Tag: Speeches

Below is the text of the speech made by David Miliband on 15th July 2008 at the Foreign Office and the UK/Caribbean Ministerial Forum.

Well good evening everyone. A very, very warm welcome to you all to the Foreign Office. This is the Locarno room, where the Peace Treaty of Locarno was signed just after the First World War. So you are extremely welcome here.

I especially want to welcome obviously the leaders from 10 friends in the Caribbean, ten countries who are deep and long-standing allies, and who are here for the UK-Caribbean Forum.

I also want to introduce my friend and colleague Meg Munn, whose ministerial duties include the countries that are represented in the Caribbean forum, and also Gareth Thomas, who is Minister for Trade.

Though distinguished are all of those visitors, I hope all of you will understand if I single out a different group for mention tonight, because we have representatives here from the Windrush generation.

I think we all know that the word “Windrush” has entered the British lexicon, the British vocabulary, in a very, very profound way. The Windrush generation are an inspiration, an example, a set of leaders for values and commitments that I think are very important for the whole of British society, and it’s important the week after we have celebrated the 60th anniversary of the National Health Service to remember the contribution of the Windrush generation and their successors to the whole history of the National Health Service. Actually, I think you can make the case that the strength – and the enduring strength – of the National Health Service in part owes to what those generations did at all levels of the Health Service in the 1950s and 1960s and beyond.

And that is a symbol of a commitment right across British society. The 800,000 Britons of Caribbean origin, Caribbean heritage – some are ministers, some are lawyers, some are parents, and teachers in schools – they are all massive contributors to our society, and the enduring link that exists between our governments is only, in a way, possible because of the people-to-people links that join us together, so I hope you’ll excuse me if I give a special welcome to them here.

That generation I think helped to shape me. I went to a school in inner London where 64 different languages were spoken – people came from a whole range of backgrounds. And I’m proud that we’ve become a society that’s better not just at promoting “tolerance”, which is a very minimalist way of thinking about other human beings, but actually at promoting respect and welcome for the benefits that diversity brings. There’s still a way to go, but we’ve come a long way and I think it’s important to recognise that.

It’s also important to say I’m really delighted that the Secretary General of the Commonwealth is here – the new Secretary General of the Commonwealth – Kamalesh Sharma, formerly the very distinguished Indian High Commissioner in London, now taken off his post as High Commissioner, and so I hope you’ll all be lobbying him as well tonight.

We’ve got two days of really serious work ahead of us. And I think at the heart of our discussions – we’re going to have detailed discussions about a whole range of issues – but I think at the heart of our discussions is the question of how we take our relationship to a new dimension.

We know the relationship we used to have, we know the relationship we’ve got, I think our challenge over the next two days is to map out our relationship for the future that is based on shared values, and I do want to applaud the statement of CARICOM only in the last few days about the situation in Zimbabwe, because the situation in that country is a challenge to all of our values.

This has got to be a community of values but it can also be a community of interests, and we’re going to talking over the next few days about crime and security, which is a massive issue in your countries but also a massive issue in our country. We’re going to be talking about food security, and food affordability, which are issues in both of our countries.

We’ll also be talking about something which probably wouldn’t have appeared on our agenda five or ten years ago – certainly it wasn’t on the agenda at the first meeting in Nassau in 1998 – which is the issue of climate change.

Because some of you are able to talk about the challenge of climate change as a reality and not as a theory. And that I think is something that is very important in helping the world wake up to the challenges that it faces.

I think it’s important that we’re honest about the fact that our relationship is changing and it’s changing because circumstances are changing, but I think it can be as strong as ever, not just at a government-to-government level, but also at a business level, which is why the trade round is so important, and at a people-to-people level, because in a way the people-to-people links are growing – obviously tourism – but they are also growing through the contribution of people of Caribbean heritage to our country and the links that they have back to the Caribbean. And I hope that’s something that we can in the next couple of days build on.

One of my favourite poems is a poem with the title “Roots and Wings” and it’s about how community is really important to people . If you don’t have deep roots you don’t have security. But it’s also about the fact that on their own, roots are not enough. The purpose of a decent society is to help individuals grow wings to be able to see the world, to engage with all the challenges and opportunities that the world has got. And in a way I hope that that notion – strong roots, strong wings – will really inspire us over the next few days. The meetings that we’ll have with a range of ministers, and also with the prime minister, I think will give us a chance to map the way for a confident and strong future between Britain as a whole as well as the British government and the countries and people of the Caribbean.

And on that note, I can think of no better person to second this word of welcome and introduction than Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister as well, of Antigua, a man whom I now know from having met him first of all in November in Uganda, a man who has links to the Miliband family that I didn’t know about.

This isn’t an unknown part of my heritage that I’m about to reveal, but Baldwin had – I would say the good fortune – but he had the fortune to be a student of my father’s while he was a student in the UK and that brought home to me that while our countries can seem a long way apart there are actually more meeting points than many of us realise.

Baldwin , you are co-chairing the forum over the next couple of days. You’re extremely welcome to the Foreign Office as a friend of Britain as well as a friend of the Milibands and I am merely the appetiser for your main speech tonight.

So on that note, welcome to the UK-Caribbean forum, thank you for coming tonight and please give a warm welcome to Baldwin Spencer. Thank you very much.

Below is the text of the speech made by the then Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, at the University of South Africa on 7th July 2008.

