In today’s Budget that, according to Chancellor George Osborne, “puts the next generation first” schools and education have taken centre stage. A raft of announcements have seen all schools challenged to convert to academy status by 2020 in turn allowing them the opportunity to set their own school hours. Mr Osborne also announced new funding, which will be drawn from a new sugar levy on fizzy drinks companies, to offer the extra hours provision and to improve sports in schools."It is simply unacceptable that Britain continues to sit too low down the global league tables for education,” said Mr Osborne. “So I’m going to get on with finishing the job we started five years ago, to drive up standards and set schools free from the shackles of local bureaucracy. I also want to support secondary schools that want to offer their pupils longer school days with more extracurricular activities like sport and art.”The new sugar levy is expected to raise £520 million. “One of the biggest contributors to childhood obesity is sugary drinks,” said the Chancellor. “A can of cola typically has nine teaspoons of sugar in it. Some popular drinks have as many as 13.”The money raised from the new sugar tax will be used to double the funding for sports in England’s primary schools. It will also go some way to funding longer flexible hours at England’s secondary schools, at which Mr Osborne hopes pupils will be offered a mix of sporting and academic after school clubs and breakfast clubs. Although Mr Osborne admitted that the funding would allow only a quarter of England’s secondary schools to take part.Academy schools receive their funding directly from the government and are free to set their own curriculum, school hours and teaching requirements. The academy and Free School programme has been a central part of the government’s drive to improve standards in education.Until today, only failing schools were required to become academies and were often taken over by sponsored academy trusts or academy chains who were tasked with turning the school around and improving performance. The remainder were top performing schools that were allowed to become ‘academy converters’ taking advantage of the different funding and operational model. Now all schools have been challenged to convert to academy status by 2020. The Department for Education will table the new legislation in parliament this week.Responding to the announcement, Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education said, “there is no evidence to suggest that academisation in and of itself leads to school improvement. Only last week the Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, wrote to the Secretary of State for Education highlighting ‘serious weaknesses’ in academy chains.”In his speech, George Osborne recognised the huge failing in the schools in the North of England. As part of the package of reform to improve standards in the region, dubbed the ‘Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy,’ the Chancellor announced new investment amounting to £20 million a year.Mr Osborne described the “unacceptable divides that have seen educational attainment and progress in some parts of the North lag behind the rest of the country.” The Chancellor announced plans to boost investment and bring in support from successful school leaders and academy chains and sponsors, including the commissioning of a report into transforming education in the region by lauded Bradford head teacher Sir Nick Weller.

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