Labour reviewing school admission criteria

[JustAlice]

"Sir Keir Starmer plans to update the Equality Act to give public authorities a new duty to consider a person’s “socio-economic background”.
The changes could mean that schools are forced to give pupils from a working-class background priority when applying for school places, according to Conservative research, instead of judging applications based on how far away from a school someone lives."

Last year BBC had articles on how Brighton and Hove Labour council implemented similar policy, and now substancial % of school places goes to children on FSM instead of childre living closer to the school, making average % of FSM in them closer to the council average.
Protests didn't lead to anything.

If Starmer is going to rollout this model for the whole country, I'm torn, because though I'm against class division and think that current model encourages it

1. I strongly disagree that the families on less than minimal wage income are the only working people in the country. Maybe call them deprived to be honest.
2. In Brighton, faith schools are still not impacted.

YABU - we should be happy about this
YANBU - not a good idea

And I bet the parents of those boys are all from cultures and families that value education. There will almost certainly be a higher proportion of immigrant families, no matter their economic status. It’s not going to be Jaxon from a sink estate 7 miles away, is it?

You may be right, hopefully so. But you’ve also got a majority party with a £50bn hole and no borrowing ability. They likely can’t do two could benefit thing, and have tried welfare cuts which were rebelled against, if they want to look ‘Labour’ what kind of things will they go for?

Rayner will want to push stuff. This kind of thing isn’t costly it’s just damaging to education.

That’s the kind of allocation this would work against.

What a horribly judgemental post. I know a doctor, top surgeon with international reputation, who grew up on a sink estate, father drank himself to death to h while his kids were still small. Grammar school then university changed their life. You can't judge whole communities and cultures like that for good or bad

I haven't read the proposal.

Nobody has because there isn’t one. It’s Tory fantasy based on an amendment to the Equality Act.

Is there a middle class principle that children from lower socioeconomic-economic backgrounds should have access to a better education than their own child though?

That’s what this is suggesting.

But it isn’t the schools themselves is it? It is the children in them

Absolutely this. Any school is defined by its catchment area, by parents.

Labour want to bring the gap down between poorer and richer areas. Improving poor schools is difficult so let's just mix it all and everyone's getting equally bad education but they can report they narrowed the gap.

Where are 6500 new teachers?? where is new SEND funding? show me a single policy being implemented which actually adds something to education not takes away from some group of kids?

You had a glass of wine and glass of water, let's mix it and have two glasses of equal crap.

in other words you are saying that because poor parents don’t prioritise education, it is only fair that six years old boys and girls should teach their children to?

Yep but at least you can report they’re now the same.

What else do Labour have but damaging stuff like this

It’s not judgemental, it’s borne out by the statistics of children attending selective (whether by faith or by ability) educational settings.

The comparison with Brighton and Hove requires some further explaining:

There are two 'blocks' of secondaries right next door to eachother, so two relatively well off areas where parents get to choose from two schools. Elsewhere, notably on one of the poorest estates, there's no school so those kids have to travel for miles. In other words, as it stands, arguing that only the poor kids should have to take a couple buses is a bit meh.

There's also the issue that these two blocks of schools in the two different affluent areas have significantly less SEND and FSM pupils and this is entrenching the class divide. Interestingly, this class divide became more glaringly apparent with the gentrification of the area following the mass exodus from London (COVID, burgeoning house prices, WFH phenomenon). This drastically unbalanced the city's community and identity. Locals were priced out of areas. Schools were taken over. What there is now isn't a reflection of the city's previous rich culture.

So yes, I'm supportive of any steps taken to preserve the identity of any area from an influx of migrants.

Doesnt address underlying reasons for inequality.

Tinkers around the edges.

Consequences will be children travelling further to get to school, contributing to further societal breakdown.

While those that can, manipulate finances/tax returns to continue to get the school they want.

There’s a left-wing middle class principle that comprehensive education is a good thing, provided they can buy a house near to a good school. Otherwise there’s suddenly a special reason why Imogen and Alexander just have to be put into a caring private school or try for the nearest grammar if there is one.

The conservative middle class also buy into good schools’ catchments but will happily admit that they’re chasing advantage for their children. They don’t parade bogus values.

Well, that’s great for him. And I am sure that there are many stories like that.

But it’s just not what happens on the whole. My dd will be in the minority as a white child at her grammar.

The other children are predominantly Asian. Yes. It’s in a midlands town where there is a large population of Asian familes, but they make up a massive proportion of who attends the grammar. We are not in a grammar area, they are few and far between and spread over 3 counties - children travel for over an hour to get there in most cases.

I am partly Indian myself and I am darker skinned (dd isn’t). When it became known at her primary school that dd was going for the 11+, she had a bit of low level bullying at school. I was called in as some of the comments were “you are going to the paki school because your mum is one.” The teachers were so embarrassed and annoyed but obviously, not surprised.

That came from the parents, not the children - we’ve had comments like that from parents before, dd is bright as does well, so it’s reduced to me being (partly) Indian. Right-o.

One of the best grammars in the country and it’s reduced to a racial slur as no one else can be arsed to put their children in for an exam and give them a chance too.

Sorry to hear that. Nasty stuff.

On a general level it’s a fact that grammars are more ethnically mixed than all other types of school. It’s a product of the greater emphasis on family and expectation of achievement among ethnic minorities.

Yes, of course. The tutoring places in our town are mainly Asian children going to them as well. It just is what it is.

I’m so used to it, I’ve lived with it most of my life. It’s just not nice when it filters down to my children due to my appearance.

So according to PPs middle class parents are awful sharp elbowed coercive creatures who prioritise education for their children (how dare they!) leading to better schools. Whilst poor parents don’t care what education their children get and can’t be bothered to apply to better schools. Therefore middle class children should be put in poor schools in order for them to a) suffer educational disadvantage and b) show those poor oiks how it should be done? And because their children are being dragged down by the inhabitants of the local ghettos, their sharp-elbowed parents might do the government’s work of trying to improve their sink school even though such behaviour must be condemned?

Is that it?

They would be much better off putting the money they are proposing spending on this ridiculous idea back into schools.

Raise pupil premium, invest and bring back sure start/ early help. Bring back learning mentors/ nurture groups, every class having a TA in addition to any 1:1s, more intervention groups for those who need them, more SN provision, smaller class sizes, family support services. Actually fund schools properly so they can afford resources. You know, things that could actually make a difference.

Replace

"sharp elbowed coercive middle class parents" and "local ghettoes"
with
"wealthy private school parents who don't give a s..t about anyone else" and "state schools"

respectively
and you'll get PS VAT sentiment from a year ago word to word.

They would be much better off putting the money they are proposing spending on this ridiculous idea back into schools.

What money? The amount of fiction on this thread is insane.

It's interesting that people might accept higher levels of taxation and some level of personal sacrifices for the greater good of society.

But even ultra left wing parents (apart from the lowest level scam who just don't care) will not forgive and will not forget when their kids are affected. So even by having suspicion of this policy Labour eroded their voters base yet again.

Which is exactly the aim of the Conservative “research” which forms the basis of the article you’re discussing. The Tories are playing you all and you’re falling for it.

Pretty much this. But Labour are running out of road, they are down £50bn and will likely try to show difference.

Hopefully they’d just lose so many votes it’d not happen or be overturned at next GE.

There will be a consultation, then someone will have to build and implement a system, overhaul the school allocation system, find ways of checking parental jobs and income. It will be a huge waste of money. Much rather spend all that brain space and money on actually funding schools properly.

More fiction. What a great piece of Tory propaganda this is.