We want as many of those superb new teachers as possible to teach where they're most needed — in the primary schools where a third or more of children still leave incapable of following a secondary curriculum and the secondaries where half or more still leave without five decent GCSEs. In order to make it easier to attract and keep them in those schools, we have dismantled the old pay and conditions arrangements, designed by the unions, which simply rewarded longevity of service, to bring in performance-related pay. So good teachers can now be paid more. 

And because we've introduced a pupil premium — more money for schools with children from poorer backgrounds — challenging schools will now have both the money and the freedom to attract great teachers. In America, research by the New Teacher Project in its report The Irreplaceables showed that great teachers in challenging schools — those who were irreplaceable figures in the lives of poor children — were more likely to stay if their contribution could be recognised through performance pay.

Nothing matters more in ensuring that our schools improve than recruiting the right people. That is why I am so fortunate to have been able to appoint outstanding people to the jobs that matter in our education system. And I am particularly lucky that they have so stoically withstood criticism from the enemies of promise, who have presided over failure in the past, in order to safeguard our children's future.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, has set higher expectations for what all schools should achieve, and concentrated, with piercing moral clarity, on the failure to educate so many of our poor children adequately. Glenys Stacey, the chief executive of the exams regulator Ofqual, has reduced grade inflation, restored rigour to GCSEs, eliminated many of the dodges used to game the exam system and is making sure our A-levels are world-class. Professor Alison Wolf, of King's College London, has dramatically improved vocational education by making it easier to secure high-quality work experience, getting rid of Mickey Mouse courses and making vocational qualifications as rigorous – in their structure and marking — as academic qualifications. All three have had their decisions attacked by the teaching unions, but their bravery in fighting for higher standards in all our schools is an inspiration.

There is so much more to do to improve every child's chances in this country – from raising the standard of nursery education to improving the number of genuinely high-quality apprenticeships, from ensuring more top academics join those like Fields medallist Tim Gowers in writing curriculum materials for our schools exploiting the potential of new technology to accelerate learning. But we have, I hope, as a nation come far enough in the last six years to recognise that there can be no future in settling for mediocrity. There is no excuse for a system where so many children leave without qualifications or prospects. When it comes to academies, free schools, a knowledge-rich curriculum, rigorous exams, the recruitment of academically distinguished teachers and freedom to pay good teachers more, there can be no turning back.