Introduction
May 1997 was not just an important month for me. It was for everyone in this school, because you had to face up to the consequences of the appalling arson attack which burnt the school to the ground.
Since then, this school has risen from the ashes. I want to congratulate you, teachers, governors, parents and pupils, for the extraordinary transformation we see here today.
And I want to thank all teachers, governors, parents and pupils in all our schools, who are helping us to deliver on what was, is and always will be our Number One priority for Britain's future prosperity: education, giving every child in the country the chance to make the most of their potential.
As Prime Minister, I have many issues to deal with, at home and abroad. Street crime, as you know, is a pressing concern. The NHS is embarked upon a huge programme of change and investment. We face real challenges in transport.
But education remains the passion of this government for our future, which is why we are investing on a scale unmatched by any government in recent times in our schools.
Rising standards in Manchester
In Manchester, funding per pupil has increased in real terms by over ??900 since 1997.
Primary school classes are smaller. Here in Manchester just four years ago, there were nearly 4,000 pupils in Key Stage 1 classes of 31 or more taught by one teacher. At the beginning of the last school year, there were only 31 - just one class in the whole city.
The New Deal for Schools initiative is refurbishing 17,000 schools - with almost ??12m being spent in Manchester alone, for projects like a new sports hall at Burnage High School, new classrooms at Whalley Range High School, and just around the corner from here, a new classroom at Crumpsall Lane Primary School.
Driven by that investment, standards have risen sharply.
Investment and reform
The best primary school test results ever. Half of all 16 year-olds achieving five or more good GCSEs - for the first time ever. More staying on at 16. More going to university.
This is not the government's achievement. It is your achievement - heads, teachers, governors, pupils and parents, working together school by school to achieve more. And our ambition, together, is to see steadily greater achievements year by year.
We know education is the key to individuals making the most of themselves. It is also the key to Britain securing its future. In the modern knowledge economy, we will never compete on the basis of labour costs alone. The brains of our people are our Number One asset.
I want those parents who never dreamt of going to university to be able to expect it for their children. And I want those adults who didn't get the school education they needed to be able to get the training they need now, so that they too can aspire to better jobs and a better life.
Investment and reform to improve standards, behaviour and choice in schools are part of our wider programme of reform in our essential public services. Those reforms are governed by four key principles - national standards and accountability; devolution of power and resources to the front line; flexibility of staff; and choice.
In education that means OFSTED having a key role in driving up standards. It means schools, heads and teachers having a greater say in where resources go. It means ensuring they get help, for example, through flexible working and better use of IT and classroom assistants. And it means more choice of schools and more choice in schools.
Principles for a world-class secondary education
Today I want to focus especially on secondary schools. I want to set out the principles that drive our mission to give every child, no matter what their background, a world-class secondary education.
Three strands define that mission - standards,behaviour and choice.
Standards because they are the final measure of whether our schools our delivering.
Behaviour because improving discipline is critical to making all our secondary schools excellent, and to retaining teachers. If classes are being disrupted, if pupils are playing truant, if parents are ignoring their responsibility for their children's behaviour and education, that damages the teaching and learning environment for everyone. It drags standards down.
And choice because greater choice is essential to our goal of building secondary education around the talents of each individual pupil. Greater choice between schools, but also greater choice within schools, so that every pupil gets an education that develops their own particular talents to the full.
Professional Development
In our first term, primary schools were the priority. Through investment and reform, through the literacy and numeracy strategies, with the superb commitment of our teachers, we helped bring about a step change in standards. In our second term the focus is on secondary schools. We've shown it can be done in one part of the school system. Now we are determined to do it again.
At the heart of the challenge is improving teaching and learning. Heads, teachers, support staff and administrators have been central to what we have so far achieved in raising standards. However hard my job may be, I know what a tough job it is to turn around failing schools. Or to face a group of unruly teenagers and get them interested. And the whole country should be grateful for the job that our teachers do.
