Million pounds for educational improvement

Date posted: 03-03-2013

Thurrock Council has found continued investment for improving education standards across the borough.

Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, told Wednesday (27 February) evening’s meeting that education was “this council’s priority; the one overriding issue that we have to get right, for us, for our children and for the whole borough’s future.”

He said: “We have often said we want every school in Thurrock to be classed as “good” or better by Ofsted and I can say tonight that five are currently classed ‘outstanding’ and 20 ‘good’, including four – Bulphan, Orsett, Deneholm and Graham James – that have moved from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘good’ in the last few months since Ofsted introduced its new tougher regime.

“We all know this is just a start and that is why I can say that over the next three years we are redoubling our efforts and will be investing a million pounds of our hard won reserves in supporting all our schools in reaching their ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ goal; making sure they have the resources they need to continue on their improvement journeys.”

He added: “We will also take £100,000 from reserves to support efforts to help the young unemployed in our borough the so-called NEETs.

“It is important we play our full part, with partners, in doing all we can to help these youngsters find training or a job.

“It is easy to forget that statistics are hiding fact real people facing real problems, let alone a dreadful waste of talent we can all ill afford.”