Grammar schools

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 15 September 2016

Home Schools in England would have the right to select pupils by ability, under plans outlined by Theresa May, the Prime Minister. New grammar schools would take quotas of poor pupils or help run other schools, a Green Paper proposed. ‘We already have selection in our school system — and it’s selection by house price, selection by wealth. That is simply unfair,’ Mrs May said in a speech. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, said the idea that poor children would benefit from a return of grammar schools was ‘tosh’. Oversubscribed Catholic schools which wished to expand would be able to choose all their additional pupils on grounds

Toby Young Toby Young

Are grammar schools more meritocratic?

‘It is highly unlikely the Prime Minister has read the book,’ my father harrumphed, commenting on the appropriation of the word ‘meritocracy’, which he invented to describe a dystopian society of the future in The Rise of the Meritocracy. That comment appeared in a 2001 article for the Guardian and the Prime Minister in question was Tony Blair, but I expect my late father would have been equally unhappy about Theresa May’s misuse of it in her education speech last week. In fact, he probably would have been even more cross because the book, which was published in 1958, was a thinly veiled attack on grammar schools. Like his close

Peter Jones

Plato on grammar schools

Theresa May wants to use grammar schools to create a meritocratic, ‘socially mobile’ society at a cost of £50 million. But that raises the question: merit in what, precisely? In his Republic, Plato envisaged Socrates wondering how society was created, with a view to determining how best to establish a just one. Socrates suggested that society originated out of universal needs which individuals could not necessarily satisfy themselves. Food, shelter and clothing were the most basic ones, demanding therefore farmers, builders and weavers; and since everyone had different aptitudes, workers best served the whole community by sticking to their last. Then again, the farmer needed his plough, the builder his

Tuesday

Andrew Sabisky

The education Green Paper is surprisingly bold

Yesterday afternoon the government released a new Green Paper which focussed on its initial proposals for expanding the number of high-quality school places throughout both the primary and secondary sectors. This task is particularly urgent given the existence of a demographic bulge currently passing through the primary year groups. The proposed reforms are united by an overarching theme, which is a desire to provide a higher-quality education for the children of those parents who are ‘just about managing’ (a phrase the document frequently returns to), and whose earnings are just above the free school meals cut-off (around £16,190). The paper tackles the problem of how best to meet the needs of this group

Monday

Tristram Hunt

Theresa May has done a poor job of stealing Labour’s clothes

‘I don’t think we are a charity.  We are a successful, multi-national educational institution,’ explained the public school head to me. And he was right. As it happens, he was a highly progressive head committed to using the wealth and resource he enjoyed to collaborate with an under-performing local academy.  For the first time, their partner school now had maths graduates teaching physics and a new range of language options.  But he had no doubt that he should not be in receipt of charitable status and tax relief.  Which is why one of the few components of Theresa May’s school reforms I can support is the Prime Minister’s determination to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Greening takes dovish tone on government’s schools plan

Is Theresa May planning an epic battle with some of her own MPs to introduce new grammar schools in England? When Justine Greening gave her statement in the Commons this afternoon, she repeated many of the Prime Minister’s own lines about selection already existing through house prices and so on. But her language was much more conciliatory, with the Education Secretary telling MPs that ‘this is the beginning of a consultation that sets out a debate that we need to have’. Greening and her colleagues will be responsible for trying to persuade reluctant MPs of the merits of the changes, and she clearly doesn’t want to start a stand-off just

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Why CofE schools must resist becoming more religious

The Church of England’s relationship with state education seems simple enough. Its schools have been a major source of strength, significantly slowing its rate of decline over the past few decades. Many congregations have been swelled by parents seeking a better-than-average state education for their offspring. From an Anglican point of view, what’s not to like?  Well, this: selection by church attendance is unpopular with those who do not benefit, giving the Church an image problem with its non-members. This makes some of its members, including me, uneasy. Also, the integrity of church attendance is in doubt, in parishes near a popular school. The cliché of the pushy parents faking

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

Before anyone sounds off about grammar schools, ask first where their children go to school

There’s a good reason and a bad reason why David Cameron hasn’t added his mite to the argument about the reintroduction of grammars, which his Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, sounded off about yesterday. The good reason is that it would be the worst of form for the former Tory PM to diss his successor, even if he disagrees with her. The bad reason is that he’s got a dog in this fight; his son Elwen. You remember all the fuss about the rumour that little Elwen might be going to a feeder prep to St Paul’s, the private school? The Camerons invoked media privacy to see off discussion of that

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May makes her grammar schools pitch

Theresa May spoke for almost half an hour before she actually mentioned the ‘G’ word: Grammar schools. But before she did so, the Prime Minister repeatedly uttered another word nearly a dozen times: meritocracy. May said she wanted Britain to become ‘the great meritocracy of the world’ and she said schools were the place to kick start that change. Her speech was a sometimes-reheated version of her first Downing Street address, but her message was clear: this is a bold shake-up of Britain’s education system. The PM said grammar schools would be encouraged to grow and she vowed as well to kick over the obstacles in the way of new grammar

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

Coffee House shots: Is Theresa May right to expand grammar schools?

With her first major speech since standing on the steps of No. 10, Theresa May has set out plans to radically reform the education system. Introduced by new Education Secretary Justine Greening, May outlined overhauls to the grammar school system, offering expansion to existing ones and giving state schools the opportunity to select. Her policy ambitions also touched on allowing faith schools to be filled entirely on grounds of religion. And she wants to make private schools justify their charitable status. But how revolutionary are these plans? And are selective schools really the way to go? On today’s edition of the Coffee House shots podcast, Fraser Nelson is joined by James Forsyth who says: ‘Following the reforms

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Could Theresa May’s grammar school plans trigger an early election?

