Gove tells heads to stop whingeing

Headteachers have been told by the Education Secretary to "stop whingeing" about their lack of resources. Michael Gove told a seminar in London that every second spent making excuses for poor performance was a second that could have been spent on improving standards.

He said that every school should ask itself why it was not doing as well as Hackney's Mossbourne Academy, which was turned around by its headteacher, Sir Michael Wilshaw. Eight of its pupils were offered Oxbridge places this year.

"We can find excuses, we can make justifications, but ultimately there is a haunting question for anyone who's in charge of education – whether a headteacher in an individual school, a minister, a head of an academy chain or a director of children's services: why aren't we doing better?" Mr Gove said.

Successful schools did not spend time "whingeing about resources or complaining about ministers' particular priorities", he added.

Earlier in his speech he confessed to being "Blairite" in his attitude towards education reforms. "I believe what's right is what works," he said.