All Can Achieve : The Story of the Harris Federation

The inspiring account of how Philip Harris took on the near-impossible challenge of turning around failing state schools.

In 1986, Sylvan High School in Crystal Palacewas a broken school, with a pass rate of 9 per cent, truancy of 60 per cent andteachers who seldom lasted longer than six months. Today, the Harris CityAcademy Crystal Palace, Sylvan’s successor, is hailed as one of the bestschools in the country. This transformation was the blueprint for anational education revolution. Philip Harris’s achievements paved the way forthe academies movement, and academies now account for nearly half of England’sschools. The same remarkable effect can be seen throughout the HarrisFederation, the most successful multi-academy trust in England, which runsfifty-nine state academies with around 50,000 students and 5,000 members ofstaff. Every single one is rated ‘Good’ or better by Ofsted, and seven wererecently listed in an international report as ‘World Class’. The Harris revolution has driven theextraordinary improvements in our education system over the past twenty years. In 2009, England lagged at twenty-seventh in the world for maths andtwenty-fifth for reading. Today, reports show it is among the best-performingcountries in Europe. All Can Achieveis both the inspiring account of how Philip Harris took on the near-impossiblechallenge of turning around failing state schools and the inside story of aseismic change in English education.