Brown's heading back to the old school ways

A major review of maths teaching, an expansion of setting by ability and a crackdown on classroom yobs were all unveiled by Ed Balls in his first Commons appearance as Schools Secretary.

Mr Balls, the Prime Minister's closest Cabinet ally, voiced his "strong support" for setting in individual subjects - grouping pupils of similar ability together instead of teaching them in mixed groups.

Official figures show an apparent 15 per cent drop in the number of secondary maths classes taught in sets in the past five years.

Mr Balls promised a major review of maths in primary schools to investigate more effective teaching methods amid concern that too many pupils start their secondary education unable to add up properly.

One in four 11-year-olds, around 150,000, finish primary

school with such weak mastery of the subject they are unable to cope with the maths curriculum at secondary level.

The maths inquiry will be similar in scale to a review of reading which did away with established teaching methods and revived the traditional "synthetic phonics" system.

Mr Balls also pledged a clampdown on low-level classroom disruption, with schools facing repeat visits from Ofsted inspectors if teachers cannot control their pupils.

He said regular testing would continue, with £150million additional funds to help teachers provide bespoke learning.

Every university will be encouraged to run a partlyprivate academy school in an acceleration of the controversial programme. In future, leading schools or universities will not be required to pay the normal contribution of up to £2million to sponsor an academy, he said.

Mr Balls's Conservative opposite number, Michael Gove, attacked the statement as containing "something old, nothing new, much that was borrowed, most of it blue".

He went on to accuse Mr Balls of seeking to water down Tony Blair's flagship commitment to giving schools greater independence from town hall control.

Head teachers have welcomed Mr Balls's emphasis on school standards but they warn that discipline will not improve unless parents change their attitude.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Schools have a responsibility to set high standards but parents have a duty to back up the school when sanctions are used.

"Parents are often too quick to accept their child's side of the story and to complain when the head takes strong action."