Recruitment initiatives are having an impact - recruitment to initial teacher training is up again, as last year. Teacher numbers are the highest since 1984. But demand is rising. So recruitment and retention remain a real concern.
And we need not just more teachers, but to remodel teaching profession over time so that teachers can focus on the core tasks of lesson preparation, teaching and assessing pupils' work.
That means more effective deployment of teaching assistants, with schools fundamentally altering their staffing balance, so that administrative and support staff take burdens off teachers. It means more flexible use of teaching staff drawn from beyond the school boundaries - for example from FE colleges, higher education and business.
Reform of vocational and higher education
Secondly, we need to break down some traditional taboos. We are seeking to change vocational education beyond the age of 14 - so that every young person, whether academically-minded or not, receives an education leading to worthwhile qualifications and job prospects after school.
It is also why we have set a target for at least half of our under-30s to be going on to higher education by 2010, increasing the proportion from 40 per cent today.
I know that there are some traditionalists who oppose both policies. They believe that more means worse - that only a small minority have got the brains to go on to university. They oppose vocational GCSEs and A-levels on the grounds that they will supposedly 'dumb down' the school curriculum.
It's a cosy elitism that has bedevilled and weakened our education system for more than a century. For a small, privileged minority, it means the best academic education in schools and the top universities, as good as any in the world. But for the majority, a system with no proper vocational route and second-rate opportunities.
We reject this outdated mentality. It is little more than snobbery. It has held back our nation and our people for decades. It is at the root of our low productivity and our historic class divisions.
We must ensure that the most able in our comprehensive schools get the challenge and support they need.
But at the same time, this government is undertaking a radical modernisation of the comprehensive system to raise standards, achievement and aspirations for all our young people.
This requires worthwhile qualifications for all students who put in the work - in vocational fields such as IT and engineering as much as in traditional academic subjects.
And as more succeed at school, in both academic and vocational fields or a combination of the two, we must also offer steadily greater higher education opportunities to match.
The two-year foundation degrees in vocational fields, now being piloted, have enjoyed significant take-up. By this and other routes I believe our 50 per cent target is not only attainable - it is essential if the aspirations of our young people, and the needs of the economy, are to be met in the generation ahead.
So let there be no defensiveness about our goals. On the basis of higher standards, more does not mean worse. On the contrary, expanded educational opportunities are the lifeblood of the modern economy and society we are seeking to create.
Better behaviour
Thirdly, I have seen for myself how a school's ethos and discipline can make a world of difference to standards. Yet there is no doubt that behaviour has deteriorated over the past 20 years. Parents and teachers are right to be concerned. And we are determined to act decisively.
We were the first Government to put in place a fully-funded, comprehensive programme for tackling indiscipline and disruption. We have invested over ??200 million each year since 1999 to tackle disruptive behaviour, exclusion and truancy.
From this year each school in the inner city Excellence in Cities programme will have learning mentors, people who will engage with problem children and make sure they're at class and deal with poor behaviour and learning.
From this September, all local authorities are expected to provide an extended timetable for excluded children. We have established pupil referral units in local communities specifically to deal with permanently excluded children, which will give them extended compulsory schooling. This is intensive - often one adult to three or four children. It is demanding. The LEA has the power to insist on attendance and can prosecute parents whose children fail to attend.
It is completely unacceptable that young people out of control, excluded from school, are left free to roam the streets causing misery and mayhem in local communities. These measures should be seen alongside our proposals on juvenile crime and restrictions on bail. In addition, through the new Connexions Service, there will be a far better more comprehensive range of careers and welfare advice and help given to parents and children.
These are not measures thought up in the last few days in the light of recent publicity. They have been worked on and delivered over the past five years.
Schools need to know that the Government is on their side and the community is on their side against unruly children and abusive parents.
Take truancy. As we agreed at our meeting on crime in Downing Street on Monday, we have to make greater use made of truancy sweeps where schools, the local police and councils work together to identify persistent truants and get them back to where they should be - in school.
