENABLING TEACHERS TO TEACH

5.39 We want teachers to be able to focus exclusivelyon their central professional tasks of teaching,preparation and assessing pupils’ work and on theirown professional development. And they must be ableto achieve a balance between their very strongcommitment to their profession and their pupils, andtheir own personal life. If this is to be achieved, we must:• Keep the administrative burden on teachers to

a minimum.• Increase the numbers of staff supporting teachers

inside and outside the classroom.• Capitalise on the potential of new technology to

ease the pressures on teachers.

5.40 Mentors, as in the Excellence in Citiesprogramme, are also helping to ensure that teacherscan concentrate on their key tasks, rather than beingdiverted by problems outside school. Pastoral careremains a key area within schools, but teachers canbe helped if their students have mentors with the timeand expertise to address problems which affecteducational processes, but are outside the classroomteacher’s remit.

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5.41 There is significant variation in the extent to whichteachers feel supported at school level and theeffectiveness with which schools manage teachers’time. We intend to research this further to see whatlessons can be learned and shared but already action isin hand on a wide range of fronts to support teachers.

Streamlining administration

5.42 We know that there is nothing more frustrating forschools than to have to deal with paperwork andbureaucracy. We have listened to their views and takenaction. We are cutting by a third the number ofdocuments and by a half the number of pages we sendautomatically to schools during the current school year,with a panel of headteachers and teachers advising onwhat should be sent. Last term, primary schools weresent 490 pages of material – a reduction of 1,170pages compared to the same term in the previous year;and secondary schools were sent 254 pages – areduction of 737 pages. These measures will save atypical school over 200 hours of paperwork each year– equivalent to over a month’s work for one person.

5.43 We are radically simplifying the Standards Fundfor 2001–02, to streamline the way that the money getsto schools. There will be no more bidding, simplermonitoring, much less form-filling and greater flexibility– along with considerably more funding. This shouldsave more than three weeks’ work in a typical school.We are developing good practice guidelines forheadteachers on how management and administrationcan be streamlined within schools. We are also sharplyreducing the amount of data we collect from schools.

5.44 We have also introduced ‘light touch’ OFSTEDinspections for successful schools, which will reducethe workload connected with inspection. The range ofmeasures described below that we have introducedto provide additional support staff in schools and forthe use of ICT will also make a significant impact inreducing teachers’ workload.

5.45 In addition, we are helping small schools with anadditional £80 million a year for administrativesupport. The funds have been widely welcomed andare making a significant impact (see paragraph 3.9).We are encouraging schools to develop innovativeapproaches to sharing resources, such as poolingfunding to make joint appointments. For example,some small schools have been able to take on sharedICT technicians, enabling them to develop bothcurriculum and management information systems, soimproving effectiveness as well as reducingbureaucracy. Others have taken on shared specialistsubject teachers, with the added benefit of providingsome time for other teachers to carry out planningand assessment away from the classroom. Andschools will be able to join together to use the fundsto take on shared bursars to relieve the burden ofadministrative work from teaching staff.


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5.46 We know that there is more to be done.

So we will:• Discuss with OFSTED how to achieve further

substantial reductions in the bureaucracyassociated with inspection within a few months.

• Transform how information is managed and sharedacross the whole school system. The introduction ofa common data set and common standards forelectronic systems will ensure data have to be inputonly once and can be transferred at a touch of abutton. The same data will be shared by nationaldepartments, agencies and Local Authorities,cutting out form-filling and duplicate requests.

• Work with Local Education Authorities to ensure theyadopt rigorous new standards for controlling whatthey send to schools and the demands they make.

• Strip out any obsolete or unnecessarily burdensomelegislative requirements.

5.47 We believe that taken together, these measureswill have a substantial impact on reducing the amountof unnecessary work that teachers undertake. But weare determined to continue supporting teachers inother ways too.

Increasing support staff

5.48 Using support staff in schools, whether in theclassroom in the case of teaching assistants, forexample, or outside it, in the case of bursars andother administrative staff, can make a profounddifference for teachers. By giving schools greatersecurity in their budgets over three years andguaranteeing the value of the School Standards Grantover the same period, we have given schools greaterconfidence to invest in extra teaching staff, or insupport staff.

The Government has commissioned wholecourses in mathematics, Latin and Japanese for11 year old pupils. This pilot will equip teachersand learners with modern resources and makecourses available in schools where opportunitiesto learn some of these subjects did not previouslyexist. During the pilot, participants will be able toaccess a whole year’s material in the threesubjects. The courses will be evaluatedthroughout the year and plans for building on thepilot developed as a consequence.

ONLINE MATERIAL FORTEACHING AND LEARNING


5.49 In addition, we are funding the recruitment ofextra teaching assistants and providing, for the firsttime, structured induction training for them so thatthey can support teachers more effectively in theclassroom. The number of support staff in schoolshas increased by 24,000 since January 1997.

5.50 As well as administrative support for schools, andadditional teaching support in the classroom, we arebringing Learning Mentors into schools to help childrento deal with problems outside school that are affectingtheir learning. We will expand support of this type, andlook to increase inter-agency working between schoolsand, for example, health and social services so thatteachers are more able to focus on their core tasks, andpupils receive better services delivered seamlessly.

