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Grammar schools – Why increase selection at 11, when ALL children deserve a good school?

illustration of two early teens standing either side of a crumbling bridge

Peter Hughes shares a few reservations regarding Liz Truss’ pledge to oversee the creation of new grammar schools…

Peter Hughes
by Peter Hughes
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Our efforts as an education community – and indeed, as a country – shouldn’t be focused on how we can help those who are already gifted. They should be focussed on making sure every student gets the education that they deserve, regardless of background.

The introduction of more grammar schools across England will likely see most places allocated to the middle classes, much as they are now. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils – children classified as receiving Pupil Premium – accessing grammar schools actually fell from 8.48% in 2017, to 8.31% in 2019. We risk ending up with a hugely divided system, whereby those children most in need of support from teachers find themselves on the wrong side of that divide.

Type versus leadership

We would essentially be telling some of poorest children in society, at the age of just 11, that they’re not as capable as their wealthier friends (who will likely have received additional private tutoring to pass the admissions test). Should children be given a piece of paper at such a critical age in their education that effectively says ‘You’re not good enough’? Absolutely not!  

I’ve seen schools of all types do an excellent job at giving their pupils a great education, and also bad schools of every form you could name. We all have our own views on how the system should be structured. Some favour LA schools, others prefer academisation. Then there are those wishing to see more selective grammar schools, and a return to comprehensive/secondary moderns being the default.

Yet the type of school a child attends actually has comparatively little impact on their ability to succeed. What matters most is the quality of leadership at any given school, and the standard of teaching and learning taking place in classrooms.

I speak from first-hand experience – not just as the CEO of Mossbourne Federation, but also from having seen the schools using ProgressTeaching – a teaching improvement platform I created to raise the quality of teaching and learning across my schools. When a school focuses on teaching and learning and supports great leadership, outcomes drastically improve.

Four challenges

There are four key challenges under the current education system we must address: 

  1. Making sure we have enough good leaders and robust leadership programmes
  2. That we identