Plans include guaranteed one-to-one tuition and new report cards for schools

The Children’s Secretary Ed Balls will set out the government’s new education reforms today, offering parents greater rights over their children’s education and scaling back central control over schools.

The Education White Paper published today includes new legal entitlements to one-to-one tuition and sports provision in schools. Children will also have a guaranteed personal tutor for pastoral support during secondary school.

The document will also confirm that the government plans to end central control over schools by scrapping the national strategies introduced by Tony Blair in 1997. The move will end central oversight of the literacy and numeracy hours and will offer schools more freedom over teaching methods.

It will also include details of the new US-style report cards which will rank schools based on behaviour, attendance and sports provision as well as exam results.

Teaching unions have welcomed the reforms, in particular the right to one-to-one tuition.

The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, said: “Gordon Brown’s announcement of one-to-one tuition for pupils, while not new, is certainly a positive move and I welcome the government's continued commitment to it.

“By making one-to-one tuition in schools an entitlement it ensures that all pupils benefit, not just the few whose parents can afford to pay for it.”

Under the reforms, the last before a general election, successful schools will be encouraged to develop networks and federations with lower-performing schools in order to raise standards. Exceptional headteachers will then be given authority over new “chains” of schools.

Balls has warned that high-performing schools who refuse to take part in mergers will be given lower Ofsted ratings.

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