London to get 25 flagship schools

A huge increase in the number of flagship city academy schools will spearhead a complete overhaul of London's creaking education system.

Education Secretary Estelle Morris has closed a deal with Chancellor Gordon Brown to fund at least 25 of the beacon secondary schools in the capital, more than double previous plans.

London will be given a lion's share of the new money pledged by the Chancellor for education in his spending review, to be unveiled on 10 July.

Before that, in a move which acknowledges that children in the capital suffer worst in the nation's education "lottery", Ms Morris will announce London is to get its own education policy in a bid to solve its problems.

She will launch a "London Challenge" on Monday to persuade teachers, business leaders and local authorities to pool ideas for a strategy blueprint in the autumn.

It follows Whitehall studies which have proved that children-in London have less chance of getting into a topclass school of their choice than their peers elsewhere.

Four in 10 parents fail to win places for their children at the schools they prefer and have to accept second best. Only 59 per cent get into their first choice in London, compared with 85 per cent nationally.

London schools are hampered by a continually shifting population, so that many pupils lose track of lessons.

Some 38 per cent of secondary school children - almost four out of 10 - do not have English as their first language. That compares with just eight per cent in the rest of the country.

The number of children who change schools in the mid-term is more than double the national rate, at 14 per cent every year. The number receiving free school meals is 43 per cent, compared with 17 per cent in England.

Some 13 per cent of the capital's teenagers are sent to feepaying schools compared with seven per cent nationally. Ms Morris admitted the main reason is that parents had no confidence in the quality local schools. She said: "If people want an independent education for their children, that's their right.

But if they are forced into the independent sector because the state sector isn't good enough, that's my problem. I meet too many people who tell me they are in the second group."

She added: "My main job is to make state schools good enough that parents choose to have their children educated in them."

Tony Blair is a passionate supporter of the city academy schools - state schools free of local authority control and with powers to vary the curriculum-and teachers' pay - which will be sponsored by industry and churches. Under existing plans only 17 were due to be built, 10 in London.

Ms Morris said they would gradually replace the most run-down schools.

The minister urged parents, teachers, unions and businessmen to share ideas for the capital's new education strategy in a summer-long consultation. Junior Education Minister Stephen Twigg will be London Schools Minister, to pull together the first strategic plan for the capital this autumn.