All Can Achieve

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



In
1986, the Harris Academy in Crystal Palace was a broken school, with a pass
rate of 9 per cent, truancy of 60 per cent and teachers who seldom lasted
longer than six months. Today, the Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is hailed
as one of the best in the country.



This
transformation was the blueprint for a national education revolution. Harris's
achievement paved the way for the academies movement, now accounting for nearly
half of England's schools.



The
same remarkable effect can be seen throughout the Harris Federation, the most
successful multi-academy trust in England, which runs fifty-five state
academies with 45,000 students and 5,000 staff. Every single one is rated
'Good' or better by Ofsted, and seven were recently listed in an international
report as 'World Class'.



The
Harris revolution is also the story of the extraordinary improvement in our
education system over the past twenty years. In 2009, England lagged at
twenty-seventh in the world for maths and twenty-fifth for reading. In 2025, a
PISA report showed it is the best-performing country in Europe and
internationally trails only four nations.



All
Can Achieve reveals the inside story
of how this phenomenal change was wrought.