Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to improve the performance of schools in parts of the country where there has been persistent underperformance.

Our reforms are delivering much needed improvement to our education system. Ofsted inspection data shows that sponsored academies are transforming the life chances ‎of over 350,000 pupils by raising standards in their schools. But there are too many areas of the country where, for too long, children have not had the Education they deserve.

Our strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas will tackle entrenched underperformance in areas where low school standards have been allowed for too long. We look forward to working with the first areas from this autumn.