Morgan revealed last week that she would allow the Weald of Kent girls’ grammar school in Tonbridge to build a new “satellite” school in Sevenoaks nine miles away.
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“However, he conceded that rising house prices would have the “unfortunate side effect” of making properties too expensive for less wealthy families”. The 1998 School Standards and Framework Act forbids the creation of taxpayer-funded grammars that admit children on the basis of performance tests at 11. “It is appalling that there aren’t enough to meet the demand, particularly in deprived areas”.
A national newspaper has reported that education secretary Nicky Morgan has given the green light to plans for a 450-pupil grammar school in Sevenoaks, Kent, after months of legal wrangling.
The Department for Education said the report was “speculation” but it is understood that a written ministerial statement on school expansion will be made in the Commons.
Thirty per cent of WCGS’s pupils are from Croydon, which has no grammar schools.
While this new initiative is widely accepted by many, the return of grammar schools does cause worry for a few.
He said: “This is obviously a big boost for that campaign and it has got a step closer to becoming a reality with this week’s decision”. We have been discussing the concept, we have been discussing potential sites. The campaign is calling for the legislation banning new grammar schools to be removed so that male as well as female pupils could attend the school on the new site.
He said a number of grammar schools in the county, including his own, had expanded or were in the process of increasing in size, with the result that in three years time 1,500 more pupils will be taught at grammar schools in the county than five years ago.
Supporters of grammar schools blame their abolition in the 1960s and 1970s for the decline in social mobility.
Mr Wilden admitted WCGS’s plans would “attract much debate” but said he hoped many would support the new school.
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“Without that grammar school I wouldn’t have got to Oxford and I certainly wouldn’t be Croydon South’s member of Parliament”. It is expected that the school will open in September 2017. “Grammar_school_for_1_000_pupils_planned_to_open_in_Addington/”>separate free school in Croydon won Government approval earlier this year.