This is my first visit to South Africa as Foreign Secretary and I’m delighted to be here at the University of South Africa.  The purpose of my visit is simple: to recommit Britain to support the next steps in South Africa’s progress and to lay the foundations for government, business and civil society from our two countries to work together in the future.

For my generation, not just in Africa, but around the world, South Africa’s journey to freedom will always be an inspiration. A fortnight ago, the celebration of Nelson Mandela’s birthday in London was an opportunity for the whole world to honour a man and a struggle that has come to represent the very best to which humanity can aspire.

Today, as I have already seen in Alexandra township, the challenges seem to multiply as the enemies of progress become more complex. The aspiration is simple. As Nelson Mandela once said “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”.

That demand for respect and freedom is at the heart of the UK government’s approach to domestic and international policy. At home, we seek to spread opportunity, redistribute power, and strengthen security. Abroad, we seek to use all the UK’s assets to help every nation build the democratic accountability and human security on which true stability is based.

In my speech today, I want to talk about how we apply those values to a world where the balance of power within and between states is shifting.

Around the world, there is what I call ‘a civilian surge’.  Power is moving downwards, as people demand more rights, more protection, and more accountability. Whether it is monks protesting on the streets of Burma, Iranian bloggers voicing their opposition online, or voters in Pakistan defying terrorist attacks, people are showing they have the will and capacity to take back their freedom.

Power is shifting upwards too. Trade, climate change, and terrorism cannot be addressed by any single nation. So together, countries are working out shared rules and developing shared institutions, whether regional like the EU and AU, or global.

And power is moving across from West to East, as India and China become global players, both economically and politically. By 2020 it is estimated that Asia will account for 45% of global GDP and one third of global trade. Its military spending will have grown by a quarter and its energy demand by 60%.  No wonder some call it the ‘Asian century’.

Change always brings uncertainty and instability. But my view is that the power to do good in the world is greater than ever before. Rising literacy, the availability of mobile phones and the internet, and the spread of democracy, for all its faltering progress, promises to liberate. But the old ideologies of foreign policy – balance of power, non-interventionism – don’t address the real issues. Today, I want to sketch out how we might do so.

Power Shifting Downwards

Over the last thirty years, we have seen what some describe as the ‘third wave of democracy’. Across central and eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and much of Africa, democratic accountability has replaced authoritarianism.

Yet today, there is a pause in the democratic advance. In some countries, democratic advances have been reversed, in others, authoritarian regimes have been resilient to civilian protest.

Some argue that this proves that democracy is not suitable for countries with under-developed economies or deep tribal divisions. Or that democracy is merely a western aspiration.  It follows from both of these assertions that countries should not interfere in other countries’ struggles for democracy.

I disagree. I believe that democracy is a universal aspiration. 9 out of 10 Africans say they want to live in a democracy. Already this year we’ve seen in Kenya and Zimbabwe the determination of ordinary Africans to make their voice heard.   When people are fighting for democracy, democratic governments should support them. Why? Not just out of moral duty. Democracies are also more likely to respect human rights, more likely to support open trade, and less likely to go to war.

The question I believe we should focus on is not whether to support democracy, but what forms of democracy work in countries with weak states, ethnic divisions, and fragile economies.

Democracy is, in my view, often defined too narrowly.   Free and fair elections are the most basic demand. But elections without a functioning state, without buttressing institutions within civil society, are of limited value.

Rather than back individuals, we must support the institutions that provide checks and balances on the concentration of power.

In Tanzania, the Prime Minister resigned because of Parliamentary pressure over allegations of involvement in corruption deals.

In Sierra Leone, the electoral commission played a critical role in preventing corruption in the elections last summer. As a result,    people have confidence that the results are fair.

In the DRC, South Africa has been providing support for policing, the judiciary, and civil service. This is critical to ensuring the state is able to enforce the rule of law, raise tax, and spend money effectively and without corruption.

I’ll talk in more detail later about Zimbabwe, but let me just add here the example of Zimbabwe, where in the first round of the Presidential elections, monitors armed with satellite and mobile phones were able to publish results independently on the web. Bloggers and others ensured the world knew exactly what was going on, as the Mugabe government unleashed a campaign of violence and censorship against its opponents.

The common theme here it is that we need constitutions and institutions that disperse power, rather than concentrate it.  For example, in Kenya the winner-takes-all approach with highly centralised and strong presidential power is problematic in an ethnically divided country. Constitutional reform to share power more evenly is now being tested with the formation of a coalition government and a new office of prime minister.

The most difficult argument against promoting democracy is that democracy has to be home-grown. It is neither legitimate nor effective when promoted by outsiders.  However, I believe there are practical things that all governments can and must do to support democracy.

First, we can use our aid budgets to support accountability and help support state institutions and civil society.  Across Africa, the UK is investing in bodies such as the judiciary, Parliaments and Ombudsmen. For example, since 2001, our Department for International Development has provided nearly £4.5 million to the Malawian Parliament.  In Kenya’s Rift Valley, we are working through local NGOs to bring together diverse communities and help them resolve their differences peacefully. And in Liberia, thanks to the BBC World Service Trust, which my department helps fund, 70% of Liberians are now following Charles Taylor’s trial in The Hague.

Second, trade can be used not just to drive economic growth but also to nurture social and political modernisation. That is why the “Everything but Arms” system and the EPAs are so important, offering duty free, quota free access to EU markets. It is why Aid for Trade is a central plank of our development agenda, and it is why we are pushing hard – including within the EU – for a new global trade deal to give all developing countries better access to global markets.

