» Friday, September 9, 2011Schools
Asked why in his speech this morning the Prime Minister had not referred to any local authority run schools when some of them were doing better or just as well as academies, the PMS said the Prime Minister was using examples to illustrate a specific point. The government thought that academies were an effective tool in driving up standards. The point he was making in his speech was that we’ve been very successful in turning around failing schools and we should also be looking more broadly at those schools that were coasting to see whether they could achieve the same gains. What the Prime Minister was saying was that we needed to raise standards across the piece and should expect the highest standards from all our schools. The Prime Minister had made this point in Cabinet this week. Some schools had had amazing success in improving results and there was no reason why that experience couldn’t be brought to bare on other schools including those schools that were doing, just ok, the coasting schools. Asked whether the Prime Minister was redefining coasting schools as failing schools and the implications of that, the PMS said the Prime Minister was not redefining coasting schools as failing schools; there were specific definitions of under performing or failing schools. What the Prime Minister was saying was that we should have the same ambition to improve for those schools which are just coasting and are not seeing improvements as we have for failing schools. If bringing in new management, having greater freedoms and giving more power to teachers had real benefits for pupils in failing schools, we should use the same approach for other schools and drive up standards across the piece. Briefing took place at 10:00 | Search for related news Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says. |
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