- £400 million funding available to support schools to improve at English and maths

Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Children’s Secretary, today set out the next phase in the Government’s School Improvement Strategy – National Challenge.

National Challenge will transform schools, raise results in English and maths, and tackle underachievement by young people.

The Labour Government’s Children’s Plan sets out that by 2020 at least 90 per cent of children will achieve the equivalent of five higher level GCSEs by the age of 19.

National Challenge is important step on the way towards this – to meet the goal that in every secondary school, at least 30 per cent of its pupils will achieve five good GCSEs including English and maths by 2011.

In 1997 there were 1,610 schools below this 30 per cent minimum standard; today there are 638 - the National Challenge sets out how we will reduce this number to zero.

Ed Balls announced that he would double the £200m previously announced in the budget to £400m to help local authorities and schools.

The extra funding could mean that up to 70 National Challenge schools could be converted into Academies over and above existing plans, and that up to 120 new Trust schools could be created. This 120 could include 70 National Challenge Trusts where a school links with another high performing school as well as an external partner such as a university or business.

To kick-start the National Challenge, Ed Balls asked local authorities to set out by the end of the school summer term, individual action plans for how they will transform results in each National Challenge school from now until 2011.

Ed Balls said: “Schools have made huge progress. In 1997, there were 1,610 schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils gained five good GCSEs including English and maths; today there are 638.

“Our goal over the next three years is to get every school to this minimum 30% standard and to get that 638 down to zero. Every parent needs to know that their local school will get to this basic standard.

“Most areas still have at least one National Challenge school.

“GCSE success is not the only measure of how a school performs, but it is critical – teenagers need these qualifications to go on to further study, work and prosperity. A young person with five good GCSEs will almost always earn considerably more than a teenager who leaves school with no qualifications. Employers expect these qualifications as a minimum.

“I know that teachers in National Challenge schools are working hard often in difficult circumstances. They need more support so that these schools and their children can reach their full potential. We need rapid but sustainable improvement to raise children’s aspirations and their job prospects.

“Of course National Challenge schools face real challenges but no child and no school is on a pre-determined path to low results. There are many schools in communities of high unemployment and low aspirations where children achieve excellent GCSE results. For each National Challenge school, another school facing similar problems has already turned itself around.

“I don’t want to see excuses about poor performance - I want to see clear plans to raise standards.”

The key aspects of the National Challenge are:

• £400m available to support National Challenge schools over the next three years - £200m announced in the Budget - plus a further £200m allocated from existing resources and re-prioritised towards National Challenge schools;

• More one-to-one tuition and study support in English and maths for children in National Challenge schools; plus extra support from National Strategies’ experts for weak English and maths departments;

• Additional support for senior leaders in schools to support maths and science departments;

• Highly respected education expert Sir Mike Tomlinson will chair a new National Challenge Panel of Expert Advisers to support low attaining schools. The panel will consist of heads who have successfully turned around underperforming schools, City Challenge Advisers and Directors of Children’s Services;

• Each National Challenge school will be allocated a National Challenge Adviser, who will work with the school leadership to develop a tailored package of support;

• By 2011 150 more National Leaders of Education – outstanding ‘super-heads’ with past experience of turning schools around – will work alongside Heads to help solve problems at the schools;

• The new Masters in Teaching and Learning will be made available in National Challenge Schools;

• As well as Academies, where a school is completely unable to raise their exam results, the Government will encourage local authorities to close the school and replace it with a National Challenge Trust, providing that they forge new improvement partnerships led by a successful school and a business or university partner. The aim would be to give the school and the community a fresh beginning and a break with previous underachievement;

• Encouragement to use tried and tested school improvement models, such as partnerships with successful schools (federations) or partnerships with business or universities (Trusts), so that National Challenge schools benefit from new governance arrangements and best practice;

• The Government will legislate to take new powers to direct local authorities to issue a warning notice where there is clear cause for concern – such as exam results getting worse; to appoint Interim Executive Boards where the school is under a warning notice; and to require a local authority to take on advisory services where there are large numbers of schools with unacceptably low standards.