Third, we can deploy robust diplomacy. Where the international community through the United Nations is united in its condemnation of a regime, where it is prepared to support that with targeted sanctions against and where it is prepared to play an active role in mediation, we can undermine the legitimacy and viability of authoritarian regimes.

Fourth, in countries suffering from conflict, troops may be needed to provide the security that is the platform for re-establishing democratic government. Where possible, in Africa, troops should come from African countries.

But, in some situations, international support will be needed. In Sierra Leone, seven years ago the UK intervened to defeat rebel forces and restore the democratically elected government of Tejan Kabbah. Since then our troops have continued to work alongside the country’s own armed forces, ensuring adequate security for last year’s successful elections.

Power Shifting Upwards

If states are increasingly under-pressure to become accountable downwards to citizens, they are also having to increasingly cooperate regionally.

This continent is scarred by problems that have spread across national borders.

A conflict that began with the Rwandan genocide engulfed the entire Great Lakes Region, and now the fighting in Darfur has contributed to instability in Chad. Over two and a half million Africans have fled their homelands, seeking refuge from war or famine.  Malaria still kills a child every thirty seconds. And of course this continent is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

The basic public goods we used to be able to count on getting from the nation state, in particular, security and health, are hard to provide by nation-states alone.

It was such problems – economic depression, refugees and war – that spurred the creation of the European Union after the Second World War. Force gave way to politics. Common markets can replace military conflict with trade. And nations can come together to manage their problems collectively, rather than let them tear them apart.

I’m not suggesting this can be replicated everywhere, but Europe has shown that by pooling resources and sharing political power you can replace centuries of conflict with security and prosperity.

That is why I was interested to hear the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, trumpet the EU as a potential model for cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. And it is why, in my view, the African Union, launched here in South Africa, is one of the most important developments on this continent in recent years.

Having replaced the old OAU principle of “non-interference” in other states’ affairs with one of “non-indifference”, in the last seven years the AU has played a major role in restoring peace to Burundi, and deployed peacekeeping missions in both Sudan and Somalia while the rest of the world sat on the sidelines.  The AU’s Peer Review Mechanism is a groundbreaking initiative to encourage countries to seek support and advice from each other on governance.

I believe that the EU and the AU are natural partners.  I want to see them working together in three key areas:

The first is conflict.

In 2003 the EU deployment in Ituri, North-eastern Congo, helped to prevent the bloodbath that many were predicting and allowed the UN time to reinforce and reconfigure its peacekeeping mission. And of course 3,000 EU troops are today trying to stabilise eastern Chad.

But our aim for the longer-term is to build African capacity to prevent conflict and respond to crises, rather than try to fill gaps ourselves. This is why the EU is spending 300m euros over the next three years on all aspect of AU peace and security capacity.

And it is why we in the UK are supporting the creation of the African Stand-by force, which involves training 12,000 peacekeepers.

Over the next two decades, Africans should start to take over from the UN as the primary source for conflict prevention and resolution on this continent.

The second area is energy. With the world’s largest desert in the Sahara, Africa has huge solar power potential.

The proposed Grand Inga hydroelectric project on the Congo River in DRC could bring power for the first time to 500 million Africans.

Through the Emissions Trading Scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism the EU could help provide the financial transfers that Africa needs to make this a reality and to bypass the high-carbon stage of industrialisation.

If African countries work together to tap new sources, in twenty years many more states could be exporting rather than importing energy.

Higher global energy prices should be lifting Africans out of poverty, not pushing them further into desperation.  And for Europe this means a new, green energy supply right on its southern doorstep.

Third is development. Rising food prices are forcing Africans to cut back on education and healthcare, and sell off livestock in order to eat. The EU, as the world’s largest aid donor, and the world’s largest single market, can play a big role.

Malawi has shown that by subsidising fertilisers and agricultural inputs it is possible to double agricultural productivity in just twelve months.

For larger scale agriculture, we need more progress on reducing agricultural tariffs and subsidies.

If we can secure a global trade deal to liberalise global agricultural markets, in ten years time Africa could be not only feeding itself, but also exporting agricultural produce and helping to dampen food prices throughout the world.

Power Shifting Eastwards

When it comes to trade and development, Africa’s dominant relationship has historically been with Europe and America. But with the rise of China and India, and the resurgence of Russia, economic and political power is becoming more fragmented.

China is set to become Africa’s biggest trade partner, overtaking the US in 2010.  Japan is doubling its aid and Russia is committed to cancelling over $11bn of bilateral debt.

Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are now the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, with 25,000 troops stations around the continent.

This is a major opportunity for Africa. Money flowing into Africa from the commodity boom far outstrips money from aid. Chinese investment in infrastructure – in the roads and railway networks that are the spine of any developing economy – has already matched that of the whole OECD combined.

In Mozambique for instance Chinese firms have helped repair 600km of road.

Low-priced Asian goods mean more Africans can afford mobile phones or motorbikes. India is working to narrow Africa’s “digital divide”, funding a Pan-African E-network to give more Africans access to the internet.

As African countries are being courted by investors around the world, they can become more demanding in their negotiations.

But the risk is that history repeats itself: a commodity boom enriches the few, stunts the diversification of the economy, and leads to poor governance, with rulers accountable to foreign interests, rather than to their people.

That is why I believe we need to forge a consensus on what I call ‘responsible sovereignty’.

In an interdependent world, all nations, both existing and emerging powers, have to act responsibility towards each other. They must show respect for democracy. They must support good governance. They must work to eradicate poverty, and tackle climate change.

