There has never been a time in our history when there has been such attention given to the issue of raising standards.

Since the Great Debate in 1976 there has been a steady stream of initiatives designed to achieve this purpose. But it seems to me that the real purpose has never been clearly defined and this now needs to be articulated. Our real purpose is, I believe, to create a "nation of achievers". It is with the acceptance of this purpose that I believe the GRASP process can make its most significant contribution. At the heart of GRASP is a fundamental belief - "we can all be achievers" - and it was this message that convinced me that it is potentially the most important process for turning belief into practice.

Human beings are natural learners. During their first five years of life, children learn more than in the whole of the rest of their lives. By the time they enter formal school they have mastered what to them is a foreign language and approach their education with motivation and interest. Why is it then that after a decade of formal education increasing numbers of them are demotivated and disruptive. For these children teaching and learning have not been effective, yet the Dudley School's experience of using GRASP to facilitate learning shows not only that it makes the learning process more effective, but the pupils are better motivated and have more positive attitudes to their work. GRASP in our experience provides a process for the management of achievement and for continuous learning and improvement, but above all it is a process of learning through partnership. Through this partnership all concerned develop and strengthen a shared purpose and shared values which reinforce the learning process.

"Getting things done with and through people" is a simple definition of management but it clearly shows that to key elements are brought together by management action, achievement and partnership. Increasingly, schools are accepting that learning is a process to be managed and that the link between learning and teaching must be planned. As a chief inspector I spend considerable time in schools observing teachers in classrooms and their focus is almost universally "What are we going to do today?" not "What are we going to learn?". Too much time is given to doing and telling with too little attention paid to the involvement of pupils in their own learning. A widespread weakness which contributes significantly to underachievement is the inadequacy of lesson planning which fails to recognise that lessons are a learning experience and that children must be fully involved in the process.

GRASP provides not only the process for achievement but also provides the planning framework to ensure that the process is effective. Teachers who understand GRASP know that pupils must understand what they are expected to learn and that their involvement in the process is itself a powerful motivation. They plan lessons to ensure pupils know what "we" are going to learn and why and involve them in deciding how the learning purpose can be achieved. Pupils share with teachers the identification of the criteria by which they will know that they have succeeded and create thereby the framework for a review of their learning against these criteria. They learn how to control the process through a learning plan but above all they learn the most powerful question of all - "How can we do better next time?".

GRASP facilitates the creation of learning partnerships not only for pupils. Pupils and their peers work more effectively. Pupils and teachers and their colleagues, and with their head teacher managers, are all involved in a shared process. Though the process they are all learning and all gaining the motivation that comes with success of achievement. This achievement is often incremental and usually in very small steps but it does reinforce achievement and build self-confidence and self-worth so that progressive improvement becomes endemic.

Schools working in this way become progressively learning organisations for all. But we must not forget that there is a purpose for this learning. Through learning for a purpose the school becomes a more achieving organisation in which everyone is committed to the question "How can we do better next time?", and to the process of continuous improvement.

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