GovWire

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks so much for being here. And thanks to the Centre for Social Justice for hosting us. And thanks to Andy.

Its great to be back here, this time as Education Secretary, six months into delivering our Plan for Change.

I know CSJ shares this governments commitment to ensuring that, whoever you are, wherever you come from, ours should be a country where hard work means you dont just get by but you get on.

Some of you were here last year, when I started my speech with a story. And today I want to start with a story too:

A story about how and why the change I am bringing to the education system matters to me.

Its my story.

I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, a shy little girl, from a tough street in the northeast of England, [political content removed]

I never met my dad. It was just me and my mum and my grandparents who lived nearby.

We didnt have much. One winter, a neighbour, who himself, he didnt have very much, found out my mum was struggling with the cost of starting school.

He put money through the letterbox in an envelope marked for Bridgets coat.

Now, not everyone turned to kindness. Crime was a big problem. Our house was burgled time and again.

And when my mum reported it to the police, our windows were put out, a man turned up with a baseball bat.

It didnt seem like that big a deal at the time. These were just things that happened, and frankly not just to us.

I think often of the children I knew then, held back by who they were, by where they were born.

So many on my street were denied the opportunity to get on and to succeed.

Not because they were lazy, they werent.

They were no less talented than I was, no less ambitious, no less deserving of success.

But I was given the opportunities that they were denied. I went to great schools, I was taught by wonderful teachers, I had a family that prized learning.

I was in the very first full cohort to sit SATs tests at Key Stage 1, 2 and 3. I benefited from the national curriculum brought in by a [political content removed] government.

My school took up that challenge to push kids like me to achieve.

I worked hard, of course I did.

But I had the good luck to go to a great school, to have a family who cared deeply about education, a grandfather who read to me week in, week out.

And like so many stories, this one has a moral lesson at its core.

I am proof that the system can work, that a great education can be a transformational force, that background doesnt have to be destiny.

That belief formed then, is the core of my politics now.

That the promise our children deserve, that hard work is what counts, no matter your background.

I believe in that promise, in making that dream real.

But I saw so many of my friends from my area let down, let down by a system that lacked a restless ambition for their futures, content, too often, to deliver a mediocre education, middling, in schools that drifted, an education that was seen as just fine for these kids.

For kids like me.

Michael Gove used to call this the soft bigotry of low expectations and with good reason: he was right.

But I dont need to be told about that. I grew up with it all around me, in my community, holding back my friends.

I dont forget. Not now. Not ever.

Its these memories of those injustices, the doors closed, the dreams stifled, the futures denied, thats what drives me forward in this job.

I get up every morning to right those wrongs.

To break down the barriers to opportunity for each and every child.

Background wasnt my destiny.

And I wont rest until that is true for all children.

That is my vision for education.

Opportunity, for those children, for all children. That is our mission, driven by the Prime Ministers Plan for Change.

An excellent teacher for every child, a high-quality curriculum for every school, a core offer of excellence for every parent.

Raising a floor of high standards, below which schools must not slip, above which schools can and must innovate, with no ceiling.

Now, those memories are from a long time ago. And in the decades since, standards in Englands schools have risen, and millions of children have benefited.

Our system now has many strengths, to build into that core. The greater use of evidence in classrooms across the country.

No more flying blind, guided only by tradition.

Now, what matters is what works [political content removed] reformed exams more rigour, more challenge.

Our national curriculum, a national strength, one from which we will build.

Raising the floor, removing the ceiling.

Take one example, one that matters immensely.

Every child learns about the Holocaust, thanks to the national curriculum. Thats the floor we need.

But teachers can then innovate in how they teach it.

Stories from newspaper archives of troops finding concentration camps or hearing the testimonies of Holocaust survivors who have been immortalised using recordings and virtual reality technology.

And now the Curriculum and Assessment Review will take us onward, delivering a core curriculum for all children that is deep and rigorous, knowledge-rich down to its bones.

And that matters so much, knowledge is foundational, the building blocks of learning.

Its no use developing skills if children lack the knowledge to back it up and that curriculum must be taught by the very best teachers.

As a profession as well as a calling, teaching has come on leaps and bounds, far ahead of when I was at school.

The use of phonics is just one example where this has delivered for millions of children. Over 100,000 more children every year are securing the phonic foundations of reading since 2012.

And we will continue down this proud path, for future generations.

But now, right now, we need more teachers.

Thats why we are committed to recruiting an additional six and a half thousand new expert teachers over the course of this parliament, ensuring we have more teachers where they are most needed across our colleges and our secondary schools, both mainstream and specialist.

Because more teachers in our classrooms means more attention for our children. And that attention makes it easier to learn, and drives better attainment.

More teaching, better learning.

But more alone is not enough.

I want to drive up the quality of teaching too.

Building on the advances in teaching as a profession, and in teacher training.

Thats why we are requiring all teachers to work towards qualified teacher status and doubling down on evidence-based training.

Well back our teachers with the very best AI, part of an exciting new wave of technology to modernise our education system.

These changes are critical for all of our children. But nowhere are they more important than for our children with SEND.

Its hard to say about a system that today is failing so many, that there has been progress. The recognition of additional needs, the debate around how we support children with SEND is a sign of progress.

But there is much, much more to do.

We must set high expectations for all, spread pockets of excellence right throughout the system.

Focus on need and not diagnosis. With children able to access the right support more often in mainstream so that they can learn and thrive.

Empower schools to intervene earlier, equipping them not just to support, but to excel for children with a range of different needs. Advances in the use of evidence, in the curriculum, in teaching.

Well take that forward, delivering a new for generations of children.

But perhaps the key driver of rising standards across our schools has been strong multi academy trusts.

Take an example. Tanfield is a school that sits on the edge of Stanley, just ten miles west of where I grew up.

Over the decades, tens of thousands of kids with backgrounds just like mine have walked through those school gates.

And for a long time, the school meandered along, performing poorly, requiring improvement that never quite appeared, delivering outcomes never quite what they could be.

A reality that year after year, kids were being denied the opportunity to achieve.

Until Tanfield joined Eden Learning Trust in May 2020. And with a strong head teacher at the helm. Thats when the spark of progress finally arrived.

The school is now rated as good on some measures, outstanding on others.

Exam performance rising, above the national average.

That story fills me with hope, because I know the difference a great school makes to so many children with backgrounds like mine, to severing the tie between background and destiny.

Academy schools were a part of a great age of reform, from the mid-90s to 2015, a wave of changes that lifted standards for schools and life chances for children.

Driven forward by a succession of great education reformers from David Blunkett to Michael Gove, and a generation of dedicated and determined teachers.

I recognise the focus on tackling low standards in inadequate schools, which previous governments of all parties shared.

I celebrate the enormous effort by parents and school staff, to haul our entire system into a much better place.

Strong academy trusts, top teachers, a core curriculum these

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