Predictably, Theresa May’s speech on new grammar schools and expanding selection across the education system has attracted some strong criticism from within her own party, particularly from former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. The controversial nature of the reforms announced today – and let’s not forget the proposal to lift the cap on the proportion of pupils that faith schools can admit from their own religion, which will cause a Commons row for a number of reasons – means the Tory whips are going to be very busy indeed over the next few months. Education reform is a personal priority of Nick Timothy, May’s chief of staff, which means that the

Thursday

Andrew Sabisky

Do ‘tutor-proof’ grammar school tests exist?

As part of its plan to expand the number of grammar schools, the Government has proposed making ‘tutor-proof’ tests. Unfortunately, this is more difficult to accomplish than Theresa May imagines and even if it were realistic, it might not solve the problem of under-representation of poor children in grammar schools. It’s possible to make this argument thanks to the large amount of scientific literature on the effects of practice and coaching on cognitive test performance. This is based on the popularity of such tests in job and educational selection over the decades and the results are both clear and consistent. Practice and coaching do have positive effects. What’s more, coaching has an effect over and above

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory backbenchers toe the line on grammar schools – for now

There were two striking things about today’s urgent question on grammar schools. The first was that MPs were told far less by Education Secretary Justine Greening than the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs was told by the Prime Minister last night. As James revealed yesterday, Theresa May explained the policymaking process for new grammars to her MPs, but today Greening would merely say that: ‘We are looking at a range of options, and I expect any new proposals to focus on what we can do to help everyone go as far as their individual talents and capacity for hard work can take them. Education policy to that end will

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Theresa May’s grammar school plans provoke a mixed reaction

Theresa May has told Tory MPs she won’t ‘turn back the clock’ on grammar schools. But she also didn’t rule out some expansion in the system of selective schools. How those two thoughts reconcile with each together will become clearer when the Government reveals its plans for school reform soon (this being Theresa May, we won’t be expecting a running commentary). Yet even the scant details which have emerged so far have provoked a predictably mixed reaction. Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said the plans were ‘shambolic’. You can listen to her criticism here: And Alan Milburn, who chairs the government’s social mobility commission, is perhaps the most outspoken voice this

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Theresa May: We have selection in state schools already, selection by house price

Theresa May received the traditional desk banging reception when she addressed the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers. May pleased Tory MPs by emphasising that they  would have more opportunity to feed into policy making process now through George Freeman and the policy board and the green papers that will—once again—precede white papers. But what most excited Tory MPs was what May said about opportunity and grammar schools. May said that she would give a speech on a 21st century education system soon, explaining how selective schools–in other words, grammars–fit into the mix. Strikingly, she defended an ‘element of selection’ arguing that there is selection already in the system, and it

Thursday

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 11 August 2016

Those who want to revive grammar schools are accused of ‘bring backery’ — the unthinking idea that the past was better. But many of their accusers suffer from the rigid mindset of which they complain. They say that grammar schools ‘condemned most children to failure at the age of 11’, and that, even at their peak, grammars catered for less than 20 per cent of the school population. Why assume that the return of grammars must re-create either of these things? Grammar schools grew up, historically, in different ways and at different times. Then, in the mid‑20th-century mania for uniformity, they were standardised and, in the later 20th-century mania for comprehensives, almost

Toby Young Toby Young

The problem with grammar schools

By rights, I should be one of those Tories who is passionately in favour of grammar schools. After all, I went to one myself. My attachment to them should be particularly strong because before arriving at William Ellis in Highgate I went to two bog-standard comprehensives and failed all my O–levels apart from English Literature, in which I got a C. The only other qualification I left with was a grade one CSE in Drama. William Ellis was the making of me. Had I not got in, I doubt I would have ended up at Oxford. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not a passionate opponent of grammar schools either. I wouldn’t

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: The memory gap. Is technology taking over our minds?

Smartphone ownership is predicted to hit 2.5 billion by 2019 and 60 per cent of internet traffic now comes through our mobile devices. But does the world becoming more reliant on handheld gadgets to guide us in day-to-day life come at a price? In her cover piece this week, Lara Prendergast claims that we are outsourcing our brains to the internet and that technology is taking over our minds. On this week’s Spectator podcast, Lara is joined by Isabel Hardman, Charlotte Jee, Editor of Techworld, and Professor Martin Conway, head of psychology at City University. On the podcast, Lara tells Isabel: ‘I do think it’s having an effect on me

Tuesday

Toby Young

New grammars won’t do more for social mobility than comprehensives. But there is a third way

One of David Cameron’s last acts as Prime Minister was to approve an application by Ashlawn School in Rugby to set up a new free school in the city. It’s not surprising that Ashlawn’s application was approved. Not only has it been ranked ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, but last year 74 per cent of its pupils got five GCSEs at grade C or above, including English and maths (a metric known as ‘5A*–CEM’). Even more impressive, 65 per cent of its pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds met that same target. However, before Ashlawn can open its new school in 2017 it has to overcome an obstacle. Ashlawn is one of England’s three

Monday

Carola Binney

Theresa May should beware of grammar schools

In 1960, my father failed the eleven-plus. He was lucky: his parents could afford to send him to a private school. In 1968 he went up to Cambridge, in 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and last year he retired as head of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. Although it was seldom recognised as a condition in the 1960s, my father’s late academic development and early difficulties with basic literacy skills are characteristic of dyslexia. Dyslexia runs in families,  and I very much doubt that I, a card-carrying dyslexic, would have passed the eleven-plus either. While I may never reach my father’s academic heights, after an inauspicious