Tag: 11+

Ending academic selection - could it be help restore Labour's fortunes?

Mike Ion Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 09:57:27 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

The news that up to 50 Labour MPs are preparing to call for academic selection to be scrapped will, inevitably, re-ignite the debate about the future of England’s 164 remaining grammar schools. This will undoubtedly create a real headache for the Conservatives who, under David Cameron, have adopted a ‘no more selection’ policy for the nation’s secondary schools. The problem with this position is that it is inherently flawed. If, as Mr Cameron and David Willetts have argued in the past, selection by ability is wrong, why is it still right in some parts of England? It is surely an absurd that we have outlawed selection via the back door and but still allow it through the front door in 36 local authorities in England. If David Cameron really is a conviction politician, he could easily take the position that being opposed to selection does not automatically mean that you want grammar schools to close. In a post-selection world, there is absolutely no reason why the remaining 164 grammar schools in England (there are no grammar schools in Wales or Scotland, and they are on the way out in Northern Ireland) should not remain pretty much as they are now. They would have the same buildings, the same governors, the same headteachers and staff, the same resources, the same curriculum, uniform and largely the same funding. The only real change would be to the academic profile of the pupils attending the school.

What Cameron, Willetts and others apparently now accept is that the familiar claim that grammar schools offered an "escape from poverty" to bright working-class children otherwise denied real educational opportunity relied heavily on highlighting individual successes, without ever establishing how representative they actually were. In 2006, the proportion of children eligible for free school meals (an imperfect but commonly used indicator of social disadvantage) was much lower in selective than in non-selective schools in every one of the 36 local authorities that retain at least some grammar schools. In the 15 boroughs with around 20% or more of their pupils in grammar schools, the average percentage of children eligible for free school meals in those schools was 1.8% - compared with an English average of 18.1%. It would appear therefore that England’s remaining 164 grammars are schools for the middle classes.





"Keep to the left - vote Labour!"

SunilPrasannan Thu Nov 08, 2007 at 10:42:06 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Hi all! My name's Sunil Prasannan, and I my only claim to fame (so far) is that I went to school with a certain Alex Hilton! Anyway, this is my first political blog ever, so here goes. I think I became politically aware just in time for the 1987 General Election. I had turned 11 the previous year, had done my 11+ (though back then, merely saw it as a daunting exam rather than a political football), and by then I pretty much had an opinion of Margaret Thatcher's government. I do remember specific events from the early and mid '80s, like the Falklands, Brighton and Lebanon, but by 1987 I first took a real interest in politics and elections. I knew that I had socialist leanings and had no real sympathy with Maggie's "share-owning democracy" nor with her treatment of the miners. I also felt some affinity with Mikhail Gorbachev's "new" Soviet government, and remember being not too impressed with that rapid turnover, mostly due to ill-health, of Soviet leaders during the early 80s. I remember being not to impressed with US president Ronald Reagan either, and I felt that the time had come for the Cold War to end.

Anyway, when I was in my final year at primary school (Newbury Park, in Ilford North), during season '86/'87, our year were drafted into "prefect" duties, such as monitoring younger classes if a teacher had to pop out for a few hours, or maybe lead out the younger classes to school assembly. One other duty was watching the staircases leading from ground to upper floor , during break-times and lunch times. We had to make sure everyone kept to their left-hand side of the staircase to avoid any collisions. So every thirty seconds or so, we would call out from our watch-points, "Keep to the left!". And this leads me neatly onto the title of this entry, because during the run-up to the '87 election, when I was on staircase duty I called out, yes, you've guessed it, "Keep to the left - vote Labour!" For a few days I didn't get much feedback either way until Mr. Rowley, who I knew must have been a Labour man (youngish teacher with a beard and all!) walked up the stairs and told me, I think, can't remember his exact words, but must have been something on the lines of, "No party political broadcasts on the stairs, please!"

Anyway, thus endeth my first entry on LabourHome.org.

Sunil