The government appears to be dampening down expectations over building a new wave of grammar schools, telling the policy’s supporters that any new selective schools would not open until 2020 and would only cater for about one in 10 secondary school pupils in England.
It also appears to be backing away from its claim that grammar schools improve social mobility, after supporters were told there was a “move away from focusing on social mobility to social reform” and that focusing too much on disadvantaged pupils would be replaced by “a determination to address the needs of Jams” (just about managing families) instead.
According to notes from meetings with Department for Education officials and ministers, including the education secretary Justine Greening, representatives from existing grammar schools were told that the new grammars were likely to only account for 10% of pupils, compared with a fifth or more in the 1950s and 1960s.
The limit is likely to disappoint some grammar school supporters, as will the remarks that opening any new grammars will be first introduced in the government’s identified education opportunity areas “and other cold spots”.
The comments were revealed after an education blogger, Tim Dracup, posted links on Twitter to a newsletter published by the Grammar School Heads’ Association.
This GSHA Newsletter gives valuable insights into latest DfE thinking on selection and the funding formula https://t.co/s0NE2OanLc
— Tim Dracup (@TimDracup) February 8, 2017
The newsletter detailed discussions and meetings with the education department, ministers, officials from Downing Street and Theresa May’s chief of staff, Nick Timothy. It alluded to a high degree of coordination between the government and the grammar school heads, through meetings “to flesh out what the final proposals will look like” – despite the government’s assertion that it was considering the results of its public consultation before finalising any new policy.
“It is clear that both the Department for Education and No 10 are keen to engage and work with us on developing proposals for new grammar schools and expansion of existing ones, as well as the best ways for selective schools to support other secondaries and primary schools,” the newsletter reported. “They want to work through ideas and check with us that they are heading in the right direction.”
The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, attacked the government’s “unbelievable” tactics on Twitter.
Unbelievable grammar school heads have been given inside track on the Govt plans while our state schools&academies are left out in the cold.
— Angela Rayner MP (@AngelaRayner) February 8, 2017
While much of the notes repeat proposals already in the public domain, they show that the government remains sensitive to data showing that selection often excludes pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, with grammar school heads being urged to forward examples of “support and outreach” to the department.
The notes also say ministers “are considering a national selection test” to replace the 11-plus exams run by individual local authorities and schools, and quashes earlier suggestions that late developers might be able to join grammar schools beyond the age of 12 – a policy widely derided as unrealistic and which the notes describe as “problematic and likely to destabilise other schools”.
One comment attributed to Greening suggests the public’s response to the consultation had been mostly hostile. According to the newsletter: “Justine Greening says the response to the consultation on increasing selection was not ‘an overwhelming flood of negativity’.”
It adds: “Ministers and officials agree with us that there are a lot of people, who are philosophically opposed to selection, who keep saying it damages the education of other pupils but present little or no evidence to support this claim.”
However, much recent research suggests otherwise, such as a paper by the Education Policy Institute last year that described how the exam results of disadvantaged pupils are lower in areas with high numbers of grammar schools.
An education department spokesperson said: “The ‘schools that work for everyone’ consultation closed on 12 December. As the secretary of state told the House of Commons on Monday, we have received several thousand submissions, which we are now going through. We will respond in the spring.”
