Underperforming schools will be the focus of new government
powers to raise standards of education for young people locally.
The new powers will mean schools with two or more consecutive
Ofsted ratings below ‘Good’ may be matched with a strong
multi-academy trust, to support their improvement. The government
laid regulations in Parliament yesterday, Thursday 30 June, to
enable this to happen from 01 September.
The government’s 55 Education Investment Areas, where education
standards are currently among the weakest, have been prioritised
as the focus of new intervention powers to help rapidly improve
underperforming schools.
Strong multi-academy trusts have a good track record of improving
underperforming schools as sponsored academies, with those
academies on average improving more quickly than similar local
authority schools.
Currently only schools with Inadequate Ofsted ratings are
eligible for this type of intervention, but 900 schools across
the country with consecutive Ofsted ratings below Good will now
newly be eligible.
The government will initially look to contact around a third of
the eligible schools about potential intervention, on the basis
they have a recent Requires Improvement rating from 01 May 2021
or later.
Schools’ individual circumstances including their existing
capacity to improve will be considered before intervention goes
ahead, but those in Education Investment Areas are expected to be
prioritised during the coming academic year.
Schools Minister said:
For too long education outcomes, and therefore children’s life
chances, have been different depending where in the country they
grow up.
We are rapidly increasing our delivery of support and investment
to our Education Investment Areas to right that wrong and give
every child the chance to fulfil their potential.
This is just one way in which the government is working to raise
standards in Education Investment Areas. Other initiatives
include:
-
Tax-free
bonuses to retain teachers of STEM subjects in their
first five years of teaching, worth a maximum of £9,000 over
three years for those teachers working in the most
disadvantaged schools in Education Investment Areas
- Making up to £150 million available to the Connect the
Classroom programme to install modern wireless internet
throughout whole schools, including for all schools in the 24
Priority Education Investment Areas, and to schools below Good in
the remaining 31 Education Investment Areas
- Up to £86m in funding to support strong trusts to expand over
the next three years, heavily targeted towards Education
Investment Areas and Priority Education Investment Areas, to grow
the number of strong academy trusts and increase the number of
schools that have the support of a strong trust
The government aims to provide 500,000 teacher training and
development opportunities across the country by 2024, including
two new specialist national professional qualifications in
literacy and early years leadership, as well as a £30,000
starting salary for teachers to attract and retain the very best
talent.
This work builds on the government’s Schools White Paper released
in March, which set a blueprint to radically raise education
standards across the country and placed a significant emphasis on
supporting teachers through strong multi-academy trusts and
salary investment, to make sure that every child can be taught by
an excellent teacher.
The government’s mission is for the average GCSE grade in English
and maths across the country to rise from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by
2030; and for 90% of children leaving primary school to meet the
expected standards in reading, writing and maths by 2030, up from
65% in 2019.