These high standards also apply to companies and countries that wish to invest in Africa.  We need transparency about business relationships and about where the money from the commodities boom is going.

Unless states act responsibly, they can face a backlash. It may come from financial markets or it may come from the people. It is interesting that in the last Zambian election, the threat by one opposition candidate to expel all Chinese labourers – however much we might deplore it – spoke to a widespread feeling in the country that that some Chinese firms were not fully respecting local labour law.

Zimbabwe

And that brings me to Zimbabwe, where the power shifts I have described and the great challenges we face – come together.

Britain has long and historical links with Zimbabwe. I have never believed that the rights and wrongs of our history should prevent us from speaking clearly and frankly about the situation today. Robert Mugabe’s misrule does not invalidate the struggle for independence; our colonial history does not mean we cannot denounce what is wrong. The test, at all times, should be whether our commitment and action can help the people of Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe was once a liberator. His struggle for independence in the 1970s earned him a place in the history books.

But politicians in democracies must answer to the people not once, or twice but continually, in regular, free and fair elections.

Today, Robert Mugabe is refusing that most basic of tests. He has turned the weapons of the state against his own people.

On 29 March Zimbabwe’s people voted – in huge numbers – for change.  But the man who was once the people’s President, has shown that he is no longer listening.

Worse, he is so determined to cling on to power that he has unleashed a campaign of unchecked brutality against his own people. Three million Zimbabwean refugees have fled across the border to your country. I met some of them yesterday in the central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. I heard of the hunger, the violence and loss of life that had led them to flee their country. This is human suffering which need not and should not be happening.

In the UK, we have followed very closely the response of South Africans to this unfolding disaster.  The letter signed by 40 leading Africans, including eight prominent South Africans, on June 13th, expressing their concern about “intimidation, harassment and violence” was an early expression of alarm. We also noted:

– the dock-workers who refused to handle shipments of arms bound for Zimbabwe

– the church leaders, political parties, trade unionists and independent commentators who have  spoken out in the strongest terms; Archbishop Desmond Tutu said recently that Mugabe has “turned into a kind of Frankenstein for his people.”

Nelson Mandela himself who has spoken of “a tragic failure of leadership”.

And South Africa joined the international consensus at the UN on the 23rd June to say “to be legitimate, any government of Zimbabwe must take account of the interest of all its citizens…[and] that the results of the 29 March 2008 elections must be respected.”

Elsewhere in Africa, leading voices from Botswana and Tanzania to Kenya have added their voices to those urging Mr Mugabe to respect the democratic verdict of the Zimbabwean people. To step back from tragic failure.

In South Africa you see and pay everyday the consequences of economical and political meltdown in Zimbabwe. For the British government, the way out is clear:

There needs to be a transitional government led by those won the 29 March election.

The world community needs to unite at the UN this week not just to condemn violence but to initiate  sanctions on the regime and send a human rights envoy to Zimbabwe.

And the AU and UN need to appoint a representative to work with SADC on the way forward.

The Zimbabwe people need urgent aid to keep body and soul together.

We need to plan together for the day when Zimbabwe has a legitimate government and needs a broader package of international support.

I believe this is an agenda that is not a British agenda or a Western agenda but a humanitarian agenda around which the world can unite.

President Mbeki in 1998 called for an African Renaissance.

I want to echo that call today. For this is a continent with a long and vibrant history. It is a continent of great creativity and enormous diversity. But too many of its people still lives scarred by poverty and fear.

It will not be an easy journey, but it is a possible journey and one which will enable Africans to complete their liberation struggle. To complete their release from centuries of slavery and colonial domination.

That is the Renaissance which you, Africa’s new generation, deserve.

Below is the text of the speech made by the then Schools Minister, David Miliband, in Cambridge on 3rd November 2004.

It is a pleasure to be here today.  Your focus on the future of teaching is appropriately timed.  We have more teachers than for a generation; they are better supported by 100 000 more support staff than seven years ago; and Ofsted say that standards of teaching have never been higher.

But we also know that while test and exam results suggest a rising tide of educational achievement, including in our toughest areas where achievement is rising faster than the national average, there remains significant untapped potential in our younger generations.  Charles Clarke has said he believes in recognising achievement by quality not quota, and on that basis we cannot rest:

– 25% of 11 year olds do not read, write and do Maths well;

– 45% of 16 year olds fail to get five GCSEs at grade A-C;

– 25% of 16-18 year olds are neither in full time education nor in training.

So we have challenges ahead, and their resolution depends on good teaching.  That is why this conference is important.

The American educationalist Lawrence Downey has captured the nature of the challenge very well.  He says: “A school teaches in three ways; by what it teaches, by how it teaches, and by the kind of place it is.”

Today I want to talk about “How we teach”.  Admittedly dangerous territory for a politician, but one that is vital.  My contention is that your title – “the future directions of teaching” – buries rather than unearths the key issue.  We cannot talk about the future of teaching unless we think about the nature of learning.  They are two sides of the same coin.  And thinking about the nature of learning requires us to do more than shape teaching around the needs of the learner; that is important as we debate new ideas on multiple intelligence; but thinking deeply about the nature of learning requires us to mobilise the energy, ideas and motivation of the learner to exploit the power of teaching.

