Education secretary Gavin Williamson has said that doing “more to build on the prestige of the teaching profession” will be at the core of future education reforms.

He told the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference today that he wanted to get to the point where “we are turning people away” because so many people want to get into the profession.

And the education secretary said the country should make this a “transformative moment” for education, comparing emerging from the Covid pandemic to the end of the Second World War.

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Mr Williamson was asked by ASCL president Richard Sheriff today what his big themes for education will be after “we leave the pandemic behind”.

Gavin Williamson: A ‘transformative moment’ for education

The education secretary said: “We have got to take this moment as a transformative moment. A little bit like as we came out of the Second World War, we took that as a moment to reset things.

“So much of what we do is brilliant but there are other things that we could do to make an even greater difference, and that is really what we are wanting to do with all of our school leaders across the country.”

Last weekend Mr Williamson said that longer school days, a cut to the summer holidays and extra support for teachers were all on the table as part of a Covid catch-up plan, as he called for  a “transformative” change as big as the post-war reforms that introduced universal free secondary education.

In his speech to ASCL’s conference today, he said he was discussing potential changes to the school term and day with Sir Kevan Collins, the government’s Covid education recovery commissioner.

But Mr Williamson said the most important aspect of education reform is supporting teachers.

He added: “For me, the core of reform, the core of change is  about supporting teachers to drive up quality and standards in the classroom and making sure the best can be even better still.”

The education secretary said that he wanted to build on the support of the Early Career Framework to help teachers taking their “tentative first steps” in the profession.

He added: “How do we do more to build the prestige of the teaching profession, making it the profession that people so desire to get into, you know, [so] we are turning people away from this profession because so many people want to do it. 

“We have got to be looking at the types of support we are able to offer teachers in those first few years  and all the way through.”

He told the conference that teachers were the people who could make the biggest difference to a child’s life by making them excited about learning.