5.51 We will continue to invest so that schools canemploy additional support staff. Over time we want tosee continued significant increases in their numbers atboth primary and secondary levels, so that overallpupil : adult ratios continue to improve. We believe thatwell-trained assistants working effectively alongside ateacher can help teachers to deliver effective lessonsand so contribute significantly to pupil outcomes.Over time, we would also like to see time outside theclassroom for planning and assessment become thenorm for primary teachers.

Employing new technology

5.52 ICT has the potential to reduce teachers’workloads and to improve their effectiveness. We areinvesting in ICT to reduce burdens, providing web-based tools and services that can all now beaccessed in one place through TeacherNet, andmaking teaching resources available through theNational Grid for Learning. The Standards Siteprovides best practice resources for teachers(including for example worksheets and multimediapresentations), and TeacherNet will offer lesson plansand lesson planning tools so that teachers can drawon others’ experiences. Teachers will be able to sharenew and imaginative ideas online, and as we developdigital content for the whole curriculum, the scope forteachers to draw down the most imaginative andcreative programmes across the curriculum will betransformed. The pilot projects described in OnlineMaterial for Teaching and Learning are an earlyexample of progress in this area.

5.53 But this by no means exhausts the potential ofICT as a tool for helping teachers. We will use it toprovide more support for planning and preparinglessons. We will make available on the National Gridfor Learning lesson planning tools that will helpteachers in their preparation; and complete lessonplans prepared and used in the classroom byteachers which other teachers will be able to adaptand use for their own purposes.


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5.54 Taken together, we believe that reducedbureaucratic burdens on teachers, together withnew supporting combinations of assistants andtechnology, create exciting opportunities forinnovative approaches to teaching which will increasethe professional status of teachers. Growing numbersof classroom assistants have enabled two or moreadults to work together in a single classroomunder the direction of a teacher. Increasingly, newtechnology will allow schools to join together toconduct masterclasses, extend curriculum optionsand pool their resources to give pupils a richerlearning experience.

5.55 Innovative schools have already reorganisedtheir timetable so that groups of teachers with ashared professional interest can plan and preparetogether; blocked whole days on the timetablefor one-to-one teacher pupil consultations; andenhanced staffing levels to free greater time forprofessional development without disruption to pupils.We will promote, through the Standards Site andother means, this and other ‘smart’ approaches to theuse of time.

REWARDING A KEY ROLE IN SOCIETY

5.56 We promised to reward good teachers and tooffer good teachers better pay progression. The newpay structure has now been put in place, with highersalaries and better prospects. It is supported by thebest part of a billion pounds this year and next tomodernise the teaching profession, over and abovethe annual pay increases each year.

• Newly qualified teachers will earn £17,000 (£20,000in Inner London) in 2001, compared to £14,500 in1997. Senior managers will be eligible to earn up to£36,800, compared to £30,200 in 1997.

• The new upper pay scale will give good teachers animmediate pay increase of £2,000. Over 200,000teachers have applied for threshold assessment togo onto the new scale and we expect most to besuccessful. They are eligible to go on to earn up to£31,000 (£34,000 in London), compared to amaximum of £24,000 for classroom teacherswithout management responsibility in April 2000.The best teachers in the classroom will be able toearn almost £45,000 as Advanced Skills Teachers.

• Alongside individual pay awards, we are alsointroducing a £60 million School AchievementAwards scheme to give pay bonuses for staff atgood schools. The first Awards will be given thisspring. Some 7,000 schools will be recognised forsustained improvement or achievement and thebonuses will be available to teaching and to non-teaching staff.

5.57 We believe that teaching is a key profession forour society in the 21st century. And our reforms meanthat for the first time, teachers can also get thefinancial rewards for focusing on classroom teachingthat this vital role deserves.

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CHAPTER 6 THE CAPACITY TO DELIVER

6.1 The previous five chapters have set out a radicaland long-term agenda for the future of our educationsystem. Both the resources and, equally importantly,the capacity at every level in the system, need to be inplace if that ambitious agenda is to be delivered.

6.2 In this chapter we deal first with the question ofresources and second with building capacity.

RESOURCES

6.3 The Government’s approach to public sectorreform has consistently emphasised that money andmodernisation go hand in hand. We are committed toensuring that the investment will be there to enablenecessary reform. All the evidence shows that a greatdeal of progress has been made.

6.4 The success is, at least in part, a result of the verysignificant extra investment made in schools. In realterms from April 2001 schools will receive on average£450 per pupil per year more than they did in 1997.Investment in school buildings has tripled over the sametimescale from £683 million to £2.1 billion per year.

6.5 Furthermore, more resources are devolved toschools than ever before. Indeed, the degree ofdelegation to school level is greater in this countrythan in any other country in the world: we haveincreased it from around 79 per cent to 84 per cent ofschools funding. This is not just a question of thedelegation of the annual revenue budget. By2003–04, we will be devolving £500 million a year ofcapital funding to schools, enabling governors andheadteachers to improve the physical environmentalongside teaching and learning. In fact, considerablymore capital funding will have been devolved directlyto schools over this period for them to use as theychoose than the total of capital investment in thesystem in 1996–97.