In all the debates about school improvement, in all the discussions of productivity in the education system, this key factor of productivity is too often sidelined. The engagement of the pupil – the heart of active learning – is not an alternative to good teaching. It doesn’t mean the displacement of the teacher. It does make teaching a different process to one based solely on the transmission of knowledge from the mind of the teacher to that of the learner.

My argument is simple:

– Personalised Learning is the big idea in education today, and has at its core the idea of the active learner;

– The goal is for all pupils to have a real sense of shared ownership of their school experience; for that, teachers and learners need to work together in new ways;

– And to deliver such an entitlement on a universal basis we need to extend principles of flexibility and empowerment in our education system.

Personalised Learning 

Personalised Learning is for me the way in which a school tailors education to ensure that every pupil achieves the highest standards possible. It is educational provision shaped around the needs, interests and aptitudes of every pupil. It is not new for our best schools; but it is a new frontier for many.

There are five key elements to Personalised Learning. Each one has at its core the contribution of the active learner.

First, assessment for learning uses data and dialogue to diagnose every student’s needs, interests and aptitudes. Pupils have shared ownership of this process because they participate actively in the dialogue. They have a voice and their voice is heard.

Ofsted tells us that just four out of ten secondary schools use assessment for learning well. Staff at Seven Kings School in Redbridge vouch for the power of assessment for learning. They use assessment for learning to provide structured feedback to pupils, to set individual learning targets, and to help plan lessons according to individual needs. This is personalisation in schools and the improved results are one of the rewards. In 1997, only around half the students achieved 5 GCSEs A* – C. In 2004, this number had risen to almost 85%.

The dialogue helps to highlight the strengths that would profit from further stretch, to identify the weaknesses that would benefit from further support and to determine the most appropriate learning pathways.

St Bonaventure’s is an 11-18 boys’ comprehensive with a mixed sixth form. It uses assessment for learning strategies to tackle underachievement head on. By carefully monitoring pupil progress each term and regularly reporting to parents, potential under-achievement can be picked up at an early stage. Ofsted has commended its achievements with Afro-Caribbean pupils and the school is now sharing its good practice throughout the education community.

Embed these practices in all schools and we will achieve a step-change in achievement. That is why the Pupil Achievement Tracker is at the heart of our drive to ensure critical self-review of performance in every school.

Second, personalised learning demands effective teaching and learning strategies that develop the competence and confidence of every learner. High quality teaching delivers these strategies.

It does so because it immediately engages the pupil and gives them a sense of shared ownership in the learning process by recognising and building on their individual needs, interests and aptitudes.

From this sound base, the teacher moulds their repertoire of teaching skills to meet the diverse needs of individual pupils. As a result, they continue to actively engage the pupils, to stretch and support them as appropriate, and to accommodate different paces of learning.

In such a learning environment, pupils acquire the skills to fulfil their own potential. Sound pedagogy has increased their knowledge, but it has also given them the capability and the belief to take more responsibility for and control of taking forward their own learning.

Cramlington Community High school, a 13-18 mixed comprehensive in Northumberland, is an example of what is possible. First years take L2L, “Learning to learn” as a core course. It has a specific slot on the timetable because it’s felt that both pupils and the school gain from the course. It even has its own suite of 3 rooms with interactive white boards, 4 laptops on each table and a large flat screen PC to encourage collaborative work, and audio and video facilities. The course teachers from a wide range of curriculum areas are chosen because of their excellent understanding of a variety of teaching methodologies. Their teaching seeks to develop the 5Rs (resilience, resourcefulness, responsibility, reasoning and reflectivity). Questionnaires and journal entries create a constant dialogue to assess changes in motivation and perceptions of learning, which can then inform the learning environment. The aim is to give pupils the competence and confidence that they can use across the curriculum, throughout their school years and beyond.

With the proportion of pupils achieving 5 or more grades A*-C (GCSE/GNVQ) up from 63% in 2001 to 73% last year, this is a good school striving to be even better.

Third, curriculum entitlement and choice is needed to engage students, with clear pathways through the system.

In primary schools, it means students gaining high standards in the basics allied to opportunities for enrichment and creativity. In the early secondary years, it means students actively engaged by exciting curricula, problem solving, and class participation. And then at 14-19, it means significant curriculum choice for the learner.

This is where the vision of the Tomlinson report on 14-19 education is powerful. It sees the long-term goals for all students of stretch, incentives to learn, core skills and specialist vocational and academic options. It is a future already being charted by diverse groups of schools, colleges and employers across the country.

An exciting innovation in curriculum development is happening at Preston Manor School in Brent, a school that achieves very high standards in pupil performance with an ethnically diverse pupil profile.

The school looks to develop pupil self esteem by encouraging pupil participation and actively promoting pupil voice. Starting in October 2003, a team of students from Preston Manor and 3 other schools in Brent have been working with Blaze Radio and the National Youth Theatre to produce “The Manor”, a radio soap opera and website designed as a learning resource for the PSHE and Citizenship curriculum.

Their teachers talk of the range of personal and interpersonal skills that have been developed by raising and dealing with issues through drama. The website, the performance at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and the upcoming roadshow will mean that this effective practice can then be shared with an even wider audience.

We will be coming forward in the New Year with a detailed and positive reaction to the Tomlinson Report.

Fourth, personalised learning demands a radical approach to school organisation. It means the starting point for class organisation is always student progress, with opportunities for in-depth, intensive teaching and learning, combined with flexible deployment of support staff. Workforce reform is absolutely crucial. The real professionalism of teachers can best be developed when they have a range of adults working at their direction to meet diverse student need.  It means a school ethos focussed on student needs, with the whole school team taking time to find out the needs and interests of students; with students listened to and their voice used to drive whole school improvement; and with the leadership team providing a clear focus for the progress and achievement of every child.

