In her first article since becoming Education secretary, Justine Greening is urging school staff to inspire the passion for learning that her own teachers provided, reports TES. Standing on the steps of 10 Downing Street, Theresa May set out the new government’s ambition to make Britain a country that works for everyone, not just for the privileged few.

From my own experience, that begins with education. It’s an incredible opportunity to have been appointed by the prime minister to be secretary of state at the Department for Education, which will now also include further education, apprenticeships, universities and skills.

It gives me the chance to help build and improve the very state education system that gave me my start as a young person. I was educated through the state system and was the first person in my family to go to university. Without that education, I’d never have had a career in business or become a Cabinet minister writing this article today. It is education and those at its very heart – – that steadily unlock that potential, day by day, year by year. In lots of ways that I cannot possibly even begin to list, I was shaped so much more by my teachers than by the books that they gave me. I know that there are many, many challenges facing teachers today, and many pressures on our education system.

Thank you to all those educators – and there have been lots of you – who have already been in touch with advice and suggestions on how best to get grips with this huge agenda. Reflecting on it all, my aim is to work steadily and sensibly through all of those issues in as measured a way as possible, and to help us steer the right course. There is a lot to do; there are some big decisions to be taken. But in summary, I want today’s teachers, and today’s schools, to excite – and to instil – as much passion for learning as my teachers and schools did for me. One welcome tweet to me said it was about “trust, competence, and care”. I completely agree. I will do my best. I am looking forward to working with teachers in our country to help ensure that together we give Britain’s children and young people the best possible start in life, wherever they are.