The Schools White Paper didn’t need to unveil grand and radical policies that had the potential to disrupt the profession.

Instead, in order to complete the journey of school system reform that has been underway for the past decade, a focus on consolidating the best of what we have learned from the past 10 years to build capacity into the system has meant the government has put forward a pragmatic, overarching framework that offers schools and trusts an ambitious new mission. 

This, in turn, offers pupils and parents greater hope for a more level playing field, with the clear expectation that many more children will leave each phase of their education with the qualifications and skills to open up real choices and opportunities.

The Schools White Paper: Five announcements the sector should welcome

Drilling into the detail, here are five key areas that the sector should welcome.

1. A unified school system 

The separation of schools into maintained and academy status has built structural incoherence into the heart of the schools system.

The problem has arisen from the success of the academies programme, but the time is now right for us to move towards a unified structure that harnesses the collective potential of powerful collaboration through strong school networks.

A single system, with much more clearly defined roles for every actor in the system - including the regulatory agencies - will now be possible.

Of course, while structures and regulations might sound boringly worthy, they are actually crucially important to the success of the system in delivering excellence for every child. 

To lean into a truism, the devil will certainly lie in the details to be determined in the months ahead; but it is clear that well-defined powers that allow regional schools commissioners to support the growth and creation of new multi-academy trusts, with fresh opportunities for local authorities to be purposeful participants in the education of their local communities, could represent a long-overdue reform to the middle tier.

2. Investing in people

Arguably, one of the most valuable areas that the government can invest in is guaranteeing the quality and supply of excellent entrants into teaching. It should then invest in high-quality training and development throughout these teachers’ careers.

We have an opportunity to ensure that this country is recognised as one of the very best places to train to teach and where teaching as a profession has real credibility and recognition.

The recent suite of reforms to teacher training, through the ITT review and the introduction of the Early Career Framework (ECF), alongside the new National Professional Qualifications, has the potential to really empower schools and school trusts to systematically invest in our people. 

This is needed now more than ever, as just last week the National Foundation for Educational Research published a concerning report on the state of the teacher labour market in England, which pointed out the likelihood of the government missing its secondary subject recruitment targets.

Plans to address staffing shortages by supporting half a million teacher training and development opportunities are essential. But this starts with fixing retention issues by equipping teachers with the knowledge and tools to do their job to the highest standard. 

What’s more, the scale and pace of the ECF reforms - to give every early-career teacher access to a common understanding of the best available evidence and high-quality mentoring - was not going to lead to immediate change overnight, but it will make a difference.

Given this, it is refreshing to see the White Paper reinforcing the work set in train by the Recruitment and Retention Strategy in 2019 through initiatives ranging from the £30,000 starting salary to the National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership to the development of an Institute of Teaching. 

3. Bold ambitions

We shouldn’t need the government to set out ambitious targets, but for those of us who came into education to make a difference, reaching the targets set out in this White Paper represents an opportunity to start to erode the wide variation in provision and performance that too many young people are currently subjected to.

As such, the question shouldn’t be whether we can meet these ambitions, rather whether we can afford not to. 

Ambitious target setting ignites purpose behind this reform drive and reflects more careful planning than the last White Paper, which saw full academisation as the final destination. 

In eight years’ time, commentators will define the success of this White Paper by our collective progress against the targets as set out. It’s incumbent upon all of us to start the work required now to not just meet but to hopefully exceed these deliberately ambitious figures. 

Just last week I asked the 57 principals across AET [Academies Enterprise Trust] what it would take to deliver what we are describing as AET 490 by 2028: to ensure that 90 per cent of pupils in all of our schools reach their chronological reading age year on year, pass the phonics check and meet expected standard in RWM, and achieve at least grade 4 in their English and maths GCSEs.  

This is unquestionably challenging. But we are clear-sighted in what we need to do now, if we are to achieve these goals in 2028, and the work has already started. 

Throughout the White Paper, the government is equally clear-sighted in its ambition, and it will now be for the sector to work through what this means in practice and how to make it a reality.

4. A refreshed focus on reading

Last year it was reported that unpublished figures showed that 200,000 pupils would leave primary school unable to read to the expected standard. This is the most intractable systemic issue confronting our schools, at all phases. 

Literacy literally unlocks potential. When we fail to support any child’s literacy development, the social and economic costs are huge, and the individual costs much worse. 

With the NPQ for Leading Literacy, we go a step further to having access to the most skilled practitioners in this field, creating an opportunity to embed reading skills across every subject in the curriculum. 

For those who take up these new qualifications, school trusts can create the systems and processes that allow literacy leaders to flourish and have a powerful impact for many more children. 

5. Re-endowing the EEF

On the theme of sharing “what works”, the confirmation that the long-term future of the Education Endowment Foundation has been secured is welcome news, with the commitment to re-endow the EEF with at least £100 million. The government says will help to “cement its role as a central, long-term feature of the education landscape for at least the next decade”.

For a secretary of state who has placed so much emphasis on evidence driving policy-making and practice, the work of Professor Becky Francis and her team will become ever more important.

Overall, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi and his team are to be congratulated on playing a securely good hand with this White Paper. And while it’s easy to be cynical about announcements like the “Parent Pledge”, my take is that anything that encourages more ways for parents to engage with their child’s education - so long as the scheme is rolled out in a pragmatic way - can only be a welcome thing. 

The Department for Education has largely resisted the temptation for political flourish and high rhetoric and instead focused on simple, pragmatic responses to the challenges that the system faces.

Yes, there is detail to be worked through, but it is now for the sector to step up and work in partnership with the DfE to drive this agenda forward.

Rebecca Boomer-Clark is chief executive of AET (Academies Enterprise Trust)