Ministers aim to export London’s academic success to England’s struggling schools

Bridget Phillipson: ‘It’s appalling that young people across the north-east, the East Midlands and West Midlands continue to be held back.’ Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Ministers plan to turbocharge their school improvement programme to tackle regional inequalities, aiming to export the success of London’s high-achieving pupils to England’s most struggling schools.

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said her school improvement plan was “taking the best” of the previous Labour government’s successful London Challenge, which revolutionised the city’s school system, and applying the techniques to flagging schools throughout England.