As reported on gov.uk, thousands more children are set to benefit from the government’s flagship new school improvement teams, as the programme ramps up

The government’s RISE (Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence) teams are expanding their reach from an initial 32 schools, to more than 200 reaching over 120,000 children. The drive comes as the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill progresses in the Lords this week.

Each RISE school could be eligible for support of up to £100,000 to help turn around the quality of education for children and young people. This expansion goes hand in hand with a tripling of the government’s team of RISE advisers, with an additional 45 starting their work this week, bringing the total to 65. Every adviser is an expert with a track record of improving schools, with the majority academy trust leaders, with advisers already hitting the ground running to drive up improvement in schools.

There are more than 600 ‘stuck’ schools in England that have received consecutive poor Ofsted judgements, and which are attended by more than 300,000 children.
Data shows that the schools RISE advisers are supporting, have spent an average of 6.6 years rated by Ofsted as below good or equivalent, amounting to a child spending their whole primary or secondary school years in an underperforming school.

Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said: “No child should be spending precious days, let alone years, in schools that are underperforming. Our new RISE teams, made up of the best of the best in school improvement, can be the spark that turns around the life chances of tens of thousands of children.”