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I want every child to be as lucky as I was – that’s why we are raising standards in ‘stuck’ schools

Too many pupils are being failed, writes education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who is pledging to increase support and funding of £100,000 for 200 of the ‘stuck schools’ most in need of improvement

Monday 28 April 2025 22:54 BST
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Exam season is almost upon us. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children are nearing the end of Year 11 and getting ready to take their GCSEs.

Five years pass between joining secondary school in Year 7 and leaving at the end of Year 11. And those five years are some of the most important in life. They certainly were for me.

I was also incredibly lucky to have a family who valued education – a grandad who read with me and insisted on helping with my times tables.

But life shouldn’t come down to luck. Every child, in every school, in every corner of the country should have a brilliant education, regardless of their circumstances or background.

And there are fantastic schools all over our country, transforming lives.

But not for every child. Indeed, there are still more than 600 schools that have not improved quickly enough in recent years. And so, every morning, more than 300,000 children get up and go to schools that, to put it simply, are stuck.

These are schools that receive one poor Ofsted judgement after another, struggling to shake off stagnation and provide the quality of education every child deserves. And the average time those schools are stuck? Nearly six years. Children can join in Year 7 and leave in Year 11 – all while their school remains stuck in the mud.

There are thousands of brilliant, dedicated teachers in these schools, but they have been let down by a system that simply didn’t think they were a priority.

And, of course, it’s the children who suffer the consequences. Pupils in stuck schools are less likely to meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths; less likely to achieve good GCSEs.

Children only get one chance at school. They can’t come back again in six years for another go. So, this is urgent: we need to get these schools moving – and I am impatient for progress. Where children’s life chances are concerned, there is no time to lose.

So, this week, as part of this government’s Plan for Change, our drive to raise standards in schools goes up a gear.

In February, our brand-new improvement programme – Rise – began in an initial 32 stuck schools. Today, less than three months later, that number is increasing to more than 200.

These schools can receive up to £100,000 each and will get bespoke, targeted support from the best of the best in school improvement: our new Rise teams. A crack team of school experts made up of proven leaders with a track record of getting schools moving and delivering for children.

And, from this week, I’m tripling the number of these advisers so they can get into as many schools as possible, as quickly as possible.

Many are top-trust CEOs. Academy trusts have been instrumental in driving standards in our schools – and they will remain the cornerstone of school improvement in this country.

We are cementing those ambitions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will reach its second reading in the House of Lords on Thursday.

The bill is a charter of common sense: strengthened protections to keep vulnerable children safe, money back into parents’ pockets through cheaper school uniforms and free breakfast clubs, and steps to bring every school up to the level of the best – a core guarantee of quality education in every school, no matter where you live.

Those who oppose it, clinging to the comfort blanket of past successes, seem intent only on looking backwards.

If we want to modernise education and drive up standards, we must accept that the problems we face now, and the problems we will face in the future, require the solutions of tomorrow, not those of yesterday.

As education secretary, I’m here to create an education system that’s fit for the 2030s, not to preserve the system of the 2010s. So while I celebrate the lasting progress made in our schools in the last two decades, I’m determined to build on those strong foundations and go further, raising standards even higher, with our Rise teams leading that charge.

Because great schools and great teachers truly shape children’s lives.

I know, because it’s my story. I remember being called into the office of my school’s deputy headmaster, Mr Hurst. Expecting the worst, I was greeted not with a scalding for my behaviour or my performance, but for my ambition. Why isn’t your name on the list for the open day at Oxford, he asked? So on it went.

Those inspirational moments, the brilliance of our teachers, it can’t just be for most children.

It must be for all our children. That’s what I got into politics to do, and that’s the change this government will bring.

Bridget Phillipson is education secretary

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