Jarlath O’Brien, headteacher at Carwarden House Community School, a special academy in Surrey, reacting on Twitter said it was “sad, infuriating, but entirely predictable”.
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Plans to re-introduce grammar schools in England will be presented in the House of Commons later.
But some Conservative MPs backed Greening.
Labour has said the plans will “entrench inequality”.
But the government has argued that quotas will ensure pupils from less well-off backgrounds will be able to get places.
But the overwhelming view of education experts is that poorer children would still lose more overall.
But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said that while Labour had promised “education, education, education” the Conservative government’s policy amounts to “segregation, segregation, segregation”.
“Several high profile Tory backbenchers have already made clear their dismay at the plans”, she said.
The education secretary unveiled proposals to allow the creation of brand new grammar schools for the first time in around 50 years.
“But we know that selective schools are in high demand, as are specialist art music and sports schools, selective schools are good for pupils particularly the most disadvantaged ones who attend them”.
The Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, seems to base his vituperation nearly entirely on the fact that schools in the capital have improved without the need for selection – which leads him to the quite groundless conclusion that introducing more grammars would reverse this progress by removing bright children from existing schools.
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”. That is simply unfair.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, who is the outgoing Ofsted chief inspector of schools, criticised the proposals, saying: “If grammar schools are the great answer, why aren’t there more in London?”
He and several teaching unions have said the plans represent social mobility for a few bright children at the expense of the majority who would be in schools that would suffer from the knock-on impact.
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“Fundamentally, it’s the same as the old 11-plus system, in that it is dividing children on the basis of their perceived ability at the age of 11”, he said. I want every child to have the kind of opportunities that I enjoyed.
