Education minister David Laws has backed calls for a North East Challenge to drive up standards. It follows recent work by SCHOOLS NorthEast along with a range of local and national partners on the development of plans which draw on the lessons of the London Challenge.
Mr Laws said: “There is no reason why regions of the country have to wait for ministers and the Department for Education to approve good plans on the ground.”
The Education minister, who is also MP for Yeovil, gave the example of the Somerset Challenge, highlighting the fact that plan was developed at a local level rather than as a top down initiative.
He said: “What we can do in Westminster in the Department for Education is think how we can support these local initiatives. Firstly by giving them the right funding – and we’re giving more and more funding particularly to schools in disadvantaged areas, and also by helping to get some of the best school leaders to parts of the country where there is a shortage of good leadership.”
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Laws expressed concern over some the performance of some schools in our region, saying “In many parts of the North East the performance of disadvantaged youngsters is just not good enough.”
He said the level of results of some young people from disadvantaged backgrounds was ‘totally unacceptable’ and expected the gap to be closed with the pupil premium.
Mr Laws refused to echo Michael Gove’s much publicised criticisms of some of our region’s schools, but said the reason for the poor performance of some schools was due to low aspirations.
“We understand why it is difficult for schools because often these youngsters come in through their doors without the right support in the home environment having fallen behind even before they arrive in school.
“But the experience of inner London shows that even when youngsters bring into the school environment a lot of disadvantages that impede their learning, the school - if it’s well led and well-resourced and using the right interventions - can still do an awful lot about that.
Mr Laws conceded that in communities of economic decline, some Head Teachers struggle with raising aspirations of pupils. He said: “Parents and schools need to work together with the government to set much higher expectations and aspirations. Not just in places like London, but in communities where the local employment situation is difficult and where people do not see the job opportunities that they see in other parts of the country.”
When asked whether the North East could see the type of financial investment that London had for their Challenge, Mr Laws said schools would have to make the most of the additional funding from the pupil premium.
He said: “What we’re not doing anymore in the DfE is holding back large amounts of school funding for central initiatives – what we’re trying to have is a school system where we devolve the money we’ve got straight down to a school level and therefore schools, particularly in disadvantaged areas, will be getting this massive burst of extra funding through the pupil premium.
“We are now as a government giving every school the money to deliver - even for disadvantaged young people who are funded at almost double the rate of funding for their time in education as a young person from a non-disadvantaged background. That is giving Head Teachers and teachers the resources to do the job and we now expect to see that gap between the educational levels of advantaged and disadvantaged youngsters close very rapidly.”
Speaking on BBC’s Sunday Politics show, David Pearmain, Principal of Kenton School and Chair of SCHOOLS NorthEast argued that some additional funding was required to build capacity and catalyse collaboration.
He said “I think the important thing is we have coordination so that schools can work together, because the expertise is here already.”
“It will need some extra money to be effective. Not necessarily the £100m that has been spent on the London Challenge – that’s not going to happen – but we do need some additional funding to buy that time we need for people to work together effectively.”
What is your view?
How could a North East Challenge improve outcomes for young people in our region's schools? What are your thoughts on Mr Laws' comments?
If you would like further information on developments around the North East Challenge, email r.earnshaw@schoolsnortheast.com
Further Reading
- Education minister backs calls to raise aspirations in North East schools
- Sunday Politics North East and Cumbria