Tories vow to help struggling families and suburbs with wave of grammars
A NEW generation of grammar schools will prioritise the children of ordinary working people, the Education Secretary has pledged.
Grammars should not just be for the ‘better off’ – they should be ‘truly open to all’, Justine Greening says in a keynote speech to be delivered today.
While many existing grammar schools are already changing their admissions code to give priority to children from disadvantaged families, she wants all to follow this example.
And she will insist that the new wave of grammars works for ‘everyone’, including children on free school meals and those from struggling families.
Miss Greening, the daughter of a steelworker, said last night that education reforms have for too long focused on children in inner-city areas and that families in rural areas and the suburbs have been let down.
Families on modest incomes ‘should not have to grow sharp elbows to get the public services they deserve from the country that they support and serve’.
Miss Greening added: ‘ When I was growing up, there was a phrase I often heard – “make do”. I heard it, but I didn’t want to just make do. I wanted more than that.
‘Well, this is a Government that believes ordinary working families shouldn’t have to make do.
‘We believe they deserve better than that, because ordinary working families are the backbone of our economy, of our country.’
Opponents of grammar schools have argued that places are dis- proportionately taken by children from well-off families.
But Miss Greening will publish the findings of a new study that shows children in existing grammars are just as likely to be from ordinary working families as those in comprehensives.
Figures show 36 per cent of children in grammars are from families who earn less than the average income of £25,000 but do not qualify for free school meals, compared with 35 per cent in nonselective schools.
The Prime Minister plans to repeal a ban on new grammar schools imposed by Tony Blair in 1998 and will set out her proposals in detail in the coming months.
Miss Greening argued last night that lifting the ban on new grammar schools would create more good places for ordinary families, as well as the poorest.
She said families on modest incomes were currently ‘being let down by a shortage of good schools’ in their areas. Statistically, they are families that tend to live outside the inner cities – and it’s been the inner cities that have commonly been the focus of education initiatives,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘Instead, they live in our suburbs and our coastal areas, mostly outside Greater London, in many towns in the North of England.
‘But if these young people can do better, our whole country will do better. This Government knows we need to repair the link between hard work these families put in and the rewards they receive.
‘ They so often embody our national traits and values – hugely generous, fair by nature, passionate about family, community and country. And above all, hard working.’
Setting out the case for grammars in her speech this morning, Miss Greening will pledge that they be forced to set their admission criteria so pupils from all backgrounds get places. She says: ‘Selection in new, 21st- century state grammar schools will add to the options available to young people. And grammars should not just be for one better-off group in society to attend.
‘We want to see more children from disadvantaged families get into grammars – that’s vital.
‘I welcome that many grammar schools are now changing their admissions code to give a priority of places to these children – I want all of them to follow this example.’
She adds: ‘We certainly will not lose sight of the fact that we want grammars to achieve more for disadvantaged children.
‘But we also shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that many young people from an ordinary working-class background already attend our existing grammar schools.
‘The new schools that we will create will support young people from every background, not the privileged few – young people on free school meals and those eligible for pupil premium; young people from ordinary working families that are struggling to get by.
‘I want these new schools to work for everyone. This will be a new model of grammars, truly open to all – we will insist on that.’
‘Middle classes being let down’