A state system where every child can succeed

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

On the day thousands of students are collecting their GCSE results across the country, Ed Balls has written an interesting piece for the Guardian in which he sets out his ambition for:

“a state education system in which every child can succeed and can fulfil their potential…whether their strengths are practical, academic or both; whether they want to go to university, get a job or an apprenticeship. It means attracting the best graduates into teaching, backing strong headteachers to combine tough discipline with inspirational leadership, but being uncompromising when performance isn’t good enough. And it demands, as our children’s plan sets out, that schools work with parents and other professionals to tackle all barriers to children succeeding – inside and outside the school gates.”

Balls is damning of Conservative education plans, calling them “increasingly narrow and deeply conservative”:

“Over the past year, Gove has set himself against this vision of excellence for all. He dismisses our children’s plan as a distraction. He opposes our radical reform to raise the education and training age to 18. And he refuses to match our guarantee this September of a place in school, college, training or an apprenticeship for every 16- and 17-year-old who wants to stay on.”

It’s a good article that sets out Labour’s education aspirations and draws distinct lines of difference between Labour policy and that of the Conservatives.

Read the full article here.

Additionally, there’s an interesting piece in the Times about Sir Dexter Hutt, the “superhead” who is turning around failing state schools across the country.