- Allow public schools to cross over into the state school system and receive Government funds.
- Provide more one-to-one and small group tuition for gifted and academically weak or struggling pupils.
- Give teachers tougher powers to restrain and discpline unruly pupils.
- Set up new parent councils which would oversee the running of the school.
- Provide help for pupils from sink estates whose parents would like them to attend schools in better areas, including subsidised transport costs.
- Give parents help in finding better schools, including the introduction of 'choice advisors'.
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Details of the scheme emerged as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly praised the 'ethos' of public schools such as Eton and Winchester.
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The Tories, however, maintained it amounted to a return to their system of grant-maintained schools, which was abolished by New Labour a year after it came into power.
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Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Miss Kelly said : "If you are talking about an ethos from a private school that is good discipline, high standards and an expectation that every single child in that school is going to succeed, then that is something I want to see in our state system.
If you are talking about privilege, selection, unfair funding, then that is something I would never want to see in our state system."
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In his speech, Blair will defend the switch away from what his former spin-doctor Alastair Campbell once described as 'bog-standard comprehensives'. The Prime Minister wil use the launch of his latest education reforms to defy growing signs of resistance in Whitehall and Westminster. He will suggest that the proposed reforms represent a 'pivotal moment' for Labour.
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If, as predicted, David Cameron succeeds Michael Howard as Conservative leader, Blair will face increasing pressure to show that his third term will not end in defeat for his successor-in-waiting, Gordon Brown.
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