James O'Shaughnessy of the think tank Policy Exchange has been finding out about schools in Qatar. It turns out that they have been undergoing something of an educational revolution - one that James believes could be an example to the UK:

If you free up your education system like the Qataris are doing then it's inevitable that you'll get more variation between schools, but some educationalists think variety is dangerous, because not all children will get the same education.

But uniformity doesn't lead to higher standards either so allowing kids to specialise in the subjects they're good at is better for everyone.

Qatar may be a very different place from Britain but there are still things we can learn. Give heads and teachers more power and standards will rise. Let children specialise in the things they're good at and they'll be happier and achieve more.

Trust people to succeed and guess what? They will.

One of the problems with any reform plan is that people fear it. But thanks to a world of examples, policymakers can see what in practice works and copy from it.