Education Secretary Gavin Williamson sets out his plan to ensure every North East school is a good school

The Education Secretary spoke to ChronicleLive as Boris Johnson gathered his Cabinet for a Brexit-day meeting in Sunderland

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson claims he wants to see standards rising in every single North East school - and will ensure "that there isn't any school that gets stuck or left behind".

He reveals that one of the methods for achieving this lofty plan will be the Falcon Trust, a new body set up by the Government to take over failing schools in the region. So far, the Trust is running just one school, Thornaby Academy in Stockton-on-Tees, but it will eventually take over "a fair few".

Mr Williamson said: "We are going to make a success of Thornaby Academy. We're going to deliver on that and then we're going to be adding to it."

He was speaking to ChronicleLive as the entire Cabinet came to the North East to celebrate the day that Brexit takes place. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holding his Cabinet in Sunderland, in an attempt to display the Government's determination to "level up" the North and Midlands after Brexit.

Earlier this week, Mr Williamson spoke to Schools North East, a regional network of headteachers and other senior school staff, at an event in St James' Park. He announced plans to provide an extra £24m funding for the region's schools.

In recent days, he's also visited a school near Sunderland and a college in Durham, and paid a visit to Thornaby Academy.

Explaining how the Falcon Trust was created, he said: "We have got some of the very best minds in the education world and we have put them together.

"What they are going to start doing is taking over some of the schools that we've had the most difficult challenges with in terms of delivering a high quality education."

He said he would be telling Boris Johnson and the rest of the Cabinet that parents in the North East have "high expectations" for their children's education.

"We have amazing schools, we have amazing colleges and universities here in the North East of England. But I want more of that. I want standards to be rising in every one of our schools. We're going to do that by ruthlessly driving a programme forward of excellence in schools.

"We've been seeing an example of that in what we're doing in Thornaby but we want to be doing that on a much, much larger scale."

However, he said that while the Falcon Trust would eventually take over more schools, it would take some time.

"What we want to do is first of all is demonstrate the success of the first one.

"If I was a parent of a child at a school that had been failing, I would want to know that the people who were coming in are able to demonstrate the success they've had.

"So we are going to do that. We are going to make a success of Thornaby Academy. We're going to deliver on that and then we're going to be adding to it, and making sure that there isn't any school that gets stuck or left behind, because we'll have the tools to be able to make that transformational change."

Mr Williamson represents a seat in Staffordshire, in the Midlands, but is originally from Yorkshire. He said he planned to celebrate Brexit night in Yorkshire at the annual dinner of Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association alongside the local MP, Kevin Hollinrake.

"I imagine I will be toasting our exit with a good pint of bitter later on tonight," he said.