6.6 We recognise that it took some time for theimpact of our investment to be noticeable. As weput in place key reforms and the foundation forpresent successes and future achievement, the extraresources may not have been immediately apparentto those for whom they were intended. But we believethat the additional day-to-day funding for salaries, forextra teachers, for ICT hardware and software, forsmaller class sizes, books and equipment are nowvisible and making a real impact on the ground.

6.7 As a result of the spending review announcementin July 2000 we will make further increases in funding,averaging in excess of 6 per cent each year over andabove inflation between 1999–2000 and 2003–04.The spending plans for 2001–04 include:• Over £10.2 billion more by 2003–04 on education

and training in England than in 2000–01.• Increased spending per pupil, bringing the total

increase to around £700 per pupil over and aboveinflation between 1997–98 and 2003–04.

• A £7.8 billion capital programme over the three years.• £540 million in 2001–02 rising to £570 million by

2003–04 in direct grants to schools for boostingstandards in classrooms.

6.8 Moreover, the Prime Minister has made clear hiscommitment to the longest period of sustained growthin education expenditure for more than a generation.Spending on education as a proportion of nationalincome will again be increased over the nextParliament. This ongoing investment will make possiblesuccessful reform and sustained improvement in pupilperformance in a way that the historic pattern of shortspurts of growth followed by retrenchment never could.


Distribution

6.9 In addition to making more resources availableyear on year, the Government is determined to reformthe way in which funding for schools is distributed inorder to improve its fairness and transparency.

6.10 In doing so, we want to ensure:• A fair allocation of funding between authorities and

between schools in authorities to reflect pupil needs.• That the funds allocated by central Government for

education are used for that purpose.• That funding is properly matched to the separate

responsibilities of Local Authorities and schools.

6.11 As the recent Green Paper, Modernising LocalGovernment Finance published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions makesclear, current funding arrangements fall short ofthese aspirations.

6.12 Firstly, the distribution of funding betweenEducation Authorities, through the StandardSpending Assessment arrangements, is widelyregarded as unfair. Secondly, there is currently no wayfor central Government to guarantee that funding itintends for schools actually reaches them. Finally, thecurrent system does not clearly separate out fundingintended to go directly to schools, and fundingintended for use by Local Education Authorities insupport of the work of schools (such as co-ordinationof services for pupils with Special Educational Needsor the provision of home-to-school transport).

6.13 The Government is consulting on proposals thatschool funding could be based on a simpler and moretransparent formula. This could comprise a basicentitlement per primary or secondary school pupil,with enhancements for schools and pupils inAuthorities where significant deprivation adds to thechallenge of achieving high standards. It would alsorecognise that there are some areas where, for cost-of-living reasons, schools need to pay more to recruitand retain staff. Allocation of funds between schoolswould remain at local level with the Authority and itsschools working together, since they best know whatvariations in funding are needed.

6.14 Crucially the proposals also involve much greatertransparency to ensure that central Governmentmoney intended for education is used for education.Funding for schools and funding for Local Authoritieswould be separately identified. Authorities would berequired to give both their council taxpayers andschools a full account of how that funding had beenallocated to schools and what had been spent onAuthorities’ own services. They would be required toindicate the proportions provided by nationalGovernment and by locally-raised finance; and providea comparison with the previous year. The greatertransparency of these arrangements will improve theaccountability of both Local Education Authorities andschools for the value for money they provide.

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Improving school buildings

6.15 All schools have already benefited fromincreased capital investment, including the £1.3 billioncapital which is being devolved directly to them from2000–01 to 2003–04. In total, we have invested £5.4billion since 1997. We are taking care to deploy all ourcapital resources to maximise their impact. We havefor the first time set out a three-year programme ofcapital expenditure. After decades of neglect, we areusing the resources and support systems of localgovernment wisely and effectively to support thiswork. We have introduced Asset Management Plansso that every Local Education Authority demonstratesthat resources are deployed strategically to make thebiggest impact on the ground – and we are holdingAuthorities to account. In addition, we havedeveloped public private partnerships to make betteruse than ever before of private sector skillsand funding.

6.16 Almost 17,000 building projects have so farbeen supported in schools through the New Deal forSchools capital grant. Given the appalling state ofmany school buildings in 1997, a great deal of thisextra capital has been spent on essential repairs. Weare working urgently to bring the condition of all schoolbuildings up to a standard fit for the 21st century – notleast by eliminating reliance on outside toilets. But aswe address the repairs backlog, we need also to moveaway from the patch and mend thinking of the past,brought about by eighteen years of neglect and under-investment. We need to modernise our schools so thatthey provide the very best learning environments forthe community they serve. Over the next three years,capital investment of £7.8 billion will mean that moreand more schools will have an environment suitable forlearning in the 21st century. Already we are investingthree times the level of capital in our schoolscompared with 1997, and current spending willincrease by a further 50 per cent by 2003–04.

