https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... fe-chancesPrime Minister's speech on life chances
David Cameron delivered his speech on life chances, explaining how the government intends to transform the lives of the poorest in Britain.
This even includes a mention of 'phonics'!
Education
Now if families fail, it is even more critical that schools do not – and that of course is the second part of our strategy.
When a child has had a difficult start, what could they need more than a place of sanctuary, warmth, challenge, escape, liberation and discovery?
Now if they’re lucky, they can find it in an outstanding school with dedicated, inspiring teachers.
So what we need to take ‘luck’ right out of the equation.
That’s what our reforms have been all about – bringing the best schools to some of our most deprived neighbourhoods, as well as bringing real rigour – like phonics – back into the classroom. I remember the battle we had to get phonics taken up, it reached something of an apogean success for me when picking my 5 year old up from school and I was actually told by the teacher, do more phonics practice at half term, and I thought, yes, this reform really is fully embedded in our country.
But there are, today 1.3 million more children in good or outstanding schools today, compared with 2010.
Over the coming weeks, I will set out in more detail our second term education reform agenda.
But let me explain some of the thinking that will underpin it and how, in particular, we want to help the most disadvantaged children.
We now understand far more than we used to about how we take in information and learn, what it takes to be a great reader and even be creative.
Much of the answer is knowledge; we understand new information in the context of what we already hold.
As Kahneman, Daniel Willingham and others have described, the more information is stored in our long term memory the better our processing power – our working memory – can be employed.
It is by knowing the past that we can invent the future.
That’s why it is so absurd to call a knowledge–based curriculum ‘traditional’.
It is utterly cutting edge – because it takes real notice of the great advances in our understanding of the last few decades.
Dismissing knowledge is frankly dismissing the life chances of our children and that is exactly what people like the General Secretary of the NUT are doing when they say, as she did last weekend, that children don’t need to learn their times tables because they can use their phone instead. That is utterly the wrong thinking.
All the things knowledge helps infuse – innovation, creativity, problem solving – are the qualities our employers want.
That is why the Ebacc – which puts the core subjects of English, maths, science, history and geography at the centre of what students learn is such a massive move for social justice.
It will give every the vast majority of children – not just the wealthy – the education that gives them the opportunity for great jobs.
We also understand something else.
Character – persistence – is core to success.
As Carol Dweck has shown in her work at Stanford, no matter how clever you are if you do not believe in continued hard work and concentration, and if you do not believe that you can return from failure you will not fulfil your potential.
It is what the Tiger Mother’s battle hymn is all about: work, try hard, believe you can succeed, get up and try again.
It is if you like, the precise opposite of an ‘all must have prizes’ culture that permeated our schools under the last government.
Put simply: children thrive on high expectations: it is how they grow in school and beyond.
Now for too long this has been the preserve of the most elite schools.
I want to spread this to everyone.
So as we reform education further, we’ll develop new character modules so that all heads are exposed to what the very best schools do.
We’ll learn from new schools like the Floreat primary schools in Southall and Brent that will teach character virtues like curiosity, honesty, perseverance and service.
We’ll commission great trainers, teachers and youth workers to share and create materials, and make sure they are available to every school in the country.
We’ll also do more on sport – one of the extra-curricular activities most associated with high academic achievement.
Our new sports strategy extends Sport England’s remit to cover 5 year olds and upwards, meaning more children taking part in sport – and experiencing the highs and let’s be frank, often lows of competition – inside school and out.
And when it comes to formative experiences that build character, there can be few more powerful examples than National Citizen Service.
NCS is becoming a rite of passage for teenagers all over Britain, helping them mix with people from different backgrounds and learn to work together – pushing themselves further than they ever thought possible.
NCS is about showing young people the power of public service, and not just self-service.
And I can make a major announcement on this today: we are going to provide over a billion pounds for NCS over the next 4 years meaning that by 2021, NCS will cover 60% of all 16 year olds.
It will become the largest programme of its kind in Europe.
And to get there, we’ll now expect schools to give every pupil the opportunity to take part, and tie NCS into the national curriculum.
This is a significant investment in future generations – and because it will help build a stronger, more integrated and more cohesive society, it is one I believe will make us all very proud.