Lord Agnew Schools North East speech
Schools Minister, Lord Agnew, spoke at the Schools North East summit about the Opportunity North East programme on Thursday 10 October.
Good morning and thank you for your kind invitation to speak at one of the biggest education events in your region.
It바카라 사이트檚 great to be at the Schools North East summit. Twelve years after a group of head teachers first got together to create what is still, unbelievably, the only UK regional network of schools.
I바카라 사이트檓 no-one바카라 사이트檚 idea of a die-hard football fan, but St James바카라 사이트� Park is one of the oldest grounds in the world. It바카라 사이트檚 part of our national heritage.
My local team is actually Norwich City, and it just so happens that the last time we played Newcastle, back in August, the heroic Canaries won 3-1. Sadly not a performance they바카라 사이트檝e managed to maintain 바카라 사이트� I was at the Aston Villa game on Saturday where they were thrashed 5-1.
Today I want to talk about a project that many of us in this room have been working on for the past twelve months. One year ago, almost to the day, the Department for Education launched Opportunity North East 바카라 사이트� a 拢24 million programme to improve education and employment outcomes for the young people of the region.
When we launched the programme, we knew the North East faced some unique challenges.
Of all the regions, the North East has consistently had the lowest proportion of young people in good and outstanding secondary schools. Fewer 18-year-olds from the North East attend the country바카라 사이트檚 top universities when compared to any other region. It lags behind others in terms of securing a sustained destination, like education or employment, after GCSE age.
There are too many education measures on which the North East is listed ninth in the list of nine English regions. Of course, everyone in this room will know the real picture isn바카라 사이트檛 so black and white. In fact, the North East has some of the best performing primary schools in the country. Children in the region can expect a great start.
But when they move from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3, something seems to change바카라 사이트攕omething that leaves many, particularly the most disadvantaged, struggling to keep up with their peers elsewhere. It seems the gulf between the primary and secondary curricula is too wide for some young pupils.
Whatever the source of the problem, Opportunity North East was launched in part to tackle this very issue. That was challenge number one, which I바카라 사이트檒l return to later. But there are others.
After talking with key stakeholders in the region and analysing the data, we identified four more challenges that Opportunity North East aims to address.
We need to unlock the potential of young people in 30 of our secondary schools. We need to boost teacher recruitment, retention and development. We want to help far more young people find a pathway to a good job. And finally, we want to see many more young people progress to high quality higher education.
A year on, how are we doing?
The first thing we did was put together a strategic board made up of regional stakeholders who are passionate about the aims of Opportunity North East. Partners from schools, local enterprise partnerships, local authorities, further education, universities, businesses and Schools North East 바카라 사이트� all are on the board, and are proof of the regional collaboration driving this project.
In March, we launched the ONE Vision Schools programme바카라 사이트攁 three-year investment involving 28 secondary schools across the North East. Each of these schools currently needs support and are committed to improving; our aim is to help them become good schools.
Those ONE Vision schools include Newcastle바카라 사이트檚 own Kenton School. There바카라 사이트檚 also Polam Hall School in Darlington, originally founded as a Quaker 바카라 사이트榝inishing school바카라 사이트� for girls, and Durham바카라 사이트檚 Tanfield School, where England women바카라 사이트檚 football goalkeeper Carly Telford was educated.
Each school has been matched with a high-performing school leader who will work with the head teacher to help diagnose the most pressing priorities, and develop a bespoke improvement plan. This includes all our ONE Vision schools, to fund professional development for up to four governors from each school.
Finally, through our analysis of need, we바카라 사이트檝e identified over 拢5 million of savings for those schools to work on. All of our ONE Vision schools have great potential. They just need help unlocking it.
Moving back to another core challenge, in the past year we바카라 사이트檝e been talking to all the experts 바카라 사이트揾ead teachers, charities like the SHINE Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation, and to Schools North East 바카라 사이트� to find out why so many children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, find the jump from primary to secondary school such a struggle.
As part of that conversation, we invited the region바카라 사이트檚 schools, trusts and local authorities to put forward their own proposals to better support pupils as they move from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3. The purpose of this project was to fund those we think could have the greatest positive impact for children.
