SET UP YOUR OWN GRAMMAR SCHOOL
£320m plan for 110 free schools will hand new powers to parents
Parents will be given the right to set up grammar schools in a £ 320million education revolution.
The funding package – to be unveiled in tomorrow’s Budget – will pay for 110 free schools. Treasury sources said these could include the first selective state secondaries to open in decades.
Free schools can be opened by parents, charities or community groups, effectively giving disgruntled families a right to set up a grammar themselves.
The schools could be fast-tracked for as early as 2020 – if ministers can win what is likely to be a bruising parliamentary battle to overturn a labour-imposed ban on grammars. Ministers are also scrapping rules that stop children from poor homes receiving help for travel to selective schools.
The moves are a declaration of intent from Theresa May, who has made a personal priority of reviving grammars – she attended one herself. The Prime Minister said last night: ‘For too many children, a good school place remains out of reach with their options determined by where they live or how much money their parents have.
‘over the last six years we have overseen a revolution in our schools system and we have raised standards and opportunity, but there is much more to do.
‘as part of our commitment to creating a school system that works for everyone, today we are confirming new investment to give parents a greater choice of a good school
place for their child, and we will set out the next stage of our ambitions in the coming months.’
Free schools were introduced in 2010 to allow parents, charities and community groups to set up their own sites. They are independent from local authorities but must still have Ofsted inspections.
Treasury sources said the proposal would help give effect to Mrs May’s pledge to ‘make Britain a great meritocracy’.
She said last year: ‘In a true meritocracy, we should not be apologetic about stretching the most academically able to the very highest standards of excellence.’
The Prime Minister said she wanted to see more selective schools, as well as more good faith schools and more free schools run by universities and the independent sector. The sources said all four categories would be eligible to bid to run the new selective free schools being announced today.
Education Secretary Justine Greening is expected to bring forward proposals for new selective schools in a green paper – ‘Schools that work for everyone’ – in the coming weeks.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said the announcement represented ‘the next
‘Will provoke an angry reaction’
steps in giving parents greater choice in finding a good school for their child, whatever their background’.
The move will provoke an angry reaction from education unions and opponents of the grammar system.
Mary Bousted, general-secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: ‘Teachers and heads in the thousands of existing state schools which are facing real-terms cuts in funding for their pupils will be dismayed to see the Chancellor throwing more money at free schools and grammar schools.’
Ministers will also face trouble from a hard core of Tory MPs, including former education secretary Nicky Morgan, who believe money would be better spent improving the wider school system than focusing on grammars.
But the decision will delight traditional Tories, who have campaigned for years for a return to selective education to allow bright youngsters from poor homes to flourish. The education funding will see £216million spent on refurbishments to crumbling school buildings.
Another £320million is earmarked to pay for the next generation of free schools, which will create 70,000 pupil places.
The Government has helped the creation of 431 free schools since 2010 with another 380 planned by 2020 and with money now announced for another 110.
The flagship project of former education secretary Michael Gove, the schools allow headmasters to operate outside the national curriculum and set their own pay scales. Mr Gove’s original vision was for groups of parents in areas of poor provision to set up their own schools.
In practice, most have been set up by academy chains and charities, although the parental route remains open to those with the necessary expertise.
Free schools are not currently allowed to select pupils by ability. But this is set to change under the government’s reforms.
More than a million children languish in underperforming schools.
THE great promise at the heart of Theresa May’s grammar school revolution is to provide a ladder of opportunity for bright pupils languishing on sink estates with no hope of escape.
Standing in her way are Labour town halls, driven by narrow, ideological opposition, which will seek to block any new selective schools.
That is why today’s announcement is so inspired: up to 110 new free schools – which operate independently of council control – will, like grammars, be allowed to recruit pupils on merit.
It places power firmly in the hands of parents who simply want the best opportunities for their children.
Put to one side any nagging concerns about the Budget being used for education policy. This is a hugely welcome step, which could democratise grammars and spread them far and wide into working class areas long neglected by politicians of all stripes.
Equally welcome is the decision to abolish the deeply unfair rule that grammar pupils on free school meals, unlike their comprehensive counterparts, do not get help with bus and train fares.
If – and it is a big if – Mrs May can clear the obstacles she faces in Parliament, these new ‘ free grammars’, led by parents, have the potential to transform social mobility and bring educational excellence to places which need it most.