The boss of Ofsted is on a collision course with Theresa May after he rubbished the Prime Minister’s rumoured plans to approve a new wave of grammar schools – including a Marlow school expanding into her constituency.
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Supporters of grammar schools were pleased that she seemed to be signalling there could be an expansion in areas where there is a demand for them and that a prohibition on new schools might well be lifted.
But in her first major policy speech since becoming PM, Mrs May insisted that there will be “no return to secondary moderns” – the so-called sink schools of the pre-comprehensive era which were blamed for consigning the majority of children to academic failure.
Mrs May’s comments could be interpreted as an attempt to calm fears that lifting the ban on new grammar schools will only benefit children of the rich, at the expense of the disadvantaged.
May added: “People get lost in the argument about whether the grammars schools of the 1950s and 60s improved social mobility or not”.
Earlier, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon told the BBC that the Government wanted to offer a “proper choice of good schools” to parents in every part of the country.
Selective education supporters often point to the list of high-achievers who were taught at grammar schools, including Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Margaret Thatcher, Anthony Hopkins, David Attenborough and Alan Bennett.
The founder of Christian charity Oasis, which through its education trust Oasis Community Learning is responsible for 47 Academies in England and is one of the UK’s biggest education providers, said none of its schools would select students by ability or by faith.
MPs will question Education Secretary Justine Greening about the plans with several high profile Tory backbenchers having already voiced their opposition.
Mr Roskilly, who represents almost 400 private schools, said parents were already using independent schools as an “insurance” in case their children fail to get into grammars in parts of England.
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.
Noting that Mr Cameron said in 2007 that rejecting calls for grammars was a “key test” of whether the Tories were fit for office, Mr Ashworth said: “It’s utterly ludicrous for Theresa May to stand up and talk about creating a “great meritocracy” and then in the next breath announce a return to grammar schools”.
All of the proposals unveiled in Mrs May’s speech will go out for consultation.
What did Theresa May say about selective schools? “A Britain that works for everyone, not just the privileged few”.
It is striking how much consensus there is among experts that more selection would damage social mobility and the life chances of children from poorer backgrounds, across organisations as diverse as the centre-right Reform Think Tank, the Socialist Educational Association and the government’s own Social Mobility Tsar.
James Courtenay, Southend councillor responsible for children and learning, says he believes new grammar schools in south Essex could provide more spaces locally for youngsters.
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However, Labour’s shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, accused the government of “wilfully ignoring the overwhelming evidence that selection at 11 leads to a more unequal country”. “Our focus should be on raising standards across the board to end the scandal of disadvantage determining destiny”.
