“And a future in which Britain’s education system shifts decisively to support ordinary working class families”.
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And on 9 September – the day Theresa May openly put the creation of new grammar schools at the centre of her education plans, Education Secretary Justine Greening didn’t let us down.
Instead, she said her reforms were created to provide “a good school place for every child and one that caters for their individual needs”.
The plan will face opposition.
“I think one of the way of doing that is to allow schools to specialise in academically able children”.
The Prime Minister is not bringing back the old-fashioned system of grammar schools and secondary moderns.
And if a child excels in a specific subject – maths or English, for example – they could attend a grammar school for that particular topic, even if they attend a different school the rest of the time.
Because the reality that we should bear in mind throughout this debate is that there is ruthless, merciless academic selection going on and it carried on by the private schools of Britain, and it never dawned on me that it was happening until I saw what my children’s peers were doing.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner attacked the plans, warning: “By enshrining selection into our education system, the Prime Minister is wilfully ignoring the overwhelming evidence that selection at 11 leads to a more unequal country”.
Anyway, before anyone sounds off about grammar school selection, ask first where their children go to school; for once, it matters.
“I want a good education for every child”, he said.
Whenever anyone says grammar schools are wrong, it is fair to ask whether they are against selection on principle or only at certain ages?
When I interviewed the late judge, Lord Bingham, he observed that the Bar had become the preserve of the public school lot, once the grammar school cohort had gone.
There are also plans to make tests for independent schools qualifying for charitable status more rigorous. At its simplest, this means that the best-performing school pupils tend to aim for Oxbridge or other (generally ancient) prestigious institutions and, if they get in, typically travel halfway across the country to take up a residential place – on something I have in the past termed the boarding school model of higher education.
Gibb told the conference this morning that the government wanted to look at the reasons why poorer pupils weren’t getting in to existing grammar schools after he was quizzed on figures which show that the average proportion of free school meals pupils in grammars is 3 per cent, compared to 18 per cent in the areas they serve.
Mrs May’s proposals sparked widespread concern among educationalists, unions and political opponents, as well as within the PM’s own party.
We will fail as a nation if we only get the top 15% to 20% of our children achieving well.
“My fear is that by dividing children at 11 and by creating grammars and secondary moderns – because that’s what we’ll do – that we won’t be able to achieve that ambition”.
“But the only place it has got us to is a place where selection exists if you’re wealthy – if you can afford to go private – but doesn’t exist if you’re not”, she said.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron predicted the “out-of-date, ineffective approach” would be defeated in the House of Lords.
“And I want every teacher and every school to have the resources and the capacity to deliver on those promises”. This is about opening the system to a greater diversity.
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Theresa May is to change the law and allow a new generation of selective grammar schools, promising a “true meritocracy”. She has a Commons working majority of just 17.
