“Grammar schools are nothing more than window dressing”.
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“This is not just a great day for education in Kent but the future of grammar school education across the country”. “Tutoring is a £2 billion industry, 20% of which is tutoring for grammar school entry”.
In the perceived “golden-age” of the grammar system in the 50s, which Tory backbenchers seem to look back to through rose-tinted glasses, nearly 40 per cent of the children selected failed to achieve more than 3 O-Levels.
New grammar schools will have to take a quota of pupils from poor backgrounds, or open a non-selective school to run alongside.
Theresa May is to change the law and allow a new generation of selective grammar schools, promising a “true meritocracy”.
“And I think once people see the proposals and the conditions that apply on grammar schools that want to expand and those schools that want to adopt selection criteria, my view is that it will be very persuasive”.
Her comments come after her rumoured intentions were confirmed when an official was photographed carrying a document signed by the Department for Education’s most senior civil servant revealing proposals for a consultation on opening new grammars.
“That is why I am announcing an ambitious package of education reforms to ensure that every child has the chance to go to a good school”.
Labour pledged to fight the plans “every step of the way”, while Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron predicted they would be defeated in the Lords.
Theresa May is right to say that our education system already selects – through house prices and admissions procedures.
“As referred to by the Prime Minister, Eton College sponsors one of our local free schools, Holyport College, which has a commitment to providing education opportunities for local pupils and those needing additional support such as children in care and pupil premium”.
Removing the bar on selection in state schools, which was kept in place by her predecessor David Cameron, Mrs May argued it was “completely illogical to make it illegal to open good new schools”.
“The problem with grammar schools is how they affect our other schools in Lincolnshire, in that they can cream the most able students”.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, has warned it could lead the United Kingdom to “fail as a nation” if there is a system where only the top 15-20% of pupils get a superior education.
At a press conference at the end of last week, May made it clear that she did not intend to build a system to accommodate a return to the much maligned 11-plus and secondary modern school.
Ms Greening appeared at the despatch box to answer an urgent question from shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, who warned an expansion of grammar schools would “entrench inequality and disadvantage”.
This was “unfounded” because there is a diverse school share, from free schools sponsored by universities to faith schools.
Sam Freedman, the executive director of programmes for charity Teach First, said: “Education experts are united that the evidence shows grammar schools harm social mobility”.
May also announced that new faith schools would be able to select their entire intake on the basis of religion, abolishing the current 50% cap on the use of religious tests in admissions.
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Prime Minister Theresa May, who attended a grammar, has backed a proposed new annex in her own constituency of Maidenhead and supports an “element of selection” in the education system. “There’s no evidence at all that that is the answer to numerous problems in our education system”.