By July, we had received some 32 draft proposals from local schools, trusts and authorities. By early next year, we will begin funding a handful, monitoring pupils as they move through the first three years of secondary school. In the summer, we also hosted an information event where teachers, school leaders and local officials got together to hear examples of what was working outside the region.
The event was so popular, we couldn바카라 사이트檛 fit everyone in the room and had to hold a second event a week later. Blackpool is a case in point. As part of its own Opportunity Area programme, it has been trialling a special town-wide 바카라 사이트渢ransition week바카라 사이트� involving all Blackpool primary and secondary schools.
Young pupils are offered taster lessons to calm those back-to-school nerves, while heads from both primary and secondary schools work together on curriculum planning. As a result, pupils in Blackpool are already showing improved progress in Year 7 and Year 8바카라 사이트攖he so-called 바카라 사이트渓ost years바카라 사이트� for too many disadvantaged pupils.
I also want to highlight a third and final piece of work. In the past year we바카라 사이트檝e been working to help send more young people in the North East to the country바카라 사이트檚 most selective universities, based on an approach developed by the Elephant Group. Formed by a collection of London head teachers, the Elephant Group바카라 사이트檚 mission is to ensure that the top third of non-selective state school pupils get to attend the top third universities.
The Elephant Group is piloting a participation programme for sixth formers in parts of England바카라 사이트攈elping them with their university applications and prepping them for admissions tests. We바카라 사이트檝e been working with local schools to bring the Elephant Group바카라 사이트檚 ongoing pilot to the North East, and will be holding an information session next month at Cardinal Hulme Catholic School to target help where it is most needed.
We바카라 사이트檙e also looking at introducing 바카라 사이트渘udge바카라 사이트� methods, such as undergraduates writing letters to sixth formers and other young people from similar backgrounds, sharing their university stories and inspiring them to join them. After all, Durham is already home to one of the best universities in the country.
Why shouldn바카라 사이트檛 young people who were born down the road from it go there바카라 사이트攐r to Cambridge or Oxford or Bath for that matter? That바카라 사이트檚 the story of Opportunity North East so far. But it바카라 사이트檚 part of a wider story바카라 사이트攐ne that affects schools across the country.
Over the next three years 拢14 billion of additional funding is going into the school system. Plus a pension funding increase of 拢4.5 billion 바카라 사이트� by some measures the biggest one-off boast to education funding for 15 years. We are also rolling out T Levels, the new gold standard in technical education.
Some 50 providers across the country will deliver the first T Levels from 2020바카라 사이트攊ncluding four from the North East: Durham Sixth Form Centre, Gateshead College, New College Durham and St Thomas Moore Catholic School.
We바카라 사이트檙e expanding the free schools programme with the aim of creating thousands of good school places across the country. And there are many successful ones in the area already. One example is Wynyard Church of England primary school in Stockton-On-Tees. The school, which opened in 2015, achieved an outstanding Ofsted Judgement in April 2018 whilst still in temporary accommodation.
Finally, we바카라 사이트檙e rolling out a fully-funded, two-year package of training and support for early career teachers, to help recruit and retain the best and the brightest. In fact, as part of Opportunity North East, teachers here get access to this programme a year early. This gives them access to high-quality training, a trained mentor, and time off their teaching timetable to focus on their own personal development.
None of this would amount to anything, of course, without the hard work you all put in, day in, day out. I바카라 사이트檝e been an education minister for two years and have worked closely with trusts for nearly nine years.
Throughout that time I바카라 사이트檝e never failed to be impressed by the dedication and passion you all bring to our educational institutions, in the face of many and varied challenges.
The best way to overcome those challenges is to work together, which is why collaboration is at the heart of Opportunity North East. This is a unique region. It stretches from coastal towns to rural hamlets, with every kind of school dotting its landscape.
We need your local expertise바카라 사이트攖he hard-won knowledge of local authorities, enterprise partnerships, colleges, universities, businesses, schools바카라 사이트攕o that we make the changes that work for you, not for us.
This is part of the government바카라 사이트檚 broader plan to fire up the Northern Powerhouse; to increase productivity across the region. by giving the North more control. At the heart of that goal is improving education right here, from the schools near St James바카라 사이트� Park to every corner of the North East.
As you all know, achieving that aim isn바카라 사이트檛 a question of talent바카라 사이트攖he region is full of it. It바카라 사이트檚 a question of opportunity.
Thank you.