Also, local authorities have the powers to prosecute parents and enforce parenting orders against those who, by failing to do anything about their child truanting, are colluding in it. I want to see those powers used properly to help us deal with this problem. It's the job of parents to see that their children are at school - and they are breaking the law and failing in their duty if they don't.
This is not just about education. It is about what kind of country we want to be. We see all around us the consequences if families and communities fail: disaffection, lack of respect, vandalism, drugs, violence.
And that is why, when I got together law enforcement agencies for that meeting on street crime, I didn't just ask the police, the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor, but the Ministers responsible for education, for health, for local government, for sport. Because every child denied a place in a good school is more at risk of falling into crime.
Choice
Higher standards and better discipline will both be reinforced by greater choice for parents. We want a flexible, diverse secondary system in which every school is excellent and plays to its strengths, developing its own unique character.
We know schools that develop specialisms, more flexibly designed around the needs of the pupil, can achieve higher results.
Secondary schools which are ready can now become specialist schools, and their number has already risen from 181 in 1997 to 834 last year. There will be 1,000 specialist schools by next September, and we have pledged to increase their number to at least 1,500 by 2005.
We will also broaden the range of specialisms available, for example including engineering, science and business, and enterprise.
And we are making it easier for successful schools to expand and involve external partners, including the private sector.
Conclusion
The recent authoritative international survey of education around the world put Britain in the top eight of the global league. That's a huge achievement. We hear a lot of comment running down our public services. We should be proud of our education system, our teachers and staff. There is, however, a lot more to do. We want to be the best. And we can be.
The challenge is to educate not just the top twenty or thirty per cent well but all our children.
It is a bold and radical aim. But I am confident that in time we will achieve it - because however we may sometimes disagree about tactics, it is an aim we all share.
The investment is in place. We have set out the principles for reform. Now let's work together to build the education system that our country and our children deserve.
May 1997 was not just an important month for me. It was for everyone in this school, because you had to face up to the consequences of the appalling arson attack which burnt the school to the ground.
Since then, this school has risen from the ashes. I want to congratulate you, teachers, governors, parents and pupils, for the extraordinary transformation we see here today.
And I want to thank all teachers, governors, parents and pupils in all our schools, who are helping us to deliver on what was, is and always will be our Number One priority for Britain's future prosperity: education, giving every child in the country the chance to make the most of their potential.
As Prime Minister, I have many issues to deal with, at home and abroad. Street crime, as you know, is a pressing concern. The NHS is embarked upon a huge programme of change and investment. We face real challenges in transport.
But education remains the passion of this government for our future, which is why we are investing on a scale unmatched by any government in recent times in our schools.
Rising standards in Manchester
In Manchester, funding per pupil has increased in real terms by over ??900 since 1997.
Primary school classes are smaller. Here in Manchester just four years ago, there were nearly 4,000 pupils in Key Stage 1 classes of 31 or more taught by one teacher. At the beginning of the last school year, there were only 31 - just one class in the whole city.
The New Deal for Schools initiative is refurbishing 17,000 schools - with almost ??12m being spent in Manchester alone, for projects like a new sports hall at Burnage High School, new classrooms at Whalley Range High School, and just around the corner from here, a new classroom at Crumpsall Lane Primary School.
Driven by that investment, standards have risen sharply.
Investment and reform
The best primary school test results ever. Half of all 16 year-olds achieving five or more good GCSEs - for the first time ever. More staying on at 16. More going to university.
This is not the government's achievement. It is your achievement - heads, teachers, governors, pupils and parents, working together school by school to achieve more. And our ambition, together, is to see steadily greater achievements year by year.
We know education is the key to individuals making the most of themselves. It is also the key to Britain securing its future. In the modern knowledge economy, we will never compete on the basis of labour costs alone. The brains of our people are our Number One asset.
