Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Government’s outgoing chief inspector of schools, said on Monday that a return to the selective model would be “profoundly retrograde” and warned the claim that poor children benefit from grammars was “tosh and nonsense”.
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The Prime Minister is reported to have told the Tories” 1922 Committee that she was not going to “turn the clock back’ to general exams for children at 11, but suggested that some of the 500 new free schools announced by David Cameron before he left office could be grammars.
“That is why I am announcing an ambitious package of education reforms”. This could involve taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income background or opening a “feeder” primary school in disadvantaged areas.
But Mr Godsiff said he was nearly a victim of the selective education system when he failed his 11 Plus exam as a child and was sent to a “central school”.
“My own experience was that I was one of six out of 36 in my class who got to go to a selective school”.
The Prime Minister believes the scheme will allow every child a chance to attend a good school, regardless of their background. “And a future in which Britain’s education system shifts decisively to support ordinary working-class families”.
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.
Rules stopping faith schools from selecting more than half of pupils according to religion are also set to be relaxed under the proposals.
She added: “It’s very weird”. We need to improve all schools, not just let some become grammars. And we know that they want to expand.
“I can only conclude that Theresa May is creating a lifeboat for all those children that she wants to do well that can afford to pay for private tuition, while the rest of our kids rot because they have failed to implement policies that will help our children”.
Pupils in non-selective schools should also be able to join grammars for specific subjects or specialisms.
Richard Jones, headteacher of St Christopher’s CE High School in Accrington, said: “The current discussion around the expansion of grammar schools offers an unwelcome sideshow for school leaders and yet more uncertainty”.
“I want every parent to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing their children will get the chance to go to a great school”.
Already, a broad and diverse opposition to the plans is forming, encompassing Labour, the Lib Dems, the trade unions, NGOs, and even Tory modernisers.
“We will fail as a nation if we only get the top fifteen to twenty per cent of children achieving well”. Parents and teachers have seen the consequences of choice in school provision.
But Ms Greening told the House of Commons there would be no return to the “simplistic” division of children into “winners and losers” at the age of 11.
Although numerous Conservative MPs who took part in today’s debate did so on the government’s side, several senior backbenchers and former ministers expressed reservations.
Universities would also be forced to support attainment in the state education system, by sponsoring a state school or setting up a new free school.
“This is about opening the system up to a greater diversity”.
She said she would attack entrenched privilege and work towards a society where people rose on the basis of their abilities rather than their connections.
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“Sevenoaks parents can feel very proud of their crucial intervention into the national debate on the return of grammar schools”, said Mr Shilling.