6.17 Schools in the future must support the changingnature of education and the increased role of schoolsat the heart of communities. The types of learningspace needed in the future will be very different tomost of those in place today. Schools must be a focusfor learning for the whole community, fully accessibleto all and providing modern and attractive facilities forlearning for families and people of all ages. We aretesting innovative ideas to develop new types ofclassroom to improve the learning experience and toharness the full potential of ICT. We want increasinglyto think ahead and to design and create schoolbuildings suitable for the transformed educationservice of the future. In short, we want to develop boththe concept and the reality of the school of the future.

6.18 Research shows clear links between capitalinvestment in schools and educational standards.Capital investment is one of the most powerful leverson teacher motivation, which in turn impacts onattainment levels. Investment in modern facilities alsohas a strong and positive influence on pupilmotivation. We are making money available throughan expanded New Deal for Schools programme formodernising schools, as well as for addressing urgentcondition needs and giving schools some capitalfunds of their own. Over the next three years, 650schools will be either replaced or substantiallyremodelled as a result of this investment, in additionto the 7,000 schools where other large building workswill take place.

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6.19 Many schools are also benefiting from thePrivate Finance Initiative. Twenty-one deals have beensigned so far, and funding for a further 33 has beenagreed in principle, bringing benefits to around 640schools. The scale of activity here is increasing. Privatefinance deals can provide schools with modernlearning environments, fully maintained over twenty-five to thirty years. They enable teachers to focus onteaching, using well-equipped classrooms and withoutthe many distractions from maintaining poor buildings.We want to consider whether there is potential forallowing schools to use their devolved capitalresources to finance future public private partnerships.

6.20 We are also cutting out bureaucracy andmaking it much easier for schools to access capitalinvestment where it is most needed to raisestandards. All Local Authorities are developing AssetManagement Plans, in consultation with schools anddioceses, to identify and agree local priorities forcapital investment. This is improving local decision-making and will enable schools to plan ahead withmuch greater certainty. We are also reforming the waythat capital funding is provided for school places sothat popular and overcrowded schools in growthareas can receive extra investment to provideadditional learning space. Through discussion withthe churches, we plan to streamline the way thatvoluntary aided schools receive funding for work ontheir premises. As part of this, we intend to reduce thecontribution made by governing bodies to the costs ofbuilding work at these schools from 15 per cent to 10per cent for capital items, and to remove thecontribution altogether for revenue items. This willmake life much easier for these schools and willfurther promote diversity.

6.21 City Learning Centres (see page 82) provide anexample of what can be achieved when buildings aretailor-made to serve other schools and the widercommunity.

ICT

6.22 Information and Communications Technologyhas already brought transformation to many sectors ofthe economy. Increasingly it is changing the wayschools work as well. Many schools – including anumber highlighted in this document – are using ICT to change teaching and learning; to improvecommunication between teachers and parents; toassess and record pupil progress and set targets; toshow best practice; to design, adapt and prepareteaching materials; to link with schools across theglobe; and to put information at the fingertips of all theirpupils. There is potential for ICT to offer pupils accessto a wealth of digital content, including cultural andartistic material, and we are looking at a variety of waysof making this access easier, including through a ‘virtuallibrarian’. These changes are in addition to those thatenable streamlined management and administrativesystems to free teachers to teach and headteachers tofocus their energy on raising standards.

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CITY LEARNING CENTRES

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CLCs provide an example of the type of high-quality21st century learning environments that are currentlybeing created. A number of principles are guiding theirdevelopment: • Buildings are of high-quality and reflect their purpose

through imaginative and innovative use of designsolutions to make the building look modern and lively.Entrances and receptions should be visible and bigenough to provide communal space.

• Building materials are from recycled sources orrecyclable from sustainable sources. They meet thehighest environmental standards, with excellentinsulation. Energy use and health issues areconsidered throughout construction andmanufacturing.

• The design is flexible, taking into account the needfor rapid reorganisation, both day to day and in thelonger term. The design caters for individuals ofdifferent sizes (infants to adults), as well as groups.Space takes account of the numbers of workstationsand general work areas, allowing for minimaldistractions.

Liverpool provides an example of how CLCs arehelping schools and communities. It has four Centres -two started last year, with a further two Centres to startin September 2001.

The first two Centres are based n ShorefieldsCommunity School and St John Bosco High School.Both are in areas of disadvantage and each centre (or

hub) will link to partner secondary schools which willoperate as spokes - the Shorefields City LearningCentre will link to six spokes schools and the BoscoCity Learning Centre to five. In both cases the bulk ofthe capital will be spent on the hub. Primary schoolswill also have access to the Centres. There will also belinks with schools in Merseyside. In addition, theCentres will establish networks with the NGfL, HE andFE establishments and Community Grids for Learning.

Each Centre will open for 12–14 hours a day all yearround. Management of the Centres will be theresponsibility of a Management Board which willinclude representatives from the host school, partnersand Local Education Authority.

The Centres will provide a full range of ICT facilities. Atboth sites, there is a cyber café, literacy and numeracyfacilities, whole class access ICT areas and individuallearning suites. The plan also proposes offering‘immersion’ courses for pupils. At Bosco CLC,additional facilities include a performance space andmusic ICT area, Shorefields also includes a dedicatedDesign Technology area with CNC equipment.


