Broken Britain: Prime Minister David Cameron said during a visit to a Norwich school yesterday that he was determined to bring 'rigour' back to the classroom . David Cameron yesterday launched a . blitz on ‘coasting’ schools in affluent areas which are being outshone . by their inner-city counterparts. He said hundreds of secondary schools in better-off parts of the country needed a ‘wake-up call’ to improve their results. In a major speech, Mr Cameron said . that schools in areas such as Oxfordshire and Surrey were being . out-performed by two inner-city London schools. The Prime Minister said these coasting . schools could not blame deprivation for their poor results and pledged . to expose their ‘complacency’. Speaking at a newly-opened free school . in Norwich, Mr Cameron also warned that parents of youngsters who play . truant face having their benefits cuts. He pledged to bring ‘rigour’ back into . Britain’s classrooms and condemned Labour’s ‘prizes for all’ culture, . which frowns on competitiveness. Mr Cameron is under increasing . pressure to reassure Tory MPs and voters that the Coalition is in touch . with middle-class anxieties. His speech was seen as a deliberate . contrast to pledges by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to drive up . standards in poorer areas. Promising a ‘revolution’ in choice, . competition and freedom for schools, Mr Cameron said: ‘It’s not just . failing schools we need to tackle. Respect: As well as giving teachers' more powers to deal with unruly pupils, 'restoring discipline is also about what parents do', Mr Cameron said . It’s coasting schools, too – the ones . whose results have  either flat-lined or where they haven’t improved as . much as they could have.’ He said four-fifths of schools in . Oxfordshire and Surrey had produced poorer results than Walworth Academy . and Burlington Danes Academy, both of which are in London. Between 70 to 75 per cent of pupils at . the London schools gained five or more good GCSEs, despite large . numbers being eligible for free school meals – the accepted measure of . relative poverty. Mr Cameron went on: ‘That must be a wake-up call. Why . is there this difference? Why are these schools coasting along?’ Free schools: London Mayor Boris Johnson (centre right) and Toby Young (centre left) with Headmaster Thomas Packer (top centre) and the first students of the newly opened West London Free School . Twenty-four new free schools have been set up in England since the Coalition came to power - more than half open this week, the rest by the end of the month.The policy, a central plank of the Conservatives' election manifesto, gives people the chance to set up schools in direct response to local demand.Free schools can be primary or secondaries and can be set up by a wide range of proposers which have included teachers, parents, charities, universities, businesses and faith groups. Many are being set up because there are simply not enough school places in the area.The schools, like the new academies, are funded directly by Westminster, are semi-independent and outside local authority control. They have the freedom to vary term times, the curriculum and teachers' pay and conditions.Free schools cannot make a profit and will be subject to the same Ofsted inspections as state schools. They will also have to take part in their local admissions process. Senior Downing Street sources said . ‘super heads’ with experience of turning schools around could  be . drafted in to work alongside existing head teachers to improve . standards. One source said that parents will be . able to judge whether their school is ‘coasting’ when more detailed . performance figures are published in January next year. The Government recently announced it . was increasing the minimum standard for schools. By 2015 any secondary . school in which fewer than 50 per cent of pupils get five good GCSEs . will be defined as failing. The standard is currently 30 per cent. Ministers hope a further 200 free . schools will open next year, and also say around 150 failing secondaries . and 200 failing primary schools will have been transformed into . academies by that time. Mr Cameron said more discipline was needed to mend a ‘broken society’. Chris Keates, of NASUWT, the largest . teachers’ union, said: ‘The Prime Minister’s speech is a desperate . attempt to detract attention from the fact that his Coalition Government . is engaged in a deliberate attempt to privatise schools.’ n Mr Cameron wants his old school, Eton College, to set up a free school, it emerged yesterday. He has held meetings in Downing Street . with the heads of top public schools – including the exclusive . £30,000-a-year boarding school. It is considering setting up a free . ‘mini Eton’, with boarding facilities and high academic standards – but . without the price tag. Prime Minister David Cameron (centre back row) at Heatherdown prep school in 1976 . David Cameron is perfectly placed to discuss elitism in British society having benefited from attendance at the cream of the independent English education system. As a young boy he attended the . preparatory school, Heatherdown, in Berkshire, favoured by Royals and . boasting Princes Andrew and Edward as former pupils. It . was from their exclusive classrooms that he made the move to the . world’s best known public school for boys, Eton, where annual fees at . the six hundred-year-old boys’ school are £31,000. At . current rates the Prime Minister’s senior school years would have cost . more than £150k and that does not include expenditure on school clubs, . like boating and fencing which carry additional tariffs. The . Prime Minister-in-waiting then moved to study Philosophy, Politics and . Economics at Oxford becoming a member of the select all-boy dining . society, The Bullingdon Club. His elevated position in society is apparent in every aspect of his life and has seen him marry well. His . wife Samantha is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield . and her mother is Annabel Lucy Veronica Astor, Viscountess Astor and . CEO of furniture chain OKA.
PM demands urgent classroom reforms to help mend our 'broken society'
Parents of unruly children could face benefits cuts .
He rejects 'prizes for all' society and backs new free schools .
National curriculum review to focus on subjects like algebra .
