A thorough examination of the characteristics` belonging to a high-performing school, this book is written by the Chairman of the Specialist Schools Trust and the education advisor to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. It draws on numerous case studies of successful schools, as well as showing how previously failing schools have been turned around. Looking at such areas as leadership, staffing, target-setting, discipline and order, curriculum innovation and individual learning, the book offers a blueprint to head teachers and others trying to develop excellent schools.

Excellence in Education: the making of great schools tells the side of the story of education in England not often portrayed in the media - one that celebrates the success of the many schools that have experienced dramatic improvements in the last five years. The authors discuss all the elements that have contributed to these improvements including: improving the quality of the leadership team; the setting of targets and use of data; curriculum innovation; the use of ICT; improved discipline and order; the designation of nearly 2,000 schools as specialist schools. Primarily about the experience of secondary schools - although full of techniques and case studies relevant to primary schools - this book will serve as a manual for school improvement.

Sir Cyril Taylor has been at the heart of English education for over two decades, serving as an adviser to ten successive UK Education Secretaries and Four Prime Ministers, both Conservative and Labour, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

His passion for education has led directly to real school improvement, from the creation of City Technology Colleges to specialist schools and academies, which together now constitute over nine in ten secondary schools in England. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the body he founded, is now a leading force in school improvement worldwide.

A Good School for Every Child draws on that wealth of experience. While offering an insider's look at some of the key challenges in education, it is also an invaluable guide for parents and teachers interested in how our schools work today. There is a particular focus on how to raise standards in low attaining schools, improving levels of literacy and numeracy and teaching our children the skills they need for the 21st Century.

This book is also a clarion call to our political leaders about the challenges that still remain: the education of children in care, the failure to stretch able youngsters and the problems recruiting enough good science teachers.

Education is more open today than ever before, with league tables and inspection reports. Yet for many outsiders, it can seem a world clouded by its own language and rituals. Cyril Taylor opens the door to that world, through stories of inspirational headteachers and successful schools. By doing so he offers a vision that is both instructive and inspirational, one that shows how schools working with parents and the wider community can raise the standards of achievement for all their pupils.

This is the remarkable life of Sir Cyril Taylor, relating his experience as a toddler in a Congo mission, a teenage platoon commander amid the Kenyan Mau Mau insurgency and a brand manager for Procter & Gamble in the early 1960s. His life's achievement has been as a social entrepreneur and educator, helping found the American Institute for Foreign Study, one of the largest study abroad organisations in the world. Since 1964, it has benefited 1.5 million young people through its Study Abroad, Camp America, Au Pair and Gifted Children programmes. An education reformer and adviser to ten education secretaries - Conservative and Labour - he helped establish 3,000 specialist schools and over 1,500 academies. Sir Cyril elucidates the lessons he learned regarding the reforming of support for children in care, young offenders, gifted and talented children, and schools in general. His record as a social entrepreneur is unique and makes this book a must-read for policymakers everywhere.

Sir Cyril Taylor has been at the heart of English education for over two decades, serving as an adviser to ten successive UK Education Secretaries and Four Prime Ministers, both Conservative and Labour, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

His passion for education has led directly to real school improvement, from the creation of City Technology Colleges to specialist schools and academies, which together now constitute over nine in ten secondary schools in England. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, the body he founded, is now a leading force in school improvement worldwide.

A Good School for Every Child draws on that wealth of experience. While offering an insider's look at some of the key challenges in education, it is also an invaluable guide for parents and teachers interested in how our schools work today. There is a particular focus on how to raise standards in low attaining schools, improving levels of literacy and numeracy and teaching our children the skills they need for the 21st Century.

This book is also a clarion call to our political leaders about the challenges that still remain: the education of children in care, the failure to stretch able youngsters and the problems recruiting enough good science teachers.

Education is more open today than ever before, with league tables and inspection reports. Yet for many outsiders, it can seem a world clouded by its own language and rituals. Cyril Taylor opens the door to that world, through stories of inspirational headteachers and successful schools. By doing so he offers a vision that is both instructive and inspirational, one that shows how schools working with parents and the wider community can raise the standards of achievement for all their pupils.