Labour’s progressive mission is, and has always been, to end cycles of disadvantage so that poverty does not pass from one generation to the next. Instead of preserving opportunity and excellence for some, our purpose is to actively promote and pursue excellence for all.

Central to this is breaking the link between poverty and low attainment in education. Everybody should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential regardless of their background or the income of their parents.

This is what any Labour government’s education policy should be about. And it’s at the heart of the National Challenge I launched last month. It’s aim is simple, but challenging: to ensure that every school gets at least thirty per cent of its pupils achieving five or more higher level GCSEs including English and maths by 2011.

Ten years ago this would have been an impossible task - over half of schools were below this benchmark when the Tories left office. Today, having ended decades of underinvestment and stagnant results, we’ve reduced that down to just a fifth of schools - 638 at the latest count.

But all of us in the Labour Party should be impatient to make even more progress. That’s why, backed by £400million of extra investment, I’ve asked local authorities to draw up school by school improvement plans for all National Challenge schools in their area.

I am clear these are not 638 “failing schools”. Far from it. Around a third of them are high performing schools with great leadership. They’re already on the right path to success and won’t need much more support to get above the benchmark.

Another third need more teaching and learning support tailored to the school, particularly in the core subjects of English and maths, to help them improve. But a further third are not making enough progress and are stuck well below 30 per cent. They will need significant support and change if we are to ensure that the children who go there really can fulfil their potential.

This could mean collaborating with successful schools, perhaps also bringing in a university or business partner, through a National Challenge Trust. These schools will get £750,000 of extra funding to help make this new start a success. Or it could mean becoming an academy – which are already delivering faster rising results than other schools in some of our most disadvantaged areas, and with fair and comprehensive admissions.

Of course many of these schools are in some of the most deprived areas of the country or have a highly disadvantaged intake. The vast majority of the schools have more children from poorer families than the average.

But there are two ways of looking at this. Either you accept there are barriers which hold children back, or you do everything you can to break these barriers down. My Labour values tell me that the second course is the only progressive way. If you really believe in social justice, you cannot simply make excuses and write off the life chances of thousands of young people every year.

Yes, it’s important that we measure and support schools based on the progress they achieve based on their intake. That’s why we’ve introduced CVA – or contextual value added – as one way of measuring how well a school is doing. But I make no apologies for insisting on a minimum standard based on having good GCSEs or equivalent qualifications, including in the core subjects of English and maths.

Why shouldn’t children from poor families strive for and achieve the best qualifications so they can go to university or get an apprenticeship? Why should we make excuses when we should be aiming higher for those who most need a good education to transform their life chances and escape poverty?

The fact is that, even in the toughest of circumstances, teachers and headteachers in schools across the country have shown that it can be done.

Across England 166 secondary schools with a more deprived intake than the average get above national average GCSE results. And there are 203 schools, where more than double the national average of children are eligible for free school meals, yet still have more than 30 per cent of their pupils getting five or more good GCSEs including English and maths.

I know that it can be particularly challenging for non-selective schools in areas where there are grammar schools. Academic selection, as the former Tory education spokesman David Willets briefly pointed out last year, entrenches advantage rather than spreading it.

That’s why this government does not support academic selection and will not allow new grammar schools. And while it’s right that decisions on existing grammar schools are made locally, it’s also right that we give extra support to secondary modern schools which are part of National Challenge.

The Tories have nothing to say about National Challenge. They’re too busy arguing amongst themselves over how many more grammar schools they should build. That’s a recipe for preserving excellence - not promoting it.

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