Ministers have set targets for higher grades at GCSE, better Sats scores and for every school to be in or on its way into a multi-academy trust by 2030, in its long-awaited Schools White Paper.

It also includes a new “Parent Pledge” that any child who falls behind in English and maths will get the support they need to get back on track, and sets the expectation that mainstream state schools will remain open for at least 32.5 hours per week.

• White Paper: DfE expects schools to stay open for at least 32.5 hours
• Background: Zahawi promise White Paper to tackle illiteracy
• Exclusive: What Zahawi plans to do next

The Schools White Paper, the first in six years, is the first of two major announcements from the Department for Education this week, with a Green Paper being published tomorrow following the government’s long-running special educational needs and disability (SEND) review.

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the plans amounted to “levelling up in action”.

He said: “The Opportunity for All White Paper will deliver for every child, parent and family, living anywhere from rural villages to coastal towns through to the largest cities, by making sure all children have access to a school that meets our current best standards, harnessing the incredible energy and expertise of the 1 million people that work in schools.

“Any child who falls behind in maths or English will get the support they need to get back on track, and schools will also be asked to offer at least a 32.5-hour school week by September 2023.”

In his only one-to-one interview with an education publication on the launch of the White Paper, Mr Zahawi told Tes he was confident the paper’s proposals don’t need extra funding to be achievable.

The key policies and targets in the Schools White Paper

90 per cent of primary school pupils to hit the expected standard in the three Rs

The White Paper includes the previously announced target for 90 per cent of children reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in key stage 2. It says this is estimated to be worth between £31 billion and £60 billion for the wider economy, for a single cohort in 2030.

In 2019, 65 per cent of key stage 2 pupils reached the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths, an increase of 7 percentage points in reading and 9 percentage points in maths since 2016.

The average GCSE grade in English language and maths to be a 5 by 2030

The DfE said it was setting the ambition for the average GCSE grade in English language and maths to rise to 5 by 2030 - up from 4.5 in the last set of exams before the pandemic, in 2019.

The White Paper says: “Achieving our ambition of increasing the national GCSE average grade in both English language and maths by 0.5 is estimated to be worth £34 billion for the wider economy, for a single cohort in 2030.”

Every school in a multi-academy trust - but free schools can start as single trusts

As expected, the White Paper includes plans for a fully trust-led system with a single regulatory approach. This will include trusts established by local authorities.

The government wants all schools to be in or moving towards multi-academy trusts (MATs) by 2030.

The White Paper says that the DfE knows that trusts typically start to develop central capacity when they have more than 10 schools.

It said it will not convert schools to standalone academies but will consider bids for high-quality free schools to open initially as standalone trusts.

It adds: “We expect that most trusts will be on a trajectory to either serve a minimum of 7,500 pupils or run at least 10 schools.”

The White Paper also says it will never expect a trust to expand before it is ready. It adds: “While there will be no maximum size of trust, we will limit the proportion of schools in the local area that can be run by an individual trust.”

A 32.5-hour week expected of mainstream schools, with Ofsted to check on this

The DfE announced on Saturday night that it would ask all schools to ensure they are open for a 32.5-hour week.

The White Paper says it will “introduce a minimum expectation on the length of the school week of 32.5 hours (the current average) for all mainstream state-funded schools. We will expect all mainstream state-funded schools to work towards meeting this expectation as soon as possible and by September 2023 at the latest.”

It adds: “We will strongly encourage all state-funded schools to deliver two substantive morning and afternoon sessions each school day, with appropriate flexibility for religious observance. Thousands of schools, in every corner of the country, already deliver this length of week within existing budgets.

“Ofsted considers the overall quality of a school’s education, including the ambition of the curriculum. If Ofsted has concerns about the quality of education at a state-funded mainstream school and the school falls short of the government’s expectation on time, Ofsted will look at how they have come to that decision and what impact it has on the quality of education provided.”

A literacy and numeracy test for a sample of Year 9 students

As part of the DfE’s commitment to increasing the average grade at English and maths GCSE from 4.5 to 5, a new test of “national performance” will be introduced.

Today, as part of the White Paper, the DfE has announced a new test of literacy and numeracy that will be taken by a “sample of children in Year 9”.

This test will be used “to estimate performance at a national level” and will include a number of “digital activities”.

A new accountability regime for MATs

This summer, the government will launch a review looking at accountability and the regulation of MATs.

The department said it will consider how best to hold trusts accountable against a new strong trust definition “focused on the quality and inclusivity of the education they provide, how they improve schools and maintain their local identity, how they protect value for money for the taxpayer and how they develop their workforce”.

As previously announced, the government wants to move any school that gets two consecutive “requires improvement” judgements from Ofsted into an MAT.

The DfE described this as a “significant step up” from the current requirement for maintained schools to be subject to academy orders when they are rated as “inadequate”.

The initial focus will be on schools in the 55 Education Investment Areas announced earlier this year.

The government has said it will make £86 million available to grow and strengthen MATs over the next three years, with a particular focus on these Education Investment Areas.

Legislation on recording attendance

The DfE has said it will be introducing legislation to modernise how attendance is recorded, with a “national data solution” used to track attendance and provide a “safety net” for vulnerable pupils at risk of disappearing from school rolls.

Alongside this, new statutory expectations will be set out for local authority attendance services to help “severely absent” pupils get back to school.

And the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) and Youth Endowment Fund will also develop further attendance interventions for schools and new “voluntary standards” for attendance professionals.

The DfE also said today that, following the results of the February consultation on attendance, every school will be expected to publish a clear attendance policy.

Revising behaviour guidance

The department has said it will revise the Behaviour in Schools guidance and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance. The consultation on proposed changes to these is due to close on 31 March.

The DfE has also committed to the launch of a new national behaviour survey in order to “better understand” the thoughts and feelings of parents, pupils and teachers on behaviour and wellbeing.

Reaction: ‘It’s a policy gimmick’

The White Paper has received a mixed reaction from senior leaders.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described it as “mechanistic and lacking in ambition” despite containing some “helpful and promising” measures.

He said: “Disappointingly, this White Paper lacks any big ideas for the future of the education system. The nearest it gets is its targets for improved results in English and maths by 2030, but the plan of how to achieve these targets is vague, and there does not appear to be very much in the way of funding to help schools deliver them.”

Mr Barton also criticised one of the main policy announcements in the paper, adding: “The Parent Pledge seems like a policy gimmick designed to grab headlines. In reality, any child who falls behind in English and maths will already receive timely and evidence-led support, and this is already communicated to parents via existing channels such as parents’ evenings.”

The White Paper also include a series of measures that have already been announced, including:

• Ofsted will inspect every school by 2025, including the backlog of “outstanding” schools that haven’t been inspected for many years.
• At least £100 million to put the Education Endowment Foundation on a long-term footing.
• 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by 2024.
• £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the best teachers.
• Payments to recruit and keep talented physics, chemistry, computing and maths teachers working in disadvantaged schools.
• A register for children not in school to make sure no child is lost from the system.
• Every school to have access to funded training for a senior mental health lead.
• Oak National Academy becoming a government body with sole focus on supporting teachers to deliver the very best lesson content.
• Up to 6 million tutoring courses by 2024.