6.23 There is a growing body of evidence whichshows that the application of ICT in schools not onlymotivates pupils but also improves their performance.Recent research published by BECTa shows thispowerfully at both primary and secondary levels. ICT,until recently an optional extra, often consigned to aparticular IT lesson, is moving firmly into themainstream and becoming a key lever in the drive toraise standards, motivate pupils and make teachers’workload more manageable.

6.24 The investment in ICT has been substantial.Between 1998 and 2004 we are investing some £1.8billion in the National Grid for Learning and in ICTteacher training. The number of computers in schoolshas grown dramatically. As a result there is now onecomputer for every 13 pupils in primary schools andone for every 8 pupils at secondary level, and we arecommitted to further improvements. The increasedinvestment has also increased connectivity withvirtually every secondary and 86 per cent of primaryschools now connected to the Internet (compared toonly 17 per cent of primaries in 1998).

6.25 To ensure this investment is well used at schoollevel, two further strands of activity are essential. Thefirst is the development of software of real qualitywhich is directly relevant to teaching and schooladministration. Government itself has a direct part toplay and through such developments as theStandards Site, the National Grid for Learning, theVirtual College for School Leadership and the VirtualTeachers’ Centre, materials and best practice arebeing widely disseminated. And the DfEE parents’website remains a popular and valuable guide throughthe system. Still more important is the work theGovernment is doing to encourage commercialorganisations to provide software related to theNational Curriculum and the challenges faced byschools. There has been real progress in recent yearsand a step-change in the quality and quantity ofmaterials available can be expected in the next threeor four years. All of this will play a key role in deliveringthe developing curriculum and the new models ofteaching outlined in Chapters 4 and 5.

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6.26 The second is investment in training teachersand headteachers to be able to use ICT effectively intheir day-to-day work. Only if teachers can use theavailable technology effectively will it support ouragenda for school improvement. Funding through theNew Opportunities Fund has already enabled a verysignificant proportion of teachers to be trained in theuse of ICT, and the Computers for Teachers schemehas supported teachers to buy their own computers.

6.27 These developments have laid the foundationfor the next major leap. Further investment inhardware, connectivity, software and training will bringdramatic change. Once schools have broadbandconnections, the speed and quality of Internetworking will be greatly enhanced. Our £10 millionClassroom of The Future pilot scheme will enableschools in 12 areas to explore radically new andinspiring ways of delivering education.

6.28 Within the next five years we expect to see theuse of ICT becoming routine in virtually everyclassroom; schools able to run their administrativesystems electronically and integrate them withcurriculum networks; and all communication betweenschools and Government becoming electronic. Wealso expect to see schools at the cutting edgeadvancing far beyond where we are currently andshowing how ICT, used in combination with teachersand other skilled adults, can change the nature of theclassroom experience and the organisation of theschool day. Our proposed new category of advancedspecialist school will lead the way but many of thechanges will result from innovative heads andteachers applying ICT imaginatively to help solve theproblems they face.

6.29 We are likely, for example, to see much moreflexible use of time during the school day with a mix oftraditional teaching methods, augmented by thepresentational quality ICT allows, and moreindividualised and small group work; homework beingset, done and marked online; teachers in one schoolteaching in teams with teachers from other schools;widespread sharing between schools of lesson planslinked to Schemes of Work; increased use of ICT-based assessment techniques and a vast growth ininternational collaboration offering, for example, everypupil learning French the opportunity for regularconversation with a native speaker. ICT will alsoenable every school to test the views of parents andpupils on proposed changes and to update the reportto parents on their child’s progress regularly whiletaking less, not more, teacher time.

6.30 The investment in ICT will therefore not merely raisequality and open up new possibilities, it will also reducethe time teachers spend on lower priority activities andfree them to focus on improving pupil performance.

BUILDING CAPACITY

6.31 The successful implementation of radical reformhas never been a matter merely of investment,important though that is. It is also crucially a matter ofensuring that at every level in the system there arepeople with skills, knowledge, understanding, timeand attitudes which enable successful change tooccur. In short, it is a matter of building capacity.

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6.32 At the heart of the framework for continuousimprovement which we have put in place is the self-governing school responsible for the performance ofits pupils, in control of its staffing and budget andplanning its own future development. The keys tocapacity at school level are the capability ofgovernors, teachers and other staff, excellentcontinuing professional development and the qualityof leadership and management. That is why we haveemphasised these issues in the previous chapter.

6.33 Governors of course provide a vital source ofsupport for heads and teaching staff, but it is alsocrucial that staff know where outside the school toturn for advice, assistance, best practice andinspiration. Local Authorities have a key part to play inthese respects (see paragraph 6.52 onwards) butschools need a variety of sources to turn to. For thesereasons we have put in place and will continue todevelop many forms of collaborative networks amongschools: Education Action Zones, Excellence in Citiespartnerships, Beacon school networks, researchnetworks, partnerships between higher educationinstitutions and schools and the specialist schoolsmovement to name just some of those available. TheNational College for School Leadership will developand ‘spin off’ further networks, often for heads whoseschools share similar characteristics. There is nosingle, best model. What matters is that all schoolsbreak out of isolation and introversion and constantlywork with and learn from others, as many already do.This is a crucial part of the teaching profession takingcontrol of the reform agenda.

6.34 Sometimes partnerships and networks will reachout of the education service and out of the countrytoo. Many schools are now working closely withbusinesses. Examples include the specialist schoolsand Education Action Zones which have businesssponsors, the business mentoring programme forheadteachers organised by Business in theCommunity and the Adopt-a-School arrangement thatNottingham City Education Authority has developedwith its local business community.

6.35 Links outside the country to schools andteachers elsewhere are also increasingly influential.The growing numbers of teachers in our teacherexchange programme, for example, will encouragegenuine links with schools elsewhere. The teacherorganisations through their international counterpartsare also fostering an international perspective, as arethe proposals of the British Council and the EuropeanUnion. Many forward-thinking schools are buildingpartnerships with schools elsewhere which offerenhanced opportunities for pupils and teachers andalso enable sharing of best practice and a deeperunderstanding of what world class standards ofperformance really are. Again the National College forSchool Leadership will become a key driver ofprogress in this area.

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Parents

6.36 Perhaps most importantly, though, parents andcarers have an essential role to play in education.Particularly for the youngest children, parents’involvement in and support for their child’s learningis critical. That is why so many of our programmes,from Sure Start onwards are designed to support notonly children but also their parents and carers inbringing up the children, and why we are supportingfamily learning in so many contexts.

6.37 As children grow older, parental involvementremains critical. At its most basic, parents areresponsible for ensuring that their child arrives atschool on time and ready to learn. But most parentswant to go well beyond that in supporting their child. Todo so, they most importantly need good information.

6.38 New legislation has required all Local EducationAuthorities to publish booklets showing for everyschool in their area the school’s details and admissionarrangements, whether demand for its places hastended to exceed supply, and how it decides whichapplications to accept if this happens.

6.39 In addition, we have already improved thepublished school performance tables, so that itis easier for parents to evaluate schools. We arecommitted to supplementing these improved tablesfurther, with information about how far schools helptheir pupils to progress between the stages of theireducation (value added). We intend to do this as soonas we have the necessary information about individualpupil performance and have tested successfully theprocesses involved. The first value added measures –for secondary schools – will appear in theperformance tables in 2002.

6.40 We are also providing information to helpparents to know what they should expect from theirchild’s school. For example, we have developedparents’ guides to the curriculum which cover allstages of schooling. 3 million copies have beenordered so far. We have also established apopular and well-regarded Internet site forparents (www.parents.dfee.gov.uk). Our homeworkguidelines, setting out the amount of homework thatchildren could expect at each age, were widelywelcomed. Schools have the right to expect parentalsupport in following the guidelines, and parents havethe right to expect that schools should set sensibleamounts of homework as set out in those guidelines.Our home-school agreements underpin this, as wellas attendance and school disciplinary policies.

6.41 Choice of school is particularly important toparents, and so we have introduced fairer ways ofoffering school places to pupils, so that as manyparents as possible can send their children to theirpreferred school. We have encouraged fairness inadmissions in a number of ways. Our new SchoolAdmissions Code of Practice insists that all admissiondecisions are made on the basis of clear, fair,objective and published admissions rules and over-subscription criteria, which must now be thesubject of local consultation. We have establishedindependent Schools Adjudicators who can considerobjections to proposed admission arrangements and,if necessary, change them.

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6.42 Our new admissions framework means thatno school can now introduce selection by ability. Andour Admissions Code of Practice encourages a rangeof other ways of making life easier for parents facingthat critical decision on which school(s) to apply to –including common timetables and co-ordinatedadmissions systems. But for those parents whoseapplications are initially rejected, new legislation andour Code of Practice on Admission Appeals havemade sure that they can get a fair hearing from anappeal panel whose members are independent of theadmission authority.

6.43 While some schools continue to have manymore applications than places, there will inevitablybe parents who do not get the outcome they want.A process as critical to children’s future as choosinga school can never be stress-free for parents. But webelieve that the local collaborative forum and theimproved Code have made a real difference, andachieved a measurable improvement in parentalsatisfaction with both the outcomes and the processsince the Audit Commission reported 1 in 5dissatisfied in 1996.

6.44 We will continue to monitor the impact of thenew arrangements and improve them where needed.In some areas there is still scope for bettermanagement and co-ordination of admissionsoperations, and better ways of avoiding theconcentration of the most disadvantaged pupils in theleast popular schools. We would like to be able toaddress the dissatisfaction that still exists in someparts of the country.

6.45 Other proposals in this Paper will promotegreater parental satisfaction. Parents already have theright to express a preference for any school they wish,and to have that preference met unless other childrenhave a better claim to the places. But we recognisethat not all parents want the same things from aschool; our proposals on increasing diversity shouldhelp ensure that more parents find the type of schoolthat particularly suits their child. Sometimes, too manyparents want the same school because they perceivewide variations in local school quality; our proposalsto transform secondary education should make everyschool a school parents will be proud to send theirchildren to.

