Even the most impressive schools should not be rated as outstanding if they are failing to close the gap between rich and poor pupils, David Laws said yesterday.
The Schools Minister suggested that schools should not be relying on having good overall results, and must focus on raising achievement for their most disadvantaged students.
In a speech to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) annual conference in Liverpool, the Yeovil MP said he wanted schools to focus "relentlessly" on closing the achievement gap.
And he appeared to offer an olive branch to teachers as he told them he wanted the profession to work with the government to improve the education system in England and Wales.
Mr Laws told delegates it was "quite literally intolerable" that in some schools and certain areas of the country almost eight in ten children on free school meals – a key measure of poverty – fail to gain five good GCSEs.
