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...

Former Secretary of State for Education Kenneth Baker claims that secondary education has become a five-year programme with a single, narrow aim: to prepare pupils for high-stakes GCSE exams at 16. From 2015, all young people will be legally required to stay in education or training until they are 18. Kenneth Baker sees this as a historic opportunity to re-think the aims and structure of English education. He argues that the National Curriculum should extend only to the age of 14 and that there should be four distinct pathways from 14-18 to take account of young people's emerging interests...