Governors

6.46 The capacity of schools to improve and changedepends not just on their staff but also on theirgovernors. Governors have always had an importantrole to play in schools. That importance has increasedas more power, responsibility and funding have beendevolved to schools. Most recently, it has beenenhanced by the introduction of school-level target-setting in 1998 and performance management forheads and teachers in 2000.

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6.47 The Government recently published aconsultation paper on school governance which tookaccount of these changes in the functions ofgoverning bodies. At the heart of the paper is theGovernment’s belief in the importance of the role.

6.48 The consultation paper asks for views on waysin which we can help governors to do their job aseffectively as possible. It suggests that governorscan be freed from some executive duties, and thepaperwork that goes with them, and focus more onthe strategic and creative role of setting the overalldirection and mission of the school. It suggests astreamlining of governing bodies, so that they work aseffectively as possible in this role.

6.49 We are also consulting on proposals to allowgoverning bodies to group and work together if thiswould support higher standards. This could bebeneficial particularly if it brings small primariestogether to exploit economies of scale, pairs selectiveand non-selective schools together, brings weakerschools into a cluster with stronger ones or supportstransition by bringing a secondary and its feederprimaries together.

6.50 We are also looking at ways of improvingtraining and administrative support for governingbodies, so that governors are better able to beeffective and we will continue to invest substantialresources in governor training. We are also committedto improving the supply of effective school governors,including by piloting a range of ideas in Excellence inCities areas. The new concept of a one-stop shop forthose interested in becoming governors is beginningto work. Already this service has provided some 640governors for schools in challenging circumstances.Finally, we are also proposing strengthened powers tointervene when schools fail.

6.51 Taken together, these measures are intended tosupport governors and strengthen governing bodiesin their key role of supporting heads, teachers andother staff to raise standards in schools.

Local Education Authorities

6.52 Local Education Authorities have an important,clearly-defined and continuing role in supportingschools to raise standards. How that role is defined haschanged dramatically over recent years. LocalEducation Authorities no longer control schools but theydo have a key role in challenging and supporting them.

6.53 The recent DfEE policy paper The role of theLocal Education Authority in school educationsummarises the role of the Local Education Authorityunder five key headings:

• Special Educational Needs.• Access and school transport.• School improvement and tackling failure.• Educating excluded pupils and pupil welfare.• Strategic management – for example of resources,

including allocation of funds between schools, ofassets (through our introduction of AssetManagement Plans), admissions and initiatives suchas Excellence in Cities.

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6.54 Where schools are succeeding, they should notbe subject to interference, but given the freedom tobuild on their success. Where schools are coasting,they need to be challenged to improve; where theyare in danger of failing, intervention must be swift,decisive and effective. That is our principle ofintervention in inverse proportion to success. As asource of local accountability, Authorities are well-placed to put that principle into practice. And wechanged the law in 1998 to allow us to intervene inLocal Education Authorities if that was indicated bythe inspection evidence. The evidence suggests thatEducation Authorities are becoming increasinglyeffective in carrying out their role: OFSTED’s analysisshows improved standards of performance amongthem and the fall, not just in the numbers of failingschools in total, but in the numbers going into specialmeasures term by term, is encouraging. All the signsare that Local Authorities have recognised and actedupon their duty to raise standards.

6.55 There are services too that it makes no sensefor schools to provide alone. Home-to-schooltransport, planning the supply of school places in anarea and the co-ordination of SEN services areimportant examples. Major economies of scale andimproved co-ordination of services result fromcarrying out this work across a Local Authority ratherthan at a school level, and these will continue to be animportant part of Local Education Authority work.

6.56 The Government will continue to develop furtherways of identifying and disseminating good LocalEducation Authority practice. In doing so it will workwith OFSTED and the local authority associations.

6.57 We will also continue to tackle inadequateperformance by Local Education Authorities throughdirect support and intervention, where this provesnecessary. More importantly we want to encourageand support all authorities to ask fundamentalquestions about how best to carry out their LocalEducation Authority role in the 21st century. Clearlythey need to operate within a framework that ensuresthe quality of all their services. The lack of professionalstandards for school improvement services and thosewho work within them is, for example, a keyweakness of the current arrangements, and onewhich could hold back the pace of reform.

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6.58 To encourage more rapid and imaginativeprogress, we have suggested four further practicalways for Authorities to build on recent reforms andpursue modernisation. These activities reinforce eachother and are designed to operate together:• Education Authorities can help to promote a more

open market in schools’ services and take steps toensure that all schools have the knowledge andskills they need to be better purchasers of goodsand services.

• Education Authorities can test out new ways ofsharing school improvement responsibilities withgroups of schools who have the knowledge andskills to discharge that role.

• Education Authorities can develop and trial newways of discharging responsibilities in partnershipwith other Local Authorities, and with other public-private and voluntary sector bodies.

• We are also working on the development of nationalprofessional standards and national recognition ofthose engaged in the key role of school improvement.

These four key proposals for action are set out inmore detail in The role of the Local EducationAuthority in school education, which was published inthe autumn of 2000. We are supporting a range ofdevelopments involving Education Authorities andpartners to promote innovation in these areas.

