200 failing primaries academies in a bid to improve standards

Education Secretary Michael Gove says this will force schools which have failed to get their pupils to expected levels in maths and English to improve.


The new academies, taken out of local authority control, will be run by more successful local schools.


Another 500 will be told they have three years to improve their standards.


On Wednesday it was revealed Mr Gove wants secondary schools to secure five good GCSEs for at least 50% of pupils.


At present a school is assessed as under-performing if fewer than 35% of pupils get five GCSEs at grades A* to C, including maths and English.


In an address to the annual conference of the National College for School Leadership in Birmingham, Mr Gove is expected to say there is no excuse for failure.


The poorest-performing 200 schools will include those which have failed for five years to meet targets for 11-year-olds in maths and English.


Mr Gove told the BBC it was time to turn the focus on primary schools.


"We can't have a situation where young children are arriving at the age of 11 at secondary schools not secure in English and mathematics.


"That's why we need rapid action to deal with the very worst primary schools.


Under Labour, only secondary schools could become academies – independent state schools free from local authority control.
But Mr Gove will say the weakest 200 primary schools in the country will become academies next year.
Local authorities with particularly large numbers of struggling primary schools will be identified for ‘urgent collaboration’ with the Department of Education to tackle 500 more.
There are around 1,400 primary schools below the primary ‘minimum floor standard’ – meaning less than 60 per cent of the children reaching even a basic level in English and maths at age 11.
Of these, about 500 have been below par for two or three of the past four years. A further 200 have been below the minimum standard for the past five years.
Figures show around four out of ten pupils still fail to master the basics of English and maths by the time they start secondary school.
Competition among parents for places at the best primaries, meanwhile, is intense.
Speaking to head teachers at the National College for School Leadership, Mr Gove will criticise the ‘low expectations culture’ in some schools.
He is set to say Britain risks losing ground to rapidly-developing economies in Asia unless the pace of improvement in the education system is accelerated.