Tony Blair at Moulsham High School: "We're not simply talking about the top schools"

The new award will go to the best performing schools but also, the prime minister has been stressing, to those showing the greatest improvement. Even failing schools which are turned around quickly will be eligible.

The Department for Education says it expects "between 6,000 and 8,000" schools in England to benefit each year from the money, which was announced by the education secretary when he introduced his green paper on teaching reform last month.

The leader of the National Union of Teachers called this "rationing" and wanted to know what the government was going to do for good teachers in all schools.

Tony Blair: On the road

The prime minister, education secretary and school standards minister went to a school in Essex on Tuesday for the first of a series of question and answer sessions aimed at selling the government's proposals for the reform of the teaching profession.

Tony Blair, David Blunkett and Estelle Morris visited Moulsham High School in Chelmsford, an improving school with more than 1,500 children and almost 100 teachers, to talk to an audience of about 50 teachers and headteachers - the first of 20 'roadshows'. There will also be seven regional conferences.

'Lives blighted'

Some in the audience told Mr Blair they feared the money would prove divisive, creating first- and second-class schools. They existed already, Mr Blair replied, and children's lives were being blighted as a result.

"The truth is - and it isn't always popular to say this - that there are good schools and not-so-good schools and the same is true of teachers," he said. "The beginning of getting this whole system right is to recognise that."

The top 20% of children were educated very well and the top 5% extremely well.

"But if you go all the way down, there are large numbers of pupils who don't get the education they need and deserve and who don't get a good start in life. They can spend literally the rest of their lives trying to re-capture what they lost at the beginning.

"If we are going to give them a first class education, we can't just give out money to schools and say: 'Spend it as you will.' By appraising how schools are doing, you make it clear that there are standards we expect, that it's a deal, that if there is extra money coming in it's tied to people doing better than just average and getting their performance up."

Criteria

Mr Blunkett said he expected the award to be allocated as follows:

• the top proportion of schools according to the outcomes of assessments in the previous academic year
• the top proportion of schools showing the highest level of sustained improvement against the same indicators
• schools coming out of special measures faster than planned
• other types of school, such as special schools, based on their achievements against individualised targets.

An initial response came from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, whose General Secretary, Peter Smith, said the idea needed looking at carefully. But he went on: "It is disturbing that Tony Blair is announcing decisions about which the government is currently consulting. Is the consultation a flimflam?"

Not according to the education department, which says it has had more than 8,000 responses already to its green paper consultation document. But ministers still want more headteachers, teachers and classroom support staff to put forward their views.

'Conned'

The General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy, said his union opposed performance-related pay because it tended to encourage teachers to enhance their own standing, whereas education was a team effort. He derided the new award scheme.

"One in four schools means 6,000 schools each year - not getting it a second year but getting it once then not getting it again perhaps for another four years," he said on BBC News 24.

"Teachers will not be conned by that."

The Shadow Secretary of State for Education, David Willetts, picked up on Mr Blair's earlier refusal - in a BBC interview - to promise to pay in full the recommendations of the teachers' pay review body. Last year the government phased in the award, to the anger of teachers.

"We want good teachers to be rewarded, and we have said that we would implement the recommendations of the Teacher Pay Review Body in full. Why won't the Prime Minister match our promise?" Mr Willetts said.

"There are other ways to reward good teachers. The government should be trusting the professional judgement of teachers, and stop sending out endless initiatives from Whitehall."

'Revolution'

"It is now the time to make a practical reality of these proposals," David Blunkett told his audience in Chelmsford. "To do this we need the input and experience of the people who deliver education in the classroom. We are looking for everyone to contribute their ideas."

"We want no less than a revolution in the standards and status of teaching in this country to achieve our common vision of a world class education system for our children. Our proposed culture change for teaching will see good teachers rewarded, leadership strengthened, teacher training improved and teachers provided with better support in the classroom."