Broken Britain: Prime Minister David Cameron said during a visit to a Norwich school yesterday that he was determined to bring 'rigour' back to the classroom . David Cameron yesterday launched a . blitz on ‘coasting’ schools in affluent areas which are being outshone . by their inner-city counterparts. He said hundreds of secondary schools in better-off parts of the country needed a ‘wake-up call’ to improve their results. In a major speech, Mr Cameron said . that schools in areas such as Oxfordshire and Surrey were being . out-performed by two inner-city London schools. The Prime Minister said these coasting . schools could not blame deprivation for their poor results and pledged . to expose their ‘complacency’. Speaking at a newly-opened free school . in Norwich, Mr Cameron also warned that parents of youngsters who play . truant face having their benefits cuts. He pledged to bring ‘rigour’ back into . Britain’s classrooms and condemned Labour’s ‘prizes for all’ culture, . which frowns on competitiveness. Mr Cameron is under increasing . pressure to reassure Tory MPs and voters that the Coalition is in touch . with middle-class anxieties. His speech was seen as a deliberate . contrast to pledges by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to drive up . standards in poorer areas. Promising a ‘revolution’ in choice, . competition and freedom for schools, Mr Cameron said: ‘It’s not just . failing schools we need to tackle. Respect: As well as giving teachers' more powers to deal with unruly pupils, 'restoring discipline is also about what parents do', Mr Cameron said . It’s coasting schools, too – the ones . whose results have  either flat-lined or where they haven’t improved as . much as they could have.’ He said four-fifths of schools in . Oxfordshire and Surrey had produced poorer results than Walworth Academy . and Burlington Danes Academy, both of which are in London. Between 70 to 75 per cent of pupils at . the London schools gained five or more good GCSEs, despite large . numbers being eligible for free school meals – the accepted measure of . relative poverty. Mr Cameron went on: ‘That must be a wake-up call. Why . is there this difference? Why are these schools coasting along?’ Free schools: London Mayor Boris Johnson (centre right) and Toby Young (centre left) with Headmaster Thomas Packer (top centre) and the first students of the newly opened West London Free School . Twenty-four new free schools have been set up in England since the Coalition came to power - more than half open this week, the rest by the end of the month.The policy, a central plank of the Conservatives' election manifesto, gives people the chance to set up schools in direct response to local demand.Free schools can be primary or secondaries and can be set up by a wide range of proposers which have included teachers, parents, charities, universities, businesses and faith groups. Many are being set up because there are simply not enough school places in the area.The schools, like the new academies, are funded directly by Westminster, are semi-independent and outside local authority control. They have the freedom to vary term times, the curriculum and teachers' pay and conditions.Free schools cannot make a profit and will be subject to the same Ofsted inspections as state schools. They will also have to take part in their local admissions process. Senior Downing Street sources said . ‘super heads’ with experience of turning schools around could  be . drafted in to work alongside existing head teachers to improve . standards. One source said that parents will be . able to judge whether their school is ‘coasting’ when more detailed . performance figures are published in January next year. The Government recently announced it . was increasing the minimum standard for schools. By 2015 any secondary . school in which fewer than 50 per cent of pupils get five good GCSEs . will be defined as failing. The standard is currently 30 per cent. Ministers hope a further 200 free . schools will open next year, and also say around 150 failing secondaries . and 200 failing primary schools will have been transformed into . academies by that time. Mr Cameron said more discipline was needed to mend a ‘broken society’. Chris Keates, of NASUWT, the largest . teachers’ union, said: ‘The Prime Minister’s speech is a desperate . attempt to detract attention from the fact that his Coalition Government . is engaged in a deliberate attempt to privatise schools.’ n Mr Cameron wants his old school, Eton College, to set up a free school, it emerged yesterday. He has held meetings in Downing Street . with the heads of top public schools – including the exclusive . £30,000-a-year boarding school. It is considering setting up a free . ‘mini Eton’, with boarding facilities and high academic standards – but . without the price tag. Prime Minister David Cameron (centre back row) at Heatherdown prep school in 1976 . David Cameron is perfectly placed to discuss elitism in British society having benefited from attendance at the cream of the independent English education system. As a young boy he attended the . preparatory school, Heatherdown, in Berkshire, favoured by Royals and . boasting Princes Andrew and Edward as former pupils. It . was from their exclusive classrooms that he made the move to the . world’s best known public school for boys, Eton, where annual fees at . the six hundred-year-old boys’ school are £31,000. At . current rates the Prime Minister’s senior school years would have cost . more than £150k and that does not include expenditure on school clubs, . like boating and fencing which carry additional tariffs. The . Prime Minister-in-waiting then moved to study Philosophy, Politics and . Economics at Oxford becoming a member of the select all-boy dining . society, The Bullingdon Club. His elevated position in society is apparent in every aspect of his life and has seen him marry well. His . wife Samantha is the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield . and her mother is Annabel Lucy Veronica Astor, Viscountess Astor and . CEO of furniture chain OKA.
having their benefits cuts. He pledged to bring condemned Labour’s ‘prizes for all’ culture, . Twenty-four new free schools have been set up in freedom to vary term times, the curriculum and ‘broken society’. Chris Keates, of NASUWT, the