Furious at her son’s struggle to get into a grammar school, Sarah Shilling launched a petition to build the first new one for 50 years. Yesterday, the revolution began!
Decrepit and semi-derelict, The Wildernesse School doesn’t have to try hard to live up to its name. Since it was swallowed up by a local girls’ school in 2010 to form a new academy elsewhere, the days when Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke — a former pupil known back then as Tony Beke — skipped through its corridors seem a very distant memory.
Hard to imagine, then, that this sprawling site on the outskirts of Sevenoaks, in Kent, could soon provide the spark for a revolution in British education.
Yesterday, a petition raised by thousands of parents in Sevenoaks calling for the building of what is effectively a new grammar school — though technically it will be an ‘annexe’ of an existing one — won overwhelming support in a vote taken by Kent County Council.
The petition was started by a mother of three from Sevenoaks called Sarah Shilling, who despaired at the hoops her son had to jump through to gain a grammar school place.
Now, a formal proposal will be drawn up by the council to identify potential sites for the school — with Wildernesse the favourite — and to establish which existing grammar schools may want to run it.
If such a new school opens, it will be the first of its kind in England for 50 years.
For families in Sevenoaks, this is a big deal indeed. They have long complained that because of the lack of local provision, more than 1,000 children from the town must take buses and trains every day to make journeys of an hour or more to schools elsewhere in the county.
And yet the opening of a grammar in Sevenoaks will have a significance far beyond the purely local, because it forces the controversial issue of selective education — an idea so hated by the Left — firmly back on the national political agenda.
It puts selective schooling back on the agenda
Even before the decision was taken, the discussion of the Sevenoaks plans provoked howls of protest from all the usual suspects.
Stephen Twigg, the shadow Education Secretary, has angrily accused Government ministers of attempting to expand academic selection, and vowed that if Labour got back in to power it would reverse any move in that direction.
‘Instead of focusing on a few grammar schools, the Government should be trying to raise standards in all the 24,000 schools in England,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Fiona Millar, partner of former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell and seasoned education activist, was quick to join the fight, furiously peddling the argument that grammar schools limit rather than promote social mobility.
‘The most successful systems in the world are fully comprehensive,’ she claimed. ‘Bringing back selection is the wrong solution to problems that still exist in our school system, most of which can still be addressed in all-ability schools with the right leadership, teaching, curriculum and commitment from central government.’
Their fear is that what is happening in Kent could be just the start of an expansion of the grammar-school system and that Education Secretary Michael Gove is secretly keen to give this the green light.
Government approval: Michael Gove has spoken of his support for the grammar school system - much to the outrage of some education activists who believe they endanger social mobility
Government approval: Michael Gove has spoken of his support for the grammar school system - much to the outrage of some education activists who believe they endanger social mobility
Supporters of grammars argue that these are the schools parents want — and that it is the Government’s duty to deliver them.
‘The areas that have retained selection top the league tables year after year, providing the standards that parents want, and opening opportunities for children from all backgrounds,’ Graham Brady, a Conservative MP and long-time supporter of grammars, told me.
The fact that the latest developments have caught opponents of grammar schools somewhat by surprise is a result of their belief that they had largely won the argument against selection.
Having promised to open new grammars as part of his 2005 leadership campaign, two years later Mr Cameron abruptly changed tack saying that he did not think they were a good idea after all.
This U-turn was interpreted by some as being a carefully-planned ‘Clause Four moment’ — a reference to Tony Blair’s decision to cut ties with Labour’s socialist past when he became leader.
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HYWEL WILLIAMS: A grammar school revolution on the way to Kent
Cameron’s strategists calculated that by ditching an educational policy associated with Tory diehards, it would appeal to voters who had never voted Conservative before. In fact, all it achieved was a backbench rebellion and simmering resentment among supporters of selective education from all political backgrounds.
In an ICM poll in 2010, 76 per cent of respondents said that they would support the creation of new grammar schools.
Instead, Cameron decided to back Michael Gove’s academies programme — the creation of independent state schools, run by head teachers outside of council control.
Opponents have been caught by surprise
But in a separate move, new admissions rules were introduced late last year, meaning that councils can no longer block the expansion of existing schools — be they state comprehensive or grammar.
With school rolls rising across many parts of England as the effects of immigration and a higher birth rate take effect, the rule changes have been jumped on by councils and parents.
Currently, across England there are 164 grammar schools educating some 160,000 pupils. Kent, with 33, has the largest proportion of them, attended by some 28 per cent of the county’s children.
In Year Six, the final year of primary school education, all pupils in Kent have the option of sitting the 11-plus examination. Those who pass the exam can then choose a grammar school to attend.
If they have passed with very high marks, they can apply for a handful of the grammars that are ‘super-selective’ — those which base their intake on performance in the exam rather than a pass and a pupil’s proximity to the school.
In Sevenoaks, a prosperous commuter town half-an-hour’s train journey to the south-east of London, there are two schools.
One is the private Sevenoaks School, whose boarding fees are now a shade shy of £30,000 a year; the other is a mixed-ability state school, Knole Academy, formed just over a year ago from a merger of two struggling comprehensives (one being Wildernesse, whose pupils vacated their old premises). There are no grammar schools in the town.