A radical approach to school organisation also recognises that other well-established strategies have a role to play.

Students of all ages have long used peer tutoring as an assessment revision strategy for example – working together and testing each other. It is a strategy that we should exploit further, because recent examples from peer-tutoring practice in schools indicate that when it is applied across the pupils’ school experience, there are marked gains in pupils’ achievement across a number of measures. Pupils use one another’s knowledge and skills so that they can both do better. But the role of the teacher is still crucial. They ensure that children learn how to work most effectively in this way, organize pupils into the most appropriate groups, and set the tasks which offer the right level of challenge.

In Cornwall LEA for example, they have made the “thinking together” teaching strategy a key part of their in-service training in their drive to implement the primary strategy “Excellence and Enjoyment”. Their evidence from ten years of data is that pupils in schools that have adopted the strategy have achieved significantly higher SATs scores in Maths and Science than pupils in control schools who have not used the strategy.

At Eggbuckland Community College, pupils are taught the skills which make peer tutoring more than just a conversation between two pupils. Ofsted has described the strategy as one where “pupils help one another with topics that they’ve struggled to master and readily share the fruits of their research or other ideas.”

Fifth, personalised learning means the community, local institutions and social services supporting schools to drive forward progress in the classroom. Every school needs a strong sense of itself, but must also look beyond the school to make the most of these potential partnerships. The reason for doing so is because every pupil deserves the best opportunities, wherever they may be found. By focussing on the best deal for their pupils, schools show pupils that they do have shared ownership, because schools show that their pupils’ interests matter. There is already real innovation.

For example, Shireland Language College in Sandwell is building stronger partnership with parents. It’s working with its six primary school partners to use ICT to provide parents with more and better information about their children’s progress. Every family has been given a computer on loan, and parents have been trained to view their children’s homework online. The next stage of the project will enable parents to access their children’s achievement and attendance data, so that they can work with schools to identify and respond to each child’s individual learning needs.

Millfield Community School in Hackney has integrated services and developed a wide range of provision. Its offer to students includes a breakfast club that opens at 7am, play centre provision until 6pm, and a Saturday school that teaches an accelerated learning curriculum for Key Stage 2 pupils. The school is also proactive in educating parents on how best to support their children, providing guidance on the education system and the curriculum, as well as family learning courses in literacy, numeracy and ICT.

The challenge of delivery

Our goal must be a strong and confident learner at the heart of the teaching process. This agenda will promote excellence and equity. Our challenge is to deliver this in every classroom in the country. It can’t be achieved by central control. The role of Government must be to create the most conducive conditions for creative and informed professional decision-making. I see three aspects as critical.

First, there is no substitute for schools leading reform. Professional collaboration and networking help to generate excellence. By supporting collaboration and networking, we can enable our best schools to become locomotives of progress in others; with our best teachers helping the rest; and our best departments sharing their best practice. The hard edge of this collaboration is improvement, with schools developing the capacity to deliver personalised learning. That is the purpose of:

– the 4000 strong network of Advanced Skill Teachers, with over 300 focussing specifically on ICT, who spend the equivalent of one day a week helping other teachers outside their own school improve their offer.

– the Leading Edge Programme, in which 100 schools work with 600 partners to tackle some of our toughest learning challenges – including efforts to increase achievement amongst pupils from disadvantaged and / or minority ethnic backgrounds.

– the Excellence in Cities programme, that develops school partnerships and shared responsibility for, amongst other things, opportunities for gifted and talented students, Learning Mentors, and City Learning Centres that give pupils better access to the latest education technology.

– and the online communities of professionals, who are debating reform, discussing what works in their own classrooms, and helping to chart the future of education.

Second, there is no substitute for sponsored innovation. That is the evidence of the Academies programme. Academies are demonstrating that radical innovation can transform the structure and culture of schools beset by endemic underperformance. They do things differently to raise attainment: like a five term year, an extended day, longer learning sessions, better use of ICT, a bigger role for governors.

– Innovative teaching of ICT is happening at the City of London Academy. Rather than the teacher leading pupils through a menu of software, learning takes place through guided discovery.  The laptops have a variety of applications and the students are encouraged to experiment and find for themselves the potential of the software. The whole curriculum builds on this by allowing students to use their ICT skills in other settings and to solve a range of problems.

– Innovation in school organisation is happening at the Walsall Academy. The school day is organised into two sessions per day, with students spending the whole morning or afternoon in one curriculum area. The novel structure to the day is working well, particularly with year 7 students, who sometimes struggle with the transition to secondary school.

– Sponsored innovation is not confined to schools. Government can also promote innovative partnerships between school, colleges, Higher Education and Business, which are important for putting a wider pool of skill at the service of young people. Our national partnership with Cisco is broadening their opportunities to engage with new technology. There are now over 600 Cisco Network Academies that reach about 24,000 students across the country.

Third, we need to have the right accountability framework in place. On that score, there is real progress on the way:

– We are introducing the school profile. This will be one short, accessible document that brings together the key information about a school’s performance, the school’s view of what makes it special, and what its priorities are for the future;

– We are reforming the inspection system. Visits will be shorter and sharper, and intervention will be in inverse proportion to success;

– We are developing a New Relationship with Schools. The relationship will be based on the 3 principles of legal and financial flexibility, smarter accountability, and hard-edged collaboration. These principles will enable our schools to deliver reform. To help deliver reform, there will be a single conversation with a school improvement partner to assess performance, set improvement priorities and identify support needs.