6.59 Education Authorities also have a key partto play in linking education to other services andbuilding partnerships to reduce social exclusion.Reducing social exclusion requires problem-solvingcollaboration between various aspects of the publicservice, including Local Authorities. Sure Start is oneexample of what is possible. Education Action Zonesand Excellence in Cities are others. For example,Education Action Zones, such as that inWythenshawe in Manchester, involve health, socialand police services alongside education in tacklingthe problems of particular areas. In Hertfordshire,the Local Authority has created a new Children,Schools and Families service to provide a fullyintegrated approach to meeting the needs of childrenand families. By unifying its casework practices,developing local preventative strategies and buildingcapacity in schools, the new service is aligned to localhealth, public and voluntary sector provision. Thesedevelopments are crucial, not least because raisingeducational standards is central to local regeneration,promoting health and the revival of communities. Forexample, the recent rapid improvement of theeducation service in Liverpool has gone hand in handwith regeneration of the city itself.

6.60 While schools will continue to be the key drivingforce for raising standards, there is no doubt that theimproved capacity of Education Authorities, acrossthis range of tasks, is the key to creating a contextwithin which schools can succeed.

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Capacity at the Centre

6.61 The reforms since 1997 have been driven fromcentral Government. This was necessary in order togenerate a new sense of urgency, to create a newculture focused firmly on standards and todemonstrate that step-change in pupil performancewas not only possible but could be achieved rapidly.The creation of the Standards and Effectiveness Unitin the DfEE was an important part of that, as was thecontinuation and extension of the role of OFSTED.

6.62 Many lessons have been learnt from this phaseabout the delivery of major reform. It doesrequire sustained priority and a clear focus. It doesinvolve serious, steady investment. It does depend onputting in place a dedicated infrastructure which candeliver effectively, whether through regional directorsin the case of literacy and numeracy at primary level orpartnerships at local level in the case of early years orExcellence in Cities. It does demand high-quality,ongoing professional development for all thoseinvolved in implementation. It does require strategieswhich are universal, and therefore include the entireservice, but are also targeted and therefore providemost support where the challenge is greatest. Finally,any significant reform will only become irreversible if itis pursued consistently for several years.

6.63 We will apply the lessons learned from the lastfour years in the future. For example, the approach tolower secondary education reform will draw on thelessons of success at primary level but be refined andadapted to take account of the greater complexity ofthe secondary school and curriculum.

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6.64 At the broader level, it was always the intention,once the culture had begun to change and successwas evident across the system, that schools andteachers, at the frontline, would play an increasingpart in reform. In a rapidly changing world, only byencouraging innovation at school level will theeducation system be able to keep up with othersectors. Moreover, the systematic application of theprinciple of intervention in inverse proportion tosuccess implies, by definition, that as the systemimproves Government will need to intervene less. Weshould increasingly see schools which earn greaterautonomy and reward in return for demonstratinggood performance.

6.65 As this occurs, the role of Government will notbecome less important but it will change. Its keyfunctions will be:• To provide leadership by spelling out the vision and

the targets the service should achieve.• To set education within the wider context of social

and economic change.• To establish the regulatory and accountability

framework within which increasingly autonomousschools play their part.

• To design strategies for reform that enablesuccessful change.

• To celebrate success and draw attention to the roleof education in society as a whole so that parentsand communities recognise its importance andrespect teachers and other staff in schools for thecontribution they make.

• To monitor the progress of the system at every level and intervene on behalf of the pupils wherever necessary.

• To learn constantly from schools, teachers and otherswho work in education what is working well and whatis working less well and adjust policies accordingly.

• Last but not least, to invest steadily and consistentlyin education over several years in order to create afavourable context for change.

Performing these roles will require Government tochange the way it works. Above all, it will need to buildon the progress that has been made to become more intouch, outward-facing and responsive.

6.66 Implied in this changing role is a new sense ofpartnership. It is perfectly possible to create a worldclass education service in this country. Doing sodepends on a number of things, not least thesuccessful implementation of the reforms set out inthis Paper. But above all, it depends on creatingbetween educators, parents, communities andbusiness, and Government, a powerful partnershipcommitted to the achievement of the highest possiblestandards for every child and young person. Webelieve that the education service and our society arenow ready to make that commitment.

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We welcome your views on this Green Paper. Copiesof the full paper, a summary version and the responseform are available on the DfEE website atwww.dfee.gov.uk/buildingonsuccess. Alternativelythey can be ordered free of charge along with Brailleand audio versions by ringing 0845 60 222 60 andquoting references: DfEE 0041/2001 for the fullversion; DfEE 0042/2001 for the summary; and DfEE0054/2001 for the response form, or by [email protected].

You are invited to complete the response form online,return it by e-mail to [email protected] orsend it by post (including taped responses) to:

DfEE School Green Paper Response Unit4T Sanctuary BuildingsGreat Smith StreetLondonSW1P 3BT

Tel: 020 7925 5560 (response form queries only)Fax: 020 7925 5570

Under the Code of Practice on Open Government,any responses will be made available to the public onrequest, unless respondents indicate that they wishtheir response to remain confidential. The consultationperiod runs until 1 June 2001. The Paper relates toEngland only.

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