I want those parents who never dreamt of going to university to be able to expect it for their children. And I want those adults who didn't get the school education they needed to be able to get the training they need now, so that they too can aspire to better jobs and a better life.
Investment and reform to improve standards, behaviour and choice in schools are part of our wider programme of reform in our essential public services. Those reforms are governed by four key principles - national standards and accountability; devolution of power and resources to the front line; flexibility of staff; and choice.
In education that means OFSTED having a key role in driving up standards. It means schools, heads and teachers having a greater say in where resources go. It means ensuring they get help, for example, through flexible working and better use of IT and classroom assistants. And it means more choice of schools and more choice in schools.
Principles for a world-class secondary education
Today I want to focus especially on secondary schools. I want to set out the principles that drive our mission to give every child, no matter what their background, a world-class secondary education.
Three strands define that mission - standards,behaviour and choice.
Standards because they are the final measure of whether our schools our delivering.
Behaviour because improving discipline is critical to making all our secondary schools excellent, and to retaining teachers. If classes are being disrupted, if pupils are playing truant, if parents are ignoring their responsibility for their children's behaviour and education, that damages the teaching and learning environment for everyone. It drags standards down.
And choice because greater choice is essential to our goal of building secondary education around the talents of each individual pupil. Greater choice between schools, but also greater choice within schools, so that every pupil gets an education that develops their own particular talents to the full.
Professional Development
In our first term, primary schools were the priority. Through investment and reform, through the literacy and numeracy strategies, with the superb commitment of our teachers, we helped bring about a step change in standards. In our second term the focus is on secondary schools. We've shown it can be done in one part of the school system. Now we are determined to do it again.
At the heart of the challenge is improving teaching and learning. Heads, teachers, support staff and administrators have been central to what we have so far achieved in raising standards. However hard my job may be, I know what a tough job it is to turn around failing schools. Or to face a group of unruly teenagers and get them interested. And the whole country should be grateful for the job that our teachers do.
Recruitment initiatives are having an impact - recruitment to initial teacher training is up again, as last year. Teacher numbers are the highest since 1984. But demand is rising. So recruitment and retention remain a real concern.
And we need not just more teachers, but to remodel teaching profession over time so that teachers can focus on the core tasks of lesson preparation, teaching and assessing pupils' work.
That means more effective deployment of teaching assistants, with schools fundamentally altering their staffing balance, so that administrative and support staff take burdens off teachers. It means more flexible use of teaching staff drawn from beyond the school boundaries - for example from FE colleges, higher education and business.
Reform of vocational and higher education
Secondly, we need to break down some traditional taboos. We are seeking to change vocational education beyond the age of 14 - so that every young person, whether academically-minded or not, receives an education leading to worthwhile qualifications and job prospects after school.
It is also why we have set a target for at least half of our under-30s to be going on to higher education by 2010, increasing the proportion from 40 per cent today.
I know that there are some traditionalists who oppose both policies. They believe that more means worse - that only a small minority have got the brains to go on to university. They oppose vocational GCSEs and A-levels on the grounds that they will supposedly 'dumb down' the school curriculum.
It's a cosy elitism that has bedevilled and weakened our education system for more than a century. For a small, privileged minority, it means the best academic education in schools and the top universities, as good as any in the world. But for the majority, a system with no proper vocational route and second-rate opportunities.
We reject this outdated mentality. It is little more than snobbery. It has held back our nation and our people for decades. It is at the root of our low productivity and our historic class divisions.
We must ensure that the most able in our comprehensive schools get the challenge and support they need.
But at the same time, this government is undertaking a radical modernisation of the comprehensive system to raise standards, achievement and aspirations for all our young people.
This requires worthwhile qualifications for all students who put in the work - in vocational fields such as IT and engineering as much as in traditional academic subjects.
And as more succeed at school, in both academic and vocational fields or a combination of the two, we must also offer steadily greater higher education opportunities to match.