Conclusion

These are the nuts and bolts. But teaching and learning are about culture as well as technique. On this front, we all have a job to do.

There’s an old culture that has had its time and we need to sweep it away. It says that more will mean worse; that public services cannot deliver excellence; that poor children will always get poor results.

There’s a new culture that we need to promote to take its place: high aspirations for all; a willingness to take risks; a commitment to excellence for the hardest to reach as well as the easiest to teach.

The future of teaching and learning is about this new culture in schools and a new culture in our wider society. They nurture each other. I want all schools in the future to engage with pupils and the wider community in such a way as to achieve lasting change. That is the potential of education and that is the potential we have to fulfil.

Step 1 is to recognise achievement. Step 2 is to articulate the vision. Step 3 is to mobilise the community. That is our task now, and I look forward to working with you to achieve it.

Below is the text of the speech made by the then Schools Minister, David Miliband, at Alton Towers on 16th November 2004.

Thank you for the invitation to speak to you this morning. Since becoming Schools Minister I have met representatives of the GSA on a regular basis and it is good to get the chance to meet more of you. The Association does a diligent, determined job on behalf of you and your schools, and I would like to use this public occasion to thank Sheila Cooper, the general secretary, and Cynthia Hall, the president, for the way they have worked constructively with the Government. The education system is better for that constructive engagement, and long may it continue.

Today I want to make a simple argument: that across our country there has been a revolution in educational achievement over the last 30 years, that girls have been primary drivers and beneficiaries of that revolution, and that now is the time to learn the lesson of that progress in planning for the future.

In the early 1970s, for the country as a whole:

– Only 150 000 pupils got the equivalent of 5 good GCSEs

– Only 80 000 got the equivalent of 2 A levels

– Only around 70 000 went on to university

For girls, the figures were more depressing:

– Less than half the pupils getting 5 good GCSEs were girls;

– Only 45% of those getting 2 A levels were girls;

– Only a third of those going on to university were girls; that means only about one girl in 25 made it to university, not because they lacked the brains, but because they lacked the opportunities.

The problem was not that we could not identify or produce educational excellence; it was that the excellence was extremely restricted, and the opportunities for pupils, especially girls, to demonstrate their achievement were capped.

Today, excellence is not universal. Too many young people do not fulfil their educational potential. But there has been a transformation in achievement and it has been led by girls:

– Over 340 000 pupils achieving 5 good GCSEs, almost 60% of them girls;

– 240 000 students achieving the equivalent of 2 A levels, 55% of them girls;

– 375 000 accepted into higher education in 2004, over half of them girls.

There remains a stubborn gender gap in the labour market, but that is for another occasion.

This education revolution is a tribute to teachers, and single sex girls’ schools have played their part. The GSA has over 200 member schools, and in the maintained sector, we have just over 200 girls’ schools, educating about one in seven girls in state schools.

Today I want to set out what I believe are the lessons, or at least some of the lessons, of this advance. There are six lessons I want to highlight. I believe they have relevance across the public/private divide; in fact one is related directly to it; and they have relevance to girls and boys education, separately and together.

The first lesson is that nothing is more important than the quality of teachers and teaching. Across the public/private divide we have a shared interest in making teaching an attractive profession, and ensuring that our teachers are teaching in the most effective ways.

The omens are good:

– a record number of people want to be teachers, with over 40,000 trainees this year;

– there is a burgeoning market in mid-career switchers into teaching, 7000 on the GTP alone;

– in the state sector the National Strategies at KS1-3 have established an international reputation for best practice;

– schemes like Teach First are bringing outstanding undergraduates into teaching;

– And OFSTED say we have the best generation of teachers ever.

The foundation of good teaching is clear awareness of pupils’ diverse needs and then the skills to deploy a repertoire of teaching strategies to meet these needs. In the state sector the National Agreement on Workforce reform sets the basis for every teacher to focus on their own teaching.

Across the public/private divide I would like to see professional development benefit from a shared dialogue about how to meet pupil needs. I think this can be of benefit to all, whether helping pupils with stretch for specific talents or with support for special needs. The Government’s Five Year Strategy sketched out our ambitions for professional development, and this is an area we want to take forward.

The second lesson is that we must combine rigour in setting standards with flexibility in developing the curriculum and absolute determination to recognise achievement for the standard it reaches.

The decision by a Conservative Government in 1984 to move away from quota systems to the allocation of grades, and to establish in its place standards of quality as the benchmark for grading, was in my view right. It is not just inequitable, but is in my view perverse, to penalise one candidate because of the quality of work of another; and it is equally perverse to upgrade one candidate because another has an off-year. Quality not quotas is the way forward.

The Tomlinson report challenges us as a country to develop a 14-19 education system built around the interest and aptitudes of individual pupils. His report discusses the best of international practice; it seeks to address the concerns of employers and higher education; it recognises that different students will want a different curriculum menu; he suggests incentives for participation and progression. His proposals for a common core at each level of achievement and then a series of options are designed to meet the needs of all young people. It is important that his proposals seek to build on strengths in the current system.

The Government has committed itself to respond in detailed and positive fashion in the New Year. We will do so and seek to build enduring consensus to improve stretch, tackle dropout, and promote high quality vocational studies.

