RELEASING THE MAGIC!

Another year in some incredible places with some ordinary people doing extraordinary things has made me realise once more the critical importance of a coherent, joined up approach to learning and skills in this country.

There is an opportunity to create a new learning landscape where we learn from the evidence of what works, build on what we have learnt from the last fifteen years of investment in education, reflect carefully on international examples and create a culture of excellence where we ensure that every school is a brilliant school and every child is a brilliant reader, write and counter by the time they are eight, a brilliant little learner by the time they are eleven and on a pathway to success by the time they are sixteen. People constantly tell me that it isn't possible to make every school a great school and that you can't release the magic in all our children... but they are wrong!  We need to rethink our strategic approach and re-imagine the learning landscape. We need to recognise that children don't simply learn in school but that the home and the community are also crucial elements in a complex learning landscape. We need to work in all three elements to create brilliant learning in brilliant learning places and we need to help and support parents and careers and communities to fully play their part. Interestingly the toolkits and strategies all exist to achieve this transformation and it is simply a case of joining up the pieces to release the magic!