This week, schools across England return from the summer break to start a new academic year. Infants will experience their first day at school. Teenagers will make the transition to college. For all, this is a time of excitement and promise.

Parliament also returns this week. The biggest single item on our agenda is the legislation to make our withdrawal from the European Union a reality and a success. But the result of last year’s referendum represented more than just a vote to leave the EU – it was a vote for change here at home, too.

I am determined that the Government I lead will deliver that change and make Britain a stronger and fairer country as a result.

This week, schools across England return from the summer break to start a new academic year. Infants will experience their first day at school. Teenagers will make the transition to college. For all, this is a time of excitement and promise, writes THERESA MAY

That starts with building a first-class state education system, which gives every child, regardless of their background, an excellent start in life. The children and young people starting back at school or college this week will benefit directly from seven years of successful school reform from Conservative Education Secretaries.

There are 1.8 million more pupils being taught in good or outstanding schools today than there were in 2010. Our new, more rigorous GCSEs and A-levels are raising the standards we expect of our young people, so they can match the best education systems in the world. As this summer’s excellent exam results showed, teachers and students have risen to the challenge.

Despite having to take difficult decisions to control public spending and reduce the deficit, we have been able to protect the core schools budget since 2010. But I know that more now needs to be done to ensure our schools are fully resourced for the future.

That is why in July, I announced an additional £1.3 billion for our schools over the next two years. This new deal protects per-pupil spending in real terms, so school budgets will increase as the school-age population rises.

More money has to be accompanied by a continuing determination to improve standards and outcomes. English secondary schools are the best-performing in the United Kingdom, according to international assessments. In devolved parts of the UK, where reform has not been as rigorous, we can see the consequences in poorer outcomes for young people.

Free schools in some of the most disadvantaged areas of England, such as Dixons Trinity Academy in Bradford and the Reach Academy in Feltham, have produced outstanding results this summer.

Some 52 new free schools will open their doors this term, bringing the total number of free schools opened since 2011 to more than 500. I want us to build on this success and ensure that there are even more good school places available in communities across England.

A rigorous education is the right of every child. So we will ensure that the vast majority of children study the English Baccalaureate combination of academic GCSEs. But as they get older, a more technical route might suit some pupils better. So our T-level reforms will reverse decades of drift and neglect by creating a new, high-quality, vocational equivalent to A-levels.

JACOB TOPS POLL OF TORIES... Jacob Rees-Mogg has topped a poll of grassroots Tories on who should be the next party leader – as a minister cast doubt on Theresa May’s suggestion she would fight the next election. Mr Rees Mogg, who has never held ministerial office, was the favourite of activists and members to succeed Mrs May with more than one fifth of votes. The poll, by the influential Conservative Home website, also suggested Conservatives are disillusioned with the Cabinet, with ‘other’ coming second on 19 per cent. Jacob Rees-Mogg has topped a poll of grassroots Tories on who should be the next party leader – as a minister cast doubt on Theresa May’s suggestion she would fight the next election Brexit Secretary David Davis was third and justice minister Dominic Raab fourth. It came as trade minister Greg Hands refused to back Mrs May’s claim she would fight another election as Tory leader. He would say only she is the right person to lead the country ‘at the moment’. Advertisement

An excellent education has always been available for those with the means to pay for it, either through independent school fees or house prices in the catchment areas of our best state schools.

The principle which has driven Conservative education policy since 2010 is that these high standards should be available to all children, not just those born to wealth and privilege.

That is because a fundamental Conservative belief is that talent and hard work should determine your future, not where you come from. That simple conviction inspires every policy we are pursuing to improve the lives of people in our country.

The great schools and world-leading system of technical education we are building will give our young people the skills they need to succeed and make the most of their lives.

Our changes to corporate governance, giving a stronger voice to workers and shareholders, will incentivise businesses to make better long-term decisions and help restore public confidence in the free market economy which our public services depend on for their funding.

Making sure mental health is treated just as seriously as physical health in our NHS and wider society will help more people lead healthy and fulfilled lives. Freeing up public sector land to build thousands of new houses will help more individuals and families own a home of their own and move up the property ladder. These are the practical Conservative policies which will change lives for the better.

So as we bring forward the legislation to deliver Brexit, this Government will work unstintingly to make our country a stronger and fairer place. Through economic and social reform, we will improve the lives of the British people. As Prime Minister, I remain absolutely determined to build an economy, a society and a country that works not just for a privileged few, but for every single one of us.