We are determined to ensure that in the breadth of curriculum and in the qualifications’ structures we give all pupils the chance to show what they are capable of.

The third lesson is that we need to ensure that in our teaching, school organisation and out of school support we tailor provision around the needs, interests and aptitudes of individual pupils. This is Personalised Learning – not children learning on their own, not child-centred theories, but real recognition of the diversity that exists in our student population.

In this context, there is a particular gender issue.

Many girls’ schools have a fine record. Almost 75% nationally of girls in girls’ schools get 5 good GCSEs. They get support, confidence and tailored teaching. Girls’ schools have their own pressures, but they avoid others.

I believe there is a bright future for our single sex schools, but I also believe that the debate about whether single sex or co-education is the right approach is ultimately sterile. No one seriously proposes abolishing single sex schools or co-education. Instead of debate on structure, we should learn the lessons of single sex education and apply them in the co-education sector. These lessons are about recognising the differences between pupils, as well as the similarities. Let me give two examples.

First, we need to recognise that in mixed sex schools girls and boys can prosper being taught separately for part of the time.

Mike Younger, Director of Teaching at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, and his colleague Dr Molly Warrington are about to complete a 4-year research project into raising achievement that looks at this issue.

They looked at a co-educational comprehensive school, where single sex teaching was used in subjects where gender is sometimes seen as influencing underperformance, such as Languages for boys and Maths for girls. The number of boys who got 5 good GCSEs went up from 68% in 1997 to 81% in 2004. The number of girls went up from 68% in 1997 to 82% in 2004. Both boys and girls did better, and the gender gap usually common at GCSE was negligible. When interviewed, some of the reasons that pupils gave for the improvement were that they felt more confident to participate in the lessons, there were fewer distractions and they didn’t feel the need to show-off.

Of course, there are also examples in the maintained sector of boys and girls helping each other. At Notley High School in Essex, a girl-boy seating arrangement was seen as a way to improve boys’ performance. Yet in seven years, not only has the number of boys achieving 5 good GCSEs jumped from 40% to 60%, but girls’ achievement has also improved.

I want to see schools learning from this record and this good practice. They are good examples of personalised learning.

I have therefore agreed with the Secondary Heads Association that they should carry out a survey of their members on best practice in tailoring school organisation to girls’ and boys’ different needs. We can then disseminate the results to promote informed professional dialogue about the best way to replicate the successes of single sex education in the maintained sector.

The fourth lesson I draw from the last 30 years is that while poverty and disadvantage present barriers to achievement, they can be overcome. Mulberry School is a girls’ comprehensive school in Tower Hamlets; 99% of students have English as a second language; over 70% of pupils are on free school meals. Yet the disciplined leadership and committed teaching in that school has taken exam results to 56% getting 5 GCSEs A*-C from less than 40% ten years ago.

When I asked the head teacher about the message she wanted me to take to this conference, she argued that state schools’ experience of ICT, raising pupils’ self-esteem and collaborative activities should be of interest to the independent sector.

We want to see educational change in all our most deprived communities, and the private sector can help. The Academies Program targets educational underachievement in our poorest areas, and with the educational and organisational expertise of outside sponsors to help lever significant change.

I hope many of you will follow the lead of the Church School Company, set up in the 19th Century with a charitable mission to extend education to girls – it now has eight independent girls’ school but now believes it can only fulfil the charitable mission of its founders by using the educational expertise to extend education to pupils from deprived communities. The Queen opened the first of several CSCO Academies last month, and I look forward to more.

The fifth lesson is that schools teach by their values and ethos as well as their subjects and pedagogy. That is why we believe every school needs a strong sense of its own provision and why we put strong emphasis on the values, norms of behaviour and community role of schools. I know this is something you take seriously. At a time when young people are challenged from many sources, it is our responsibility to ensure that schools set the right example, and give the pupils the chance to show the community that the next generation can be more than the best educated, but also the best prepared for the challenges of the future.

I see schools fulfilling their social mission in part by the pupils they produce, but also the role they play in the wider education system. This is the sixth lesson: we need to bridge the public/private divide in order to mobilise all educational resources for the benefit of the country’s future. Academies are one way, but there are others:

– The Leading Edge programme, in which 100 schools work with 600 partners to tackle some of our toughest learning challenges including efforts to increase achievement amongst pupils from disadvantaged and/or minority backgrounds, uses best practice to lead the rest; there will be 600 such leading edge schools by 2008, and I hope more will participate;

– We set up the independent/state school partnerships (ISSP) scheme in 1998 to promote collaborative working between the sectors, widen educational opportunities, raise standards in education and foster a climate of social inclusion.  Since 1998, 280 partnerships have provided benefits for over 80,000 pupils in 1,100 schools across the country. Such links, wherever they exist, help to identify and disseminate the effective practice that can really drive change. I thank you for your support, which I believe has been of mutual benefit. Appropriately enough the 8th round of the scheme is launched today and you can find out more about it at www.teachernet.gov.uk/buildingbridges.

In these six areas, I believe public and private sector can take forward the educational revolution together. It is a revolution of aspiration as well as provision, and it has shown its worth in the progress of the country over the last thirty years.

The girls’ school movement has a big part to play, not just for the girls in girls’ schools, but in ensuring that the lessons of its priorities are spread right across the education system. There are challenges wherever one works, public or private, single sex or co-educational; the truth is there is no one right answer, but instead different right answers for different pupils. Our job is to find these answers for those pupils; I believe that together we can do it.