But this cultural challenge will also involve the government rethinking how delivers change in education. For Labour to achieve the "world class education system" promised, there will need to be radical structural reform at all levels of the education. But this next stage of educational reform needs to be more flexible and creative in both its methods and outcomes.
The centrally determined and test-driven approach to raising standards followed over the past five years has improved results but it can go only so far. Labour's challenge is to create an educational system that works differently, and not just better.
This means a slimmed down curriculum; less rigid and more sophisticated assessment; changing the role of teachers to "lead learners"; offering a big increase in out-of-school learning opportunities, and creating stronger partnerships between schools and the wider community.
The Secretary of State is right to identify the age of 14 as a "hinge" point between different stages of learning The government's Green Paper on the 14-19 age group will be an important further step in filling out the government's vision of education, and will seek to offer students in this age bracket a wider range of different educational packages through which individual students can find their own pathways.
The learning habit must be created through a mix of academic study, vocational training, citizenship education and a creative approach suited to survival in the knowledge economy. It is crucial that any approach to the 14-19 group must integrate, rather than separate, these strands if it is to create a genuinely flexible system. There is a delicate balance to be struck between increasing in the range of choices available to cater for different abilities and interests, without forcing children down a path which will close off future options.
Teachers will need greater organisational flexibility and better staff support if they are to provide individualised learning programmes for all pupils. The centrally determined test-based approach to forcing up standards tends to be aimed at improving existing delivery systems rather than enabling experimentation with fresh new approaches.
In practice, educational assessment is often confined to establishing how much learners know, or worse still, remember, in comparison to their peers. Assessment should also be about what learners decide they can and want to learn next, as well as what they are judged competent to do.
The premium placed on test results has encouraged schools and teachers to teach "to the test". This reinforces a system in which students are offered few real incentives to transfer skills across disciplines and contexts or solve real problems within disciplines - to develop their understanding in ways which they could apply in the world beyond the exam hall.
The genuine desire of teachers to find a renewed sense of creativity in teaching, and the need inspire and develop creative abilities in pupils are closely linked. The damaged morale in the profession and the difficulty the government has had in implementing change from above is no coincidence. Only by aligning the professional development of teachers with the direction of proposed change can a "progressive transformation" of schools be achieved.
Both teachers and students will benefit form a more tailored approach to individual pupils needs, as Morris has already indicated must happen. But how does the government propose to enable this flexible approach to teaching within the constraints imposed by teacher shortages? Its commitment to universal attainment levels as the mechanism for driving change also creates tensions with an individual approach to learning packages.
Teachers recognise that the national curriculum and league tables are here to stay, but the trade-off must be that the government must give teachers a real stake in refining and developing the quality of pupil learning.
In order to facilitate greater collaboration new uses of modern technology and the wider resources of community partnerships and local employers must be developed at a local level. These partnerships could also involves museums, art galleries and just about any community-based organisation with a stake in young peopleès education.
These changes of school culture must not be imposed from above. Instead schools must develop their own solutions so that - for the first time in 20 years of educational reform - changes generate a sense of ownership and enthusiasm amongst teachers. Attempts to characterise transforming schools as a battle between modernisers and change-resistant teachers miss the point. The education system is highly complex, and so is leadership within it. Changes imposed at national level can have unintended consequences as others adapt to accommodate the changing environment in which they have to operate.
So what about some practical solutions? Demos is working on a series of projects aimed at linking schools to each other in new ways. This will provide concrete support innovation generated by schools themselves, and develop links with the wider community.
This "cluster" approach should draw upon the idea of the "24/7 school" where school education and out-of-school learning, and therefore link school education to post-school learning. If schools can develop community and business partnerships, they will enable a smoother and better planned transition from school to work.
· Tom Bentley is director of Demos and author of several books on education including The Creative Age and Learning Beyond the Classroom. He was formerly adviser at the Department of Education to David Blunkett.