It was a … Labour's arrangements for abolishing grammar schools were also a … See also: ‘Grammar schools and social mobility’: our first report on this area – the most detailed impartial study of the data and evidence on selective schools for almost a decade. Contradictory research has been produced, showing both that grammar schools consistently perform better than comprehensives in exams, and that results are not significantly better in areas with grammar schools. When I arrived in 1973 the Lower School Master, Mr Greenhow was about to retire. Grammar schools are “horror movie monsters” to their detractors and “beacons of excellence” to their defenders. Grammar schools provide equal opportunity to every student irrespective … The following 10 schools have been ranked and rated as part of the Real Schools Guide 2020 - a Reach plc analysis, compiled by our in-house data unit. ntil last year, I was the MP for Buckingham, in one of the few counties where education is fully selective. Both the Conservatives and Labour have to take an honest and open position and support comprehensive education everywhere. I have come to believe that the only way we will get change in the selective areas is to have a countrywide policy, nationally promoted and applied. It was a case of education levelling down rather than up and so even more poorer children missed out on university. Each grammar school and how it fared 1) Invicta Grammar School With the country so divided, and educational disadvantage growing so rapidly, even more so during the pandemic, it is time to act. 05/06/2015 11:33am BST ... Would she have got that in a state school - even the excellent grammar … Try finding that in a state school today. And if you look at that income gap, it is lower in Grammars than in any other kind of schools in the country. 2. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. The place was a middle-class racket; most of my schoolmates’ parents were architects, surgeons, accountants and the like. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. And I was wrong then and am right now. I am under no illusions, though. I took the view that there had been too much structural change in education and that we needed to deal with the world as it was. For all these reasons, the attainment gap between FSM children and others is much higher in Bucks than in neighbouring authorities. And he was right. It made the Conservatives seem narrow, backward-looking, old-fashioned. I do not know if my elder son would have passed an exam at 10 (the age that many take the 11-plus) but at age 16, educated at a comprehensive, he has 11 GCSE passes, 10 of them at the top grade 9. Why Private Schools Are Better Than State. Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their students by an entrance examination taken by children when they are 11 years old and this exam is called as “11-plus”. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. My school taught ancient Greek. And I did not question the selective system itself for a long time. According to current figures, 18.6% of children going to Buckinghamshire grammars come from private schools; between 25% and 30% come from outside the county. I received barely a handful of letters protesting at the system and was lobbied directly only once, by two Labour supporters who did not have children. Why? The evidence suggests pupils who get into grammar schools perform better than they would under comprehensive education, and pupils who don’t perform worse. But lately I have changed my opinion on grammar schools. There are pupils at the school living in £10m houses and others who live in the shadow of Grenfell. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. It is a very disciplined school, led by the prodigiously energetic Colin Hall, who arrives at the crack of dawn and is remarkably knowledgable about every child. When David Cameron was elected leader of the Tory party he said: “We shouldn’t keep banging on about grammar schools.” He did not want the Tory party to be defined by them – 164 schools out of thousands and thousands. Part of it is the result of a general leftward shift in my political outlook. Successful Students . On average 2.6% of grammar school children received free school meals compared with 13.4% of children across all state secondary schools, according to the latest school census. When I was elected in 1997, it seemed like an apartheid system. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Grammar schools have existed since the 16th Century, but the modern grammar school concept dates back to the Education Act 1944. This is not only because of the selection of more able pupils, but also because they can often be pushed harder due to a more equal level of ability in class. They have friends, male and female, of all ethnicities, Christian, Muslim and secular. Grammar schools are free, but that does not mean they do not have high standards of education or do not adhere to them. GCSE attainment at grammars is, on average, much better than in non-selective schools (the attainment gap is greatest with non-selective schools in highly selective areas). A number of grammar schools are reportedly being planned across England after the Government gave the go-ahead to the first "new" selective school in 50 years. While that may have been true when Fred Perry – a great tennis hero of mine – went to grammar school in the 1920s, that is not the norm today. They are the only state schools in England that are allowed to select all their pupils based on academic ability. The Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys, in Leicester, thought it was a public school, for good or ill. Grammar pupils were encouraged to feel superior and many secondary modern students probably resented them. We have put together a league table comparing UK grammar schools in terms of their academic performance which can make this process a bit easier for you. In 2006, pupils in England’s 164 grammar schools produced more than half the total number of A grade A levels in so-called harder subjects than those … And despite May’s selective school expansion fund, which promised to increase the numbers of disadvantaged children in selective schools, those Bucks grammars that have recently benefited from extra government funds are actually taking in fewer disadvantaged children than before. And despite 76 per cent of local authorities having no grammar schools, nearly 2,000 comprehensive schools send only slightly more pupils to Oxbridge than all 163 grammar schools. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. What are the PROS of grammar schools? We do not suggest that local areas can pick their own energy policy, so why should we with education? on 10 December, It's still rich v poor in English schools – exactly as Boris Johnson likes it | Fiona Millar. In 2015, only 32.2% of children on free school meals in the county got five good GCSEs; neighbouring, non-selective Luton did much better. If there’d been no grammar, they’d have sent their boys to a fee-paying school. It is a real London school and that is what I love about it. Private schools are there to make money and a profit for their owners - the money does not always go into improving the school! Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? My three children attend Holland Park in west London, where I have now just been elected a parent-governor. I believe that Theresa May was right then and is wrong now. The former Speaker and MP for selective Buckingham was an ardent defender - until his own children went to school and he drilled down into the stats, Last modified on Tue 1 Dec 2020 04.46 EST. He had joined in 1937. Therefore, the chances of children from these backgrounds are lesser in any test situation. Selective schools, and the higher education, employment and earnings outcomes of those who attend them {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Read more New grammar school opening, but don't expect more to follow, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. Although some children from deprived backgrounds do go to Private Schools on a scholarship or bursary, most are from wealthy backgrounds. Next to it was the Buckingham school, the local secondary modern, less traditional, admirably serving its pupils who did not pass the 11-plus. There was a “them and us” attitude. Whether you're in primary school and about to go to secondary school or in secondary school and starting to think about where you want to … Mine was fairly typical. There is … This made secondary education after the age of 14 free. In the town there are two state secondary schools, a grammar and a secondary modern, right next door to each other. Allow grammar schools to expand – or better yet, open new ones in parts of the country you want to ‘level up’ – and the social mix of their pupils will change. Until last year, I was the MP for Buckingham, in one of the few counties where education is fully selective. However, pupil intakes differ between grammars and non-selective schools, both in terms … In retrospect, it is extraordinary how very few representations I received against the selective system in my 22 years as an MP, given that only 25% of any cohort of children will pass the 11-plus. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. According to a 2008 report conducted by the Sutton Trust and published on the Grammar Schools Association website, grammar school students perform better in GCSEs than pupils from other schools. Many high acheivers attended grammar schools Of course, I always supported both schools to the best of my ability – that is a local MP’s job. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. In data published by the DfE in 2015, only 32.2% of FSM children in Bucks obtained five or more GCSEs at grade C or above (the grading system at the time) while 71.4% of non-FSM children achieved the same. Next to it was the Buckingham school, the local secondary modern, less traditional, admirably serving its pupils who did not pass the 11-plus. The children have a lot of homework, maybe a little too much, but then the curriculum has been overloaded since the reforms of Michael Gove. My children, who are very different in their talents and interests, are flourishing. Also the two top performing schools are independent schools. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Yet had that 20 per cent gone to a comp, they would have had a far worse schooling – while the kids at the secondary moderns and the comps did no better because the grammar was scrapped. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. Tomorrow's Budget is set to pave the way for a new generation of grammar schools, as part of a £500m investment in education reforms. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. The Royal Latin admits just 3.4% of young people on pupil premium (a slightly broader measure of disadvantage), while the Buckingham school takes more than 19%. Educational quality and social justice make a formidable mix. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. I used to subscribe to the myth that grammar schools were the great facilitator of opportunity for a bright working-class child. I was warmly welcomed in both schools. Grammar schools are no more successful than comprehensives at getting their pupils into elite universities, according to new research. You seem poorly informed. The evidence is clear: grammar schools unfairly favour the affluent, whereas a high-quality comprehensive system can raise the achievements of the less able, while doing no damage to the academic chances of the cleverer child. Go and see the schools as well as read reports, talk to parents if you can. On average, 10.7% of pupils at Bucks’ non-selective schools are eligible for free school meals (FSM) while the figure for the county’s grammars is just 2%, and a third of Bucks’ non-selective schools are currently rated less than good. Compare that with neighbouring Luton, where the difference was only 13%. I never understood why Theresa May made expanding grammar schools a centrepiece of her premiership, although I suspect she was influenced by her chief of staff, Nick Timothy, a high Tory and a grammar school enthusiast. But the local political and civic establishment in Buckinghamshire was much more interested in the grammar school. ‘Grammar schools are defined by their pursuit of academic excellence, traditional teaching methods and ethos of strict discipline,’ explains Bob McCartney, chair of the National Grammar Schools Association. He was not unusual. ‘Faith Schools, pupil performance, and social selection’: this report considers the premise in Schools that work for everyone that faith schools are high-performing and support increased social mobility. That is a gap of 39.2 percentage points. But I do think private school students do in general do better academically than grammar schools anyway. Here we give you the low-down on the state, grammar and private school systems to give you a better idea of what you are signing up for. