Ministers are to reintroduce a pledge for all schools to become academies by the end of the decade, by reversing its ban on councils participating in the scheme.

Unveiling his education White Paper on Monday, Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, will announce that councils will be able to set up and run their own academy trusts, which it is hoped will encourage more primary schools to become academies.

Some 10,000 schools – fewer than half the total in England and Wales – have so far become academies since the policy was first launched two decades ago. It was designed to free schools from council control and give them greater independence over their curriculum, spending and pay.

The change is designed to encourage schools that want to maintain their links to their local councils to convert.

However Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College leaders (ASCL), said headteachers running trusts feared it could give councils control by the back door.

He said: “There have been concerns from heads running trusts: isn’t this going to take us back to the worst practices of local authorities telling schools what to do and the best innovation from academies could be lost to the system? I think it is a high political risk.”

Pledge to every parent

As a result ministers have come up with a compromise. The 19 per cent limit on the number of council representatives appointing trustees to run academy chains will be ditched, but there will still be a 19 per cent cap on the number of local authority appointed trustees running the academies.

The White Paper will also confirm plans to move schools with successive poor inspection ratings into successful chains of academies, although this is likely to affect just 155 schools. Ministers are also in talks to persuade the 4,000 church schools to join academy trusts.

All pupils in England at risk of falling behind in reading, writing and maths will be guaranteed targeted support. Under a “parental pledge,” schools will be expected to provide help such as small group tuition to bring them up to standard.

The Government aims for 90 per cent of pupils leaving primary school to meet expected standards in literacy and numeracy by 2030. In 2019, 65 per cent of pupils leaving Year 6 met this standard.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said: “Today we are making a pledge to every parent – if your child falls behind at school in either of these key subjects, their school will help them get back on track.”

Help from a tutor

The government will promise up to 6 million tutoring courses by 2024, with the aim to make it a permanent feature of the state school system, similar to the opportunities already provided by many better-off parents.

A second ambition for secondary schools aims to see the national average GCSE grade in both English language and maths increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by 2030.

A minimum standard length for the school week will be set, with all schools required to have a week of at least 32.5 hours’ length by September 2023.

By 2025, Ofsted will inspect every school, including a backlog of those previously rated “outstanding”, some of which have not been inspected for years.

There will be a new register for children not in school to make sure no pupil is lost from the system amid claims that as many as 100,000 did not return to mainstream education after the pandemic.

Every school should also get access to funded training for a senior mental health lead to deliver a whole school approach to health and wellbeing.

Excellence for every child must be the expectation, not the exception

By Nadhim Zahawi

All parents are united in their desire to do the best for their children, for their futures and the lives they might lead.

As Education Secretary it’s my job to make those dreams a reality, to make sure every single child goes on to fulfil their potential. And it starts with a world-class education.

We have already made huge progress since we started transforming the education system in this country. The number of children in a good or outstanding school, for instance, has risen from 68% to 86% since we returned to Government in 2010.

But I am not content as there are still a number who are not getting the quality start in life they deserve.

Our Schools White Paper sets out a very clear roadmap of how we are going to upscale our focus on delivering for the next generation. It is levelling up in action.

By 2030, I want nine in 10 primary school children to achieve the agreed standard in their reading, writing and maths, up from 65 per cent in 2019.

In secondary schools, I would like to see the average grade in both English language and in maths GCSE increase from 4.5 in 2019 to five. This would mean thousands of pupils getting better GCSE grades by 2030.

I am not the first Education Secretary to have ambitious plans for our nation’s schools, but I’m the first to make a Parents Pledge. This is a commitment to all parents and children.

We will make sure that every school steps in to support any child who falls behind in English or maths, helping them make better and faster progress. And if additional support is needed, the school keep parents informed about what measures are being taken to help their child reach their potential.

It could mean tutoring – previously only available to a minority, but now freely accessible to those who need it most – or other interventions that are backed up by evidence that they work.

The point is that support that is right for a child will be available when they need it.

Literacy and numeracy skills are vital for children’s education and future job opportunities. By boosting the average GCSE grade in English language and maths it shows our determination to see all children, whatever their level of attainment, do better. A child who goes from a grade 2 to a grade 3 or grade 8 to grade 9 contributes to this ambition as much as a child who goes up from grade 4 to 5.

We also want to improve attendance, behaviour and the curriculum, ensuring all children are in school and ready to learn in calm, safe and supportive classes.

We are going to set up a new national curriculum body that will provide every teacher in the country with a bank of the very best lesson plans and teaching resources, helping them to save time and making sure every school has access to the highest quality resources.

We will also introduce a minimum expectation for the length of the school week, of 32.5 hours – the equivalent of 8.45am to 3.15pm every day – for all mainstream state-funded schools. Thousands of schools already deliver this – indeed it is the national average, but there are still too many that do not.

There is nothing fair about a child getting, say, 20 minutes less teaching per day, less time for music, less time for sport. That 20 minutes adds up to a huge learning disadvantage over the course of a year.

Later on this week we will be spelling out in more detail how we will deliver for those who need more help to make the most of their potential, in our review of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

My mission as Education Secretary is clear: to give every child an outstanding education. Excellence for every child must be the expectation, not the exception. This White Paper will help us to make that vision a reality.