NEWS BY:http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Decrepit and semi-derelict, The Wildernesse School doesn’t have to try hard to live up to its name. Since it was swallowed up by a local girls’ school in 2010 to form a new academy elsewhere, the days when Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke — a former pupil known back then as Tony Beke — skipped through its corridors seem a very distant memory.
Hard to imagine, then, that this sprawling site on the outskirts of Sevenoaks, in Kent, could soon provide the spark for a revolution in British education.
Yesterday, a petition raised by thousands of parents in Sevenoaks calling for the building of what is effectively a new grammar school — though technically it will be an ‘annexe’ of an existing one — won overwhelming support in a vote taken by Kent County Council.
The petition was started by a mother of three from Sevenoaks called Sarah Shilling, who despaired at the hoops her son had to jump through to gain a grammar school place.
Now, a formal proposal will be drawn up by the council to identify potential sites for the school — with Wildernesse the favourite — and to establish which existing grammar schools may want to run it.
If such a new school opens, it will be the first of its kind in England for 50 years.
For families in Sevenoaks, this is a big deal indeed. They have long complained that because of the lack of local provision, more than 1,000 children from the town must take buses and trains every day to make journeys of an hour or more to schools elsewhere in the county.
And yet the opening of a grammar in Sevenoaks will have a significance far beyond the purely local, because it forces the controversial issue of selective education — an idea so hated by the Left — firmly back on the national political agenda.
It puts selective schooling back on the agenda
Even before the decision was taken, the discussion of the Sevenoaks plans provoked howls of protest from all the usual suspects.
Stephen Twigg, the shadow Education Secretary, has angrily accused Government ministers of attempting to expand academic selection, and vowed that if Labour got back in to power it would reverse any move in that direction.
‘Instead of focusing on a few grammar schools, the Government should be trying to raise standards in all the 24,000 schools in England,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Fiona Millar, partner of former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell and seasoned education activist, was quick to join the fight, furiously peddling the argument that grammar schools limit rather than promote social mobility.
‘The most successful systems in the world are fully comprehensive,’ she claimed. ‘Bringing back selection is the wrong solution to problems that still exist in our school system, most of which can still be addressed in all-ability schools with the right leadership, teaching, curriculum and commitment from central government.’
Their fear is that what is happening in Kent could be just the start of an expansion of the grammar-school system and that Education Secretary Michael Gove is secretly keen to give this the green light.
Government approval: Michael Gove has spoken of his support for the grammar school system - much to the outrage of some education activists who believe they endanger social mobility
Government approval: Michael Gove has spoken of his support for the grammar school system - much to the outrage of some education activists who believe they endanger social mobility
Supporters of grammars argue that these are the schools parents want — and that it is the Government’s duty to deliver them.
‘The areas that have retained selection top the league tables year after year, providing the standards that parents want, and opening opportunities for children from all backgrounds,’ Graham Brady, a Conservative MP and long-time supporter of grammars, told me.
The fact that the latest developments have caught opponents of grammar schools somewhat by surprise is a result of their belief that they had largely won the argument against selection.
Having promised to open new grammars as part of his 2005 leadership campaign, two years later Mr Cameron abruptly changed tack saying that he did not think they were a good idea after all.
This U-turn was interpreted by some as being a carefully-planned ‘Clause Four moment’ — a reference to Tony Blair’s decision to cut ties with Labour’s socialist past when he became leader.
More...
HYWEL WILLIAMS: A grammar school revolution on the way to Kent
Cameron’s strategists calculated that by ditching an educational policy associated with Tory diehards, it would appeal to voters who had never voted Conservative before. In fact, all it achieved was a backbench rebellion and simmering resentment among supporters of selective education from all political backgrounds.
In an ICM poll in 2010, 76 per cent of respondents said that they would support the creation of new grammar schools.
Instead, Cameron decided to back Michael Gove’s academies programme — the creation of independent state schools, run by head teachers outside of council control.
Opponents have been caught by surprise
But in a separate move, new admissions rules were introduced late last year, meaning that councils can no longer block the expansion of existing schools — be they state comprehensive or grammar.
With school rolls rising across many parts of England as the effects of immigration and a higher birth rate take effect, the rule changes have been jumped on by councils and parents.
Currently, across England there are 164 grammar schools educating some 160,000 pupils. Kent, with 33, has the largest proportion of them, attended by some 28 per cent of the county’s children.
In Year Six, the final year of primary school education, all pupils in Kent have the option of sitting the 11-plus examination. Those who pass the exam can then choose a grammar school to attend.
If they have passed with very high marks, they can apply for a handful of the grammars that are ‘super-selective’ — those which base their intake on performance in the exam rather than a pass and a pupil’s proximity to the school.
In Sevenoaks, a prosperous commuter town half-an-hour’s train journey to the south-east of London, there are two schools.
One is the private Sevenoaks School, whose boarding fees are now a shade shy of £30,000 a year; the other is a mixed-ability state school, Knole Academy, formed just over a year ago from a merger of two struggling comprehensives (one being Wildernesse, whose pupils vacated their old premises). There are no grammar schools in the town.
NEWS BY:http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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