Schools white paper to include maths and English targets

Targets to drive up maths and English standards in schools in England will be set out by the government later.

By 2030, ministers want 90% of children leaving primary school to reach the expected standards in reading, writing and maths. In 2019, the figure was 65%.

At GCSE level, the government wants the national mean average of all grades to rise from 4.5 to 5 - a "strong pass" between the former B and C grades.

Unions and charities say the plans could fail to help the poorest pupils.

The new targets are for the whole of England, rather than for each individual school, and will be set out in full in plans for updated legislation on Monday.

The ambition includes pupils identified as having a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND).

UK Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, whose brief covers schools in England, said any pupil falling behind in maths or English would receive help.

"Unless you've got the foundations right, it becomes much tougher in secondary school," he said.

"It's not about more pressure on the children. It's about more support," Mr Zahawi said.

"If a child has fallen behind, the teacher will support that child, and engage with the parents to explain to them exactly what support they are putting in."

Education has been badly disrupted by coronavirus lockdowns and classroom closures during the past two years.

Research for the government by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) suggested the pandemic had left primary pupils behind the level they might previously have achieved by an average of 3.5 months in maths and 2.2 months in reading.

It identified significant regional variation in learning loss as a result of the pandemic, with northern England and the Midlands worst affected.

The most disadvantaged pupils also fell further behind, widening a gap with their better off peers that had been narrowing before the pandemic.

Mr Zahawi said the government would fulfil its promise of offering six million tutoring courses by 2024 to help pupils catch up, using the National Tutoring Programme.

He recently diverted money away from a contract with private company Randstad, which has been failing to meet programme targets to match tutoring agencies to schools, to instead allow schools to bid directly for a subsidy for tutoring.

But EPI chief executive Natalie Perera said it was unlikely the government's pledges would be met.

"Our analysis shows that the government's catch-up programme is not well funded enough to make good these learning losses, and get the disadvantage gap closing again," she said.

The government has committed £5bn to education recovery in England - about a third of the sum recommended by Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned as the prime minister's adviser in protest.

But the Association of School and College Leaders argues schools already identify children who fall behind.

General secretary Geoff Barton said: "Focusing so intensely on English and maths, important as those subjects are, is also a very narrow view of education. A truly ambitious white paper should have great ambition for the whole curriculum."

There has been a Church of England primary school in the Herefordshire village of Cradley for 150 years.

Head teacher Donna Jones said, like many small rural schools, Cradley Primary had not become part of an academy group for fear of losing autonomy and the connection to the local community.

In the year 6 classroom at the 132-pupil school, children were confidently shouting out solutions to a series of maths questions.

At the bottom of the field, younger children were helping make a small fire as part of forest school - one of the many practical and creative activities the school offers

Mrs Jones said while the core academic subjects were important, the school wanted to maintain a balance for the children.

"The standard that children are expected to get to at the end of Year 6 has been raised quite recently. So they are already working at a level higher than 10 years ago," she said.

While the government is pitching its plans directly to parents, academic achievement was not the priority of everyone at the school gates.

"There's so much for them to learn. Primary school should be a time for them to enjoy life because they've got many years ahead of them for exams," said one parent, Claire Griffiths.

Another, Edwina Stevens added: "I do worry about the amount of anxiety children are going through after the pandemic. And not everyone is academic. I've got one child who is really academic and one no quite so academic. You just want them to be happy."

Under the government's plans, all schools in England will be told they should be part of a group of academy schools, or in the process of joining a multi-academy trust, by 2030.

Academy schools are state-funded directly by government and run independently from local councils.

At the moment, 39% of all schools in England are academies. Because more of them are secondaries, it means academies are attended by 52% of all pupils.

Where there is no good alternative the government will allow councils to create a multi-academy trust to include schools.

Local authorities would like a further step so they can take on schools that no-one wants. Known as orphan schools, they often have historic debts from private finance initiatives, which involved investors funding redevelopment work in exchange for an annual fee paid back over decades.

Labour said helping every child develop good reading, writing and maths skills should not be an "add-on".

The government was "distracting from the business of teaching with yet more tinkering with school structures", added education spokeswoman Bridget Phillipson.

Munira Wilson, for the Liberal Democrats, described the white paper as "half-baked" and lacking ambition or imagination, adding: "Children need more catch-up funding, not more upheaval."