Government hails 'new era' of school standards

ODN

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson unveils her plans to revamp Ofsted's grading system for schools during a speech in central London, hailing a "new era" of school standards which means "hard work counts no matter your background". Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00I am proof that the system can work, that a great education can be a transformational force,

00:05that background doesn't have to be destiny. That belief formed then is the core of my politics now.

00:12That the promise our children deserve, that hard work is what counts, no matter your background.

00:17I believe in that promise, in making that dream real. We need more teachers. That's why we are

00:24committed to recruiting an additional six and a half thousand new expert teachers over the course

00:29of this parliament, ensuring we have more teachers where they are most needed, across our colleges

00:35and our secondary schools, both mainstream and specialist. So today I am taking us into a new

00:40era on school standards. Single headline grades were the right innovation at the right time.

00:46They brought proper scrutiny to all schools, but the time for change has come. They had become

00:53high stakes for schools, but low information for parents, and for the challenges we now face,

00:58too blunt, too rough, too vague. How can it be right that so many critical decisions, parents,

01:04choices that shape whole lives, rest on a single word? It simply isn't enough, not for schools,

01:11not for families, and not for children. We need a more diagnostic approach, an approach that is

01:16restless and rigorous. Our proposals will swap single headline grades for the rich granular

01:22insight of school report cards, raising the bar on what we expect from schools, shining a light

01:28on the areas that matter, each given their own grade, identifying excellence and rooting out

01:34performance that falls short of expectations, so that parents have clearer, better information

01:40about their local schools. This is a new era in accountability for schools, a new era of relentless

01:46improvement to drive up standards and open up opportunity for all, but a new spirit too,

01:53including with schools, a relationship to improve, not punish, to challenge, not schooled, based on

02:00shared aims, not shared hostility, an approach that recognises that when all is said and done,

02:06we all want the same thing, better outcomes for our children.

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