BOOK OF THE WEEK: Education, Education, Education

It's that time of year again: the shoes have been polished, the uniforms purchased, the new bags packed. It's the beginning of the school year (I know this is true because I tried to wake my fourteen-year old sister up for school this morning and she screamed at me to 'get out', and as I was walking to the station I had some chips thrown at me by some 'spotty youthz'. Strangely, I feel good about both of these events. The natural order of the universe has been restored). And as we start the new term, there will be plenty of children heading off to Academies. They might not have been if it weren't for Andrew Adonis.

Tony Blair said his three priorities were Education, Education, Education. Andrew Adonis played a decisive role in turning this slogan into a reform programme. Education, Education, Education describes his quest to transform England’s schools and his ambition to make English education truly world class. The reinvention of the comprehensive school was the key. Comprehensives were replaced with academies – a radically new form of independent state school characterised by strong leadership and an ethos of aspiration, success and social mobility. Adonis tells the story of academies, from the germ of a reform idea in the late 1990s to the national movement for educational transformation they have become today. And he sets out a new reform manifesto: to make teaching the foremost profession in the country and to break down the Berlin Wall between private and state schools. Andrew Adonis was an architect of education reform under Tony Blair, serving in the No. 10 Policy Unit and then as Minister for Schools from 1998 to 2008.

The book is currently available for £9.00 as part of the Biteback Price Promise and, if you order now, you will also get a signed copy! When you've ordered just send your preferred inscription through to Katy Scholes at katy.scholes@bitebackpublishing.com

‘Andrew is a rational, reasoning seeker after truth. It was and is the correct approach to politics and, incidentally, is certainly consonant with the public’s approach. But it is rare.’ Tony Blair, A Journey

‘In my twenty years reporting on education, I never met anyone with more enthusiasm and zeal for change.’ Mike Baker, former BBC education correspondent

‘Andrew Adonis is a rare thing in politics: a man who believed in an idea and has pursued it tirelessly from drawing board to reality.’ The Times