The Education Secretary pledges to tackle workload together with Ofsted and school leaders

Education Secretary Damian Hinds has pledged to strip away workload that doesn’t add value in the classroom and give teachers the time to focus on teaching in his first speech to the profession.

Speaking to more than 1,000 heads and teachers at the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) annual conference in Birmingham, the Secretary of State has said that his “top priority” is making sure teaching continues to be regarded as “one of the most rewarding jobs you can do”. Improving workload will be at the heart of this.

Mr Hinds spoke alongside the Chief Inspector for Schools, Amanda Spielman and ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton in a show of their shared responsibility and joint commitment to tackling the workload burden on schools.

Thanks to a hardworking and incredibly talented generation of teachers, alongside the government’s bold reforms, there are now 1.9 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010, our pupils are now amongst the best readers in Europe and GCSEs have been reformed to match the best education systems in the world.

During his speech, the Education Secretary outlined his plans to support teachers and work with the profession to continue to build on this record.