The two-year foundation degrees in vocational fields, now being piloted, have enjoyed significant take-up. By this and other routes I believe our 50 per cent target is not only attainable - it is essential if the aspirations of our young people, and the needs of the economy, are to be met in the generation ahead.
So let there be no defensiveness about our goals. On the basis of higher standards, more does not mean worse. On the contrary, expanded educational opportunities are the lifeblood of the modern economy and society we are seeking to create.
Better behaviour
Thirdly, I have seen for myself how a school's ethos and discipline can make a world of difference to standards. Yet there is no doubt that behaviour has deteriorated over the past 20 years. Parents and teachers are right to be concerned. And we are determined to act decisively.
We were the first Government to put in place a fully-funded, comprehensive programme for tackling indiscipline and disruption. We have invested over ??200 million each year since 1999 to tackle disruptive behaviour, exclusion and truancy.
From this year each school in the inner city Excellence in Cities programme will have learning mentors, people who will engage with problem children and make sure they're at class and deal with poor behaviour and learning.
From this September, all local authorities are expected to provide an extended timetable for excluded children. We have established pupil referral units in local communities specifically to deal with permanently excluded children, which will give them extended compulsory schooling. This is intensive - often one adult to three or four children. It is demanding. The LEA has the power to insist on attendance and can prosecute parents whose children fail to attend.
It is completely unacceptable that young people out of control, excluded from school, are left free to roam the streets causing misery and mayhem in local communities. These measures should be seen alongside our proposals on juvenile crime and restrictions on bail. In addition, through the new Connexions Service, there will be a far better more comprehensive range of careers and welfare advice and help given to parents and children.
These are not measures thought up in the last few days in the light of recent publicity. They have been worked on and delivered over the past five years.
Schools need to know that the Government is on their side and the community is on their side against unruly children and abusive parents.
Take truancy. As we agreed at our meeting on crime in Downing Street on Monday, we have to make greater use made of truancy sweeps where schools, the local police and councils work together to identify persistent truants and get them back to where they should be - in school.
Also, local authorities have the powers to prosecute parents and enforce parenting orders against those who, by failing to do anything about their child truanting, are colluding in it. I want to see those powers used properly to help us deal with this problem. It's the job of parents to see that their children are at school - and they are breaking the law and failing in their duty if they don't.
This is not just about education. It is about what kind of country we want to be. We see all around us the consequences if families and communities fail: disaffection, lack of respect, vandalism, drugs, violence.
And that is why, when I got together law enforcement agencies for that meeting on street crime, I didn't just ask the police, the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor, but the Ministers responsible for education, for health, for local government, for sport. Because every child denied a place in a good school is more at risk of falling into crime.
Choice
Higher standards and better discipline will both be reinforced by greater choice for parents. We want a flexible, diverse secondary system in which every school is excellent and plays to its strengths, developing its own unique character.
We know schools that develop specialisms, more flexibly designed around the needs of the pupil, can achieve higher results.
Secondary schools which are ready can now become specialist schools, and their number has already risen from 181 in 1997 to 834 last year. There will be 1,000 specialist schools by next September, and we have pledged to increase their number to at least 1,500 by 2005.
We will also broaden the range of specialisms available, for example including engineering, science and business, and enterprise.
And we are making it easier for successful schools to expand and involve external partners, including the private sector.
Conclusion
The recent authoritative international survey of education around the world put Britain in the top eight of the global league. That's a huge achievement. We hear a lot of comment running down our public services. We should be proud of our education system, our teachers and staff. There is, however, a lot more to do. We want to be the best. And we can be.
The challenge is to educate not just the top twenty or thirty per cent well but all our children.
It is a bold and radical aim. But I am confident that in time we will achieve it - because however we may sometimes disagree about tactics, it is an aim we all share.
The investment is in place. We have set out the principles for reform. Now let's work together to build the education system that our country and our children deserve.