Grammar schools proposal so appalling that a cross-party alliance forms to fight them

[noblegiraffe]

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Lib Dem), former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (Conservative) and former Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell (Labour) have written a joint piece for The Observer condemning the plans by Theresa May to open new selective schools.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/19/help-poorer-pupils-selection-social-mobility-education-brexit-grammar-schools

"The formation of their cross-party alliance against grammar school expansion, which is opposed by about 30 Tory MPs, spells yet more political trouble for May on the domestic front. Last week, chancellor Philip Hammond was forced by a revolt in his own party into a humiliating budget U-turn over national insurance rises for the self-employed, and Conservatives lined up to oppose planned cuts in school funding.

Launching their combined assault, and plans to work together over coming months, in an article in the Observer, Morgan, Powell and Clegg say the biggest challenges for a country facing Brexit, digitisation and changes to the nature of work, are to boost skills, narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers and boost social mobility. By picking a fight over plans to expand selection in schools, May will, they argue, sow division, divert resources away from where they are needed most and harm the causes she claims to be committed to advancing.

Before a debate in the Commons on social mobility this week, the three MPs say it is time to put aside political differences and fight instead for what is right. “We must rise to the challenge with a new national mission to boost education and social mobility for all,” they write. “That’s why we are putting aside what we disagree on, to come together and to build a cross-party consensus in favour of what works for our children – not what sounds good to politicians.”

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/mar/18/cross-party-alliance-grammar-schools-theresa-may

Yes, a 'leafy comp' would be a high attaining comp

Is this the same as the best schools? Does the school also have to be outstanding because 'good' isn't apparently good enough for some posters.

Presumably your son has special educational needs, where have said reduce spending or resources for children with additional needs . In fact i have said quite the contrary (suffering from Autism Dyslexia ETC ) i know how little support is given . However, 9 out of ten of the bottom 10% are there not because of SEN or lack of understanding in supporting SEN.

They are there though Laziness lack of interest and flaws in their character.

Perhaps getting this group out in to employment might work, though i doubt that because employers understandably don't want liabilities in their work place!

And calculable achievement or improvement for anyone with no SEN or learning difficulties is Minimum grade 3/4 or D/low C grades in English/Maths and Science.

HPFA. There is a suggestion that Miss Abbott might have been involved as well !

MumTryingHerBest
Of course a 'leafy comp' can be a high performing comp as well but I wouldn't describe a high performing comp with high fsm as 'leafy'. These schools tend to be faith schools or single sex girls schools which have other selection criteria.

HPFA
I am not suggesting she seek out a poorly performing primary school for her children - no doubt she moved into the catchment area though. I am merely pointing out that the fsm rate at the school is the 6th or 7th lowest out of 140 primary schools.

Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn's political ambitions were more important to him than his wife.

Easier to read the previous thread;
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/a2303864-What-is-a-leafy-comp-good-outstanding-comp

Oh, right so if Jeremy Corbyn had not divorced his wife then he would have been a hypocrite for sending his child to a grammar but now. he's a hypocrite for not putting his wife before his politics?

I'm not a great fan of Corbyn's (putting it fairly mildly) but it would appear he can do nothing right here.

'Flaws in their character'?? Seriously.

And if they are 'lazy' or 'lack interest' could this be because the bootcamp telephone directory learning style of education so favoured by TM is irrelevavanf.

And how do you pick out the 'deserving bottom 10%' - and why are C/D's deserving and E's not.

Sorry I think your attitude is shocking. You have no idea why students struggle at school. To say they must all be lazy is ridiculous.

My grammar school boy is lazy & hates the style of education that is so popular now. But he's okay because he's naturally bright enough in a high stakes testing environemnt to get 6's and 7's while doing the bare minimum?

Who knows (and who cares) why Jeremy Corbyn's wife divorced him?

flyingwithwings - However, 9 out of ten of the bottom 10% are there not because of SEN or lack of understanding in supporting SEN.

Is this an official statistic?

Catching up with yesterday's posts - I don't know why Claireblunderwood was being so picky about a few unobtrusive inverted commas. Her posts are a 'riot' of punctuation sometimes - 6 sets of brackets, exclamation marks, ellipses.......

Clavinova So what would a high FSM be - 10%, 20% 30%?

Wouldn't it be better to be looking at the number of disadvantaged DCs rather than %FSM?

www.bild.org.uk/resources/figures/

This states it is estimated that about 1.1Million people in England have learning disabilities. England'population is 53 Millon therefore about 1.8% of the population are likely to have SEN needs. Though only 250,000 people are registered (which i am one of)

So i got it wrong its 8 out of 10 not 9 out of ten !

That's assuming some SEN needs children aren't brilliant academically which of course they are !

flyingwithwings whereas:

www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about

States: Ten percent (10%) of the population are dyslexic; 4% severely so.

MumTryingHerBest
Clearly a high FSM rate isn't going to be 10% but 30% per cohort (as opposed to last 6 years) I would say yes.

Are you saying there's a selective school somewhere with 30% FSM? That's amazing- where is it?

"Who knows (and who cares) why Jeremy Corbyn's wife divorced him?"

Well, in the context of this thread it's actually relevant. Both he and his wife have said publicly that it was his attitude to grammar schools that contributed significantly to their split. And, considering how few people are being deemed entitled to comment on selective education, his credentials to do so is important.

The proportion of secondary school aged DC claiming FSM is just over 13% nationally.

Obviously different areas will have different patterns (some obviously will have far less than 13% claiming) and then of course not all DC claiming FSM will be naturally in the top 25% of the ability range let alone the top 10% (leaving aside all the other arguments about their being disadvantaged in the 11+).

A bit of context is needed!

You need to be careful quoting big numbers. The very fact of everybody jumping on a bandwagon to protect their children from harsh realities harms helping people that are really suffering !

Bild is a proper organization as is the National Autistic Society there work and findings are not helped by people in many cases jumping on a non existent bandwagon to protect their child !

Also i don't think people really understand 'Dyslexia' . people used to say to me for instance we did not think you had problems spelling , because in the normal everyday world i could spell !

However, when i started my OU Degree it became apparent i have Dyslexia . Dyslexia can be defined that your spelling for instance is not equal to your academic ability. This means it can be hidden in real life situations if coping strategies .

It brings harm on people suffering from Dyslexia /Dyspraxia if parents seek to excuse a child's intelligence or poor spelling on non existing but conveniently 'acquired' conditions.

If coping strategies are applied .

Why does there need to a selective school with 30% FSM now as opposed to one in the future?

Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham has 24.9% FSM (last 6 years) as opposed to Arden in Solihull/South Birmingham with 9.7% last 6 years.

There are plenty of 'selective' schools with 30% FSM - faith, single sex, academic banding, aptitude tests.

I'm not entirely sure where the conversation is heading at the moment. Shouldn't a comp be judged on how well it does for those children who attend it? I don't see it matters whether one has 10% and another has 20% so long as children are able to attain their potential in each one?

I agree HPFA. Requiring each school to prove itself by having massively above the national average percentage of DC claiming FSM is quite an ask. These arguments around absolute numbers and proportions get daft.

BILD is only going to be commenting on learning disabilities. The official definition of learning disabilities - I.e a lower IQ. 'Brilliantly academic' kids with SEN are not learning disabled in the way that BILD means. They are talking about people like my son who will always need some form of care, or in the case of mild LD's will sheets be vulnerable. They are not including people with dyslexia as their only diagnosis.

Sorry- I thought someone said there was a grammar school with 30% FSM. I misunderstood.