Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, said:

"Our schools are getting better and our children are enjoying more opportunities thanks to the reforms introduced in the last 12 months. We’ve given heads more power, teachers more freedom, poor students more money and parents more choice.

"The Government believes our schools should be run by teachers for parents, not by bureaucrats for politicians. That’s the path to excellence for all and in the next 12 months we’ll help bring world class teaching to more schools.”

Academies – teachers, not politicians or bureaucrats, know best how to run schools

Gathering momentum – a reform success story

• 1,070 schools have applied to become Academies.
• 658 Academies are now open – including converters and sponsored.  That’s nearly one in every five secondary schools.
• Over 450 of these have opened since September 2010 – more than two every working day.

Raising standards

• Academies improve faster than the national average.
• This year Harris Federation has seen a 9 percentage points increase across all their academies, ARK Academies have seen a 12 percentage points increase and ULT posted an 8 point increase.

A new consensus

• A poll conducted by the Association of School and College Leaders showed that almost half of secondary schools had either converted or were actively considering doing so. A further 34 per cent of school leaders were undecided, and only 19 per cent remained defiantly against the change. (12 March 2011, http://www.ascl.org.uk/home/news_results/?l=l&ListItemID=758&ListGroupID=2)

• Gerard Kelly, editor of the Times Educational Supplement, wrote: "Most teachers do not look at an academy and find the devil's work; they see a school, remarkably similar to any other. So the academy war is over. Some diehards will continue to wail and fume like those Confederate supporters who refuse to accept that the South lost. Everyone else can move on and debate the important stuff - like how to teach, what to teach and the quality of who is teaching.” (15 April 2011, http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6077911).

• Mike Baker, former BBC education editor, said: "Make no mistake about the enormity of this change. It is easy to under-estimate what is happening, in part because it builds on what has been happening steadily ever since the 1988 Act started to give schools greater autonomy over budgets and other decision-making.  The shift to school autonomy has been mostly welcome and has been incremental.  But now we are, as I say, at a pivotal moment.” (Speech to the Academy Network, 5 May 2011 http://www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/blog/381/tipping-point-for-academies-and-the-whole-school-system).

Public backs expansion of academies by two to one

• 51 per cent of the public support the Coalition’s policy of ‘giving existing schools the ability to convert to academies, giving them more freedom from local council controls’, with only 24 per cent opposed. (Yougov/Sunday Times, 20-21 January 2011, link).

Free Schools – great schools with high quality teaching and tough discipline for all

• 323 proposals have been received to set up Free Schools.
• 40 have been approved to business case stage or beyond.
• Just a year after the Academies Act was passed the first free schools are opening this September.
• It can now take around a year to set up a new school - compared to up to five years in the past.
• Conor Ryan, former special adviser to David Blunkett when he was Education Secretary, said:  "We should not scorn these projects: each represents the vision of their promoters and can offer extra diversity in their communities….Free Schools may offer a useful addition to the educational landscape, they may provide a little extra competition (and a few planning headaches for some councils). And they may give their pupils and parents a sense that state education can meet their needs.” (1 February 2011, http://conorfryan.blogspot.com/2011/02/slow-progress-on-free-schools.html).

Improving school standards

The importance of teaching

• We are getting the best graduates into teaching by extending Teach First into primary schools and doubling the numbers entering by the end of this Parliament.
• We are doubling the numbers of top heads who are National Leaders in Education to 1,000 by 2014.
• We are setting up a new generation of teaching schools to ensure the best possible teacher training.
• We have targeted the weakest 1,000 schools for transformation.

Rigour for excellence

• We have introduced the English Baccalaureate which recognises where pupils have got a good pass across a core of academic subjects.
• So for the first time parents know how their school performs in the key academic subjects that the universities value most.  Last year just 16 per cent of pupils achieved the English Baccalaureate.
• The public backs the principle of the English Baccalaureate by six to one. 69 per cent of the public support ‘changing school league tables to concentrate on core subjects of English, maths, science, humanities and a foreign language’, with only 11 per cent opposed. (Yougov/Sunday Times, 20-21 January 2011, http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-21-230111.pdf).
• The English Baccalaureate will lead to more children doing academic subjects.  Mike Baker, writing on the English Baccalaureate in the Guardian, said: "Schools are changing their timetable options and focusing their teaching resources to maximise Ebacc scores.” (Guardian, 19 April 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/19/school-autonomy-gove-driving-change).

Restoring discipline to schools and protecting teachers

Teachers in control

• Changed guidance to make it easier for teachers to use force to remove disruptive pupils from classes.
• Teachers to be able to search pupils for disruptive items such as mobile phones.
• The ending of the overturning of headteachers’ decisions to exclude pupils.
• Head teacher Charles Taylor appointed as a new expert adviser on behaviour.
• Requirement for teachers to give 24hrs notice for detentions being scrapped.

Teachers protected

• Teachers being granted anonymity when faced with malicious allegations by pupils.
• End to automatic suspension of teachers facing accusations by pupils.

Reducing bureaucracy and increasing transparency

• Scrapped the unnecessary and burdensome Self Evaluation Form and the tick box exercise that was the Financial Management Standard in Schools as well as field forces, statutory targets and statutory plans.
• Removing more than 1,400 pages of guidance so far - with more to come.
• Making sure Ofsted focuses on just four key areas so schools can concentrate on good teaching.
• Reducing the number of ALBS – the abolition of the quango BECTA alone will save more than £200m over the Spending Review Period.
• Publishing more than 14 million "hidden” exam results so parents can see for the first time how well their school does in specific subjects.
• Vetting and Barring Scheme scaled back to commonsense levels.

Helping the poorest and most vulnerable

Help for the poorest

• The pupil premium will be worth £2.5bn by the end of the Parliament – today this means £430 for every deprived pupil.
• Establishing a £125 million education endowment fund (EEF) to raise standards in underperforming schools.
• Extending 15 hours per week of free early education and childcare to 130,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds children from 2013.

Help for looked after children

• The introduction of a pupil premium for looked after children.
• Looked after young people and those leaving care will get a bursary of £1,200 a year to help them continue in education.
• New adoption guidance aims to reduce delays in the system and stop councils turning away potential adopters on basis of race, age or social background.

Help for families

• Published a Green Paper on Special Educational Needs and disability to give all children a fair start and parents more confidence and control.
• Put funding for relationship support on a stable footing by investing £30m over four years in voluntary and community sector organisations.
• Launched a major new programme to turn round the lives of the most troubled families in the country.

Improving child protection – telling the truth at last

• Publishing Serious Case Reviews so that all the public services can learn from mistakes.
• Attracting the very best into social work with more than ten applicants for the Step Up to social work training scheme for each of the 200 places.
• Wide-ranging review of child protection led by Professor Eileen Munro.
• Abolishing ContactPoint to get rid of bureaucracy.