Department For Education
To start, I want to say thank you. For your leadership, your resilience, your incredible work.
I really mean this because I do see your work as incredible and achievements as outstanding. It has been difficult, especially as we continue to recover from the pandemic, nobody in this room thinks its anything but, and most recently as we have grappled with the RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) issue.
I want to put on record my thank you to Baroness Barran for her brilliant leadership on RAAC. Shes done a really amazing job.
Im here today with a simple message. I promise that I will do everything I can to support all of you. I see that as my job; to minimise the disruption our kids face, and to keep them in the classroom and get a great education.
But there is another reason its really great to be here today and that is because I look at the theme on your banner today weve spoken about it, about belonging, and how important that is.
Its not often that conference themes really hit the mark but for me, this one does.
Because I can bet that at one moment, every one of us has felt that we dont belong.
Ive felt it in the world of business where I spent 30 years. It is hardly dominated by people who started on the factory floor.
That can be hard enough for an adult but when youre young, if you dont feel like you belong, everything becomes that bit harder.
Its thanks to you, your staff, your teachers, that kids feel not just that they are there to learn, but that schools are happy places, safe places, places for them to explore, to grow and places for them to flourish. That is the environment you create day in and day out.
Belonging is not only fundamental within schools. Our entire education system needs to prepare young people to find their place and thrive in a complex and ever-changing world.
A child starting school today at the age of five will join a labour market that will be unrecognisable to us.
Their jobs will be shaped by artificial intelligence and quantum. They will need to have the skills to deliver the net zero transition that we have legislated for. They could be part of profound advances in life sciences or leading the way with advanced forms of manufacturing.
Around the world, students need their options open, not narrowed. We must harness everything we know that drives high quality education for every young person up to the age of 18 and beyond.
There is strength, not just in depth, but also in breadth.
This means strengthening teaching and achievement in maths and English as well as science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. It means offering breadth as well as rigour. It means achieving genuine parity between the academic and technical routes.
That is why we have announced that we will introduce a new Advanced British Standard (ABS) for 1619-year-olds. Im sure youve got many questions around that and we can work together to answer those questions.
This is the next chapter in our reforms.
It builds on a journey that we started together. Between 2005 and 2010, Michael Gove and Nick Gibb did a lot of work to prepare for what we thought was going to make a massive different to our childrens education.
You have all been instrumental in making huge strides over the last decade to drive up standards in our schools.
88% of schools are now Good or Outstanding. Our 9 and 10 year olds are the best in the west at reading. You did that, our children did that.
You have worked with us as we have introduced rigour and new standards to post 16 education in this country. We worked together to update and overhaul A Levels, introduce T Levels and build a world class apprenticeship system which youll know is very dear to my heart.
But still we know that between 16 and 19 our young people study fewer subjects compared to their peers in other countries. And they have far fewer contact hours in which they can learn from the experts their teachers. And still too many young people leave at 18 without the critical maths and English they need.
We need to build on those reforms and we need to go further. Because the world is changing faster than weve ever known. We have to lift our sights. We have to be bold and even more ambitious about what our young people need, what will help them succeed.
The new Advanced British Standard will expand the range of what our 16 to 19 year olds learn, increase the amount of time they spend with their teachers and finally end the artificial divide between academic and technical education crucially, we will build on the strong foundations of A Levels, and on the high quality, employer-led occupational standards, underpinning T Levels.
I am under no illusion about the scale of these changes. They are profound and they are long-term. Ive only come here to do difficult things because difficult things make a difference.
They will take time and care to implement well. We will need to work together to develop our plans with schools, colleges, further education providers, unions, employers and the high education sector. With all of you.
But there are some things we need to start straight away to lay the groundwork for this plan. So we have announced that we are investing over 600 million, over the next 2 years, to improve the recruitment and retention of teachers of key shortage subjects in schools and colleges, strengthen support to those pupils who need to resit GCSE maths or English, and spread teaching excellence.
To improve the recruitment and retention of teachers in key shortage subjects, this package includes investing around 100 million each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium and expand this to include FE (further education) colleges. All teachers who are in the first five years of their career, teaching shortage subjects and working in disadvantaged schools, will be paid up to 6,000 per year tax-free.
This package also includes 60 million over two years to improve maths education, including through expanding teaching for mastery approaches across the country, using our maths hubs and increasing access to core maths. All of which revolutionised maths and the teaching of maths.
In developing this plan we will continue to build-upon the knowledge rich focus of our reforms so far. Because we know a knowledge rich curriculum is what builds understanding and unlocks the skills needed for problem solving, reasoning and critical thinking.
We will continue to be evidence led. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), which was established in 2011 and didnt exist before, sets the standard now across the world on better use of evidence to improve education. From them, we know what works to improve teaching and learning. That is why our funding package includes an additional 40m million for the EEF so they can create and share high quality evidence of what works at 16 to 19, particularly what works to close the gap for disadvantaged pupils at that age.
Thanks to you and your trusts we have a tried and tested model of improvement for our schools. You have led the way in changing the landscape of the school system over the last decade sometimes lets be honest in the face of resistance.
We were talking in the cabinet about new ABS and at that point we were reminded of the resistance that Michael Gove and Nick Gibb faced trying to reform our school standards and school system. Its never easy. Change that is truly worth it is never easy but the results are worth it. But we are really confident having seen the results that you have delivered over the past decade and more that I can ask you once again to work with us to turn that same focus to our 16 to 19 year olds.
I have heard those who say that now is not the time for long term ambitious reform. That we have plenty of challenges in the system today. Change is already here. We sometimes dont get to set the agenda because its being shaped by everything around us and technological advances is definitely one of those.
If we want an education system in 10, 20, 30 years time that ensures all young people leave education better prepared to find their place in the world then we cant afford to wait.
A functioning society and a growing economy relies on an education system that delivers for everyone. Even today in our country we have a massive skills gap that is slowing down our growth which is a lot faster than anyone predicted. But still it would be even faster if we had the skills and talent that we need.
I agree we must work relentlessly on todays challenges in our schools, which we will continue to respond to. But it would be wrong to ignore the future. These reforms will help pave the way. We always have to deal with the now while looking towards the future.
The pandemic cast a long shadow. It changed everything. You worked tirelessly to support schools, teachers, pupils and parents throughout.
I know we have not yet recovered. I look at the data all the time, I go into schools all the time.
Particularly for the most disadvantaged kids. You made so much progress closing the disadvantage gap between 2011 and 2019 it narrowed by an outstanding 9% at secondary and by 13% at primary school. But its true the pandemic set us back and we need to rebuild.
I believe in life