Action plan to raise school standards and offer opportunity for all

Bob Blackman offers support on plans to give children the best education

Bob Blackman welcomed new proposals to raise standards in schools, create more good school places and increase equality of opportunity. The action plan, entitled ‘Raising the bar, closing the gap’, has been published by Conservative leader, David Cameron.
 
The paper outlines plans to raise the standards of the worst-performing schools so they can catch up with the best, improve school discipline, get every child who is capable of doing so reading by the age of six, allow new schools to open and create an additional 220,000 good school places. Other proposals include:

• Charities, voluntary groups and groups of parents would be assisted in setting up new schools in the state sector.

• Increasing teachers’ ability to stop the distruptive use of mobile phones in classrooms.

• Promoting best practice and excellence, including school uniform policies, more extra-curricular activities, a system of prefects, and awards for pupils for academic and sporting achievement.

• Strengthening the powers of head teachers to expel pupils who ruin others’ education.

 
Bob Blackman said:
“I welcome these proposals which will help raise standards in our schools, tackle unruly behaviour, and deliver more teaching by ability to stretch the strongest and help the weakest. 
 
“It is right that we make it easier for charities, groups of parents and other providers to start new schools where there is a need for more good local schools.  They should be helped to do that, not blocked by the Government or town halls.  These plans will complement the excellent work Harrow Council is already doing to help raise standards for all our children.”
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Notes to Editors
 
The Conservative Green Paper on education, Raising the bar, closing the gap, was published on 20 November, and can be downloaded from:
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=140513
 
The proposals include plans to:
 
·          Improve discipline and behaviour in schools, shifting the balance of power in the classroom back in favour of the teacher.
 
·          Champion excellence in the comprehensive sector by promoting the best professional practice in the state system, and more generously rewarding those who deliver for the poorest. Promoting best practice could include school uniform policies; more extra-curricular activities, a system of prefects, and awards for pupils for academic and sporting achievement.
 
·          Legislate to give teachers the confidence to ban from the classroom mobile phones and other devices which can disrupt the learning environment. Many schools already insist that mobile phones are surrendered at the beginning of the school day. The law would ensure that teachers can insist that phones be handed in without fear of having their authority challenged.
 
·          In order to restore authority to schools and head teachers, head teachers would be given the right to exclude (expel) pupils without the right of appeal to an independent appeals panel administered by the local authority. Instead, any appeal would be to the governing body of the school.
 
·          Get every child who is capable of doing so reading by the age of six, so that every minute in the classroom thereafter is productive, with increased use.
 
·          Reform the testing regime in primary schools to reduce bureaucracy and focus on every pupil’s real needs.
 
·          Reform the schools’ inspection procedure to ensure there is tougher, more effective and more searching scrutiny of under-performance.
 
·          Provide over 220,000 new school places. That would meet the demand from every parent who lost their appeal for their first choice school in our most deprived boroughs.
 
·          Allow educational charities, philanthropists, livery companies, existing school federations, not-for-profit trusts, co-operatives and groups of parents to set up new schools in the state sector and access equivalent public funding to existing state schools.
 
·          Ensure funding for deprivation goes direct to the pupils most in need rather than being diverted by bureaucracies.
 
·          Make it easier to establish the extended schooling (from summer schools, to Saturday schooling to homework clubs and breakfast clubs) which drives up achievement, especially among the poorest.
 
·          Remove those obstacles – in terms of centralised bureaucracy, local authority restrictions and unnecessary planning rules – which prevent new schools being established.
 
·          Allow smaller schools and more intimate learning environments to be established to respond to parental demands.
 
ENDS