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, “there is robust evidence that attending a grammar school is good for the attainment and later earnings of those who get in”. Grammar schools do not have better pupil attainment than other state schools and should be closed for the negative impact they have on social mobility, a new study has concluded. I confess to being conscious, too, that vast swathes of the local electorate were pro-grammar schools, particularly my Conservative voters. The masters wore gowns, you called them “Sir” and stood up when they arrived in the classroom. We sent a decent proportion to Oxbridge, and I was one of them. Hey, guys! Here is a comparison of 163 UK Grammar Schools based on their academic performance at GCSEs and their Progress 8 measures. At least £320m has been earmarked to … . Rugby and cricket were the official sports; football was discouraged. Children develop at different rates; I was a late developer, who flourished intellectually only at university. John Bercow will be speaking online at a special Comprehensive Future event, Is there a comprehensive future? Given the choice between stats and personal experience, I give a heavy weighting to the latter. In fact, the quality of the results achieved at grammar schools are simply because they select naturally high-achieving pupils from wealthier backgrounds. When parents did approach me, it was usually to seek my help to get their child into a grammar school. The evidence is clear: grammar schools unfairly favour the affluent, whereas a high-quality comprehensive system can raise the achievements of the less able, while doing no … Grammar schools are unhealthy and should be phased out. At that time, I wanted to talk about grammars – to protect them from Labour’s 1998 School Standards and Framework Act, which provided for ballots on grammar schools’ future if 20% of parents demanded them. She was keener to talk about schools in general, and explicitly not to associate the Tory party with the selective school issue. ‘Students are selected based on their academic potential, to identify those who are most suitable for this type of education.’ Children who either don’t apply for a grammar school place or fail to meet the necessary academic st… In later years, there was more collaboration between the schools’ headteachers – sharing of facilities and joint art and drama events, in an effort to bridge the gap in small ways. They caned you, but they were also gifted, eccentric and inspirational, and gave their lives to the place. There are also indications that grammar pupils make greater progress at KS3 and KS4 level. So it is with the grammar schools. If a child struggles, the school is all over it, constantly in touch about how to improve learning. Far from being bastions of social mobility, the average grammar school has fewer than 3% of their pupils on free school meals, compared to an average of … Intelligence cannot be measured at the age of 11. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Sir William Borlase’s grammar school in Marlow, in selective Buckinghamshire. Greater social diversity: Finally, many parents prefer Grammar Schools because generally, they offer a greater level of social diversity compared to Private Schools. See related Pros and cons of creating new grammar schools Bad in theory, bad on the stats, at least on a superficial inspection, and flawed, no doubt – but for those who went to one, they represented a ladder of opportunity which has since disappeared. ... while the kids at the secondary moderns and the comps did no better because the grammar was scrapped. Had I been born in 1972 rather than 1962, by which time Leicestershire had started to abolish the grammars, I would not have had the life chances I have had. We know that a less privileged socio-economic background and lack of parental education impact negatively on children’s learning. The Royal Latin, founded in 1423, the one grammar school in the constituency, seemed to me to be the embodiment of excellence and confidence. The chairman of the National Grammar School Association told Radio 5 live why grammar schools are good for children. The Royal Latin, founded in 1423, the one grammar school in the constituency, seemed to me to be the embodiment of excellence and confidence. Holland Park school is extraordinarily socially and racially diverse, with nearly 17.7% of its school population on free school meals. Grammar schools in the UK “do no better in terms of pupil achievement than other schools”, according to a new study. In the town there are two state secondary schools, a grammar and a secondary modern, right next door to each other. Why grammar schools are a good idea. Grammar schools are government-funded secondary schools. I have also been profoundly influenced by my family’s experience, from seeing close up how a fantastic comprehensive works. Good results: Grammar schools get great academic results. Selection fosters social division. Bear in mind that in private schools there are lots of costs in addition to the fees including a huge uniform list, largely available from one supplier only, although I believe some grammar schools … Grammar schools are no better for the brightest pupils than good comprehensives, according to new research which casts doubt on the government’s claim that selective education aids social mobility. The grammar schools debate is a debate about the merits and demerits of the existence of grammar schools in the United Kingdom.Grammar schools are state schools which select their pupils on the basis of academic ability, with pupils sitting an exam (called the 11-plus) in the last year of primary school to determine whether or not they gain a place. parentdish.co.uk, Parentdish UK. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Our own children have friends in both categories. She certainly did not take that stance when she was shadow education secretary, and I was her junior team member in charge of grammars, back in 1999. Very few were from poorer backgrounds; I’d say about 20 per cent. Artists impression of a new grammar school in Sevenoaks. From either perspective, the main issue is the role these schools play in ‘social mobility’. My school taught ancient Greek – try finding that in a state school today, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Similarly to grammar schools, private schools … Slowly, I came to see that 11 is far too young to select and that it is massively damaging to the self-esteem of the child. There’s an idea that they’ll enhance social mobility – that poor talented children in grammar schools will get a better education than they would have had otherwise. I then looked at the latest National GCSE league tables to see if Grammar schools were better in terms of performance, in the top 100 schools in the country there are currently 28 Grammar schools, 46 Independent schools and 26 other schools (foundation or voluntary aided schools). D say about 20 per cent ; most of my ability – that is a of! School, for good or ill can not be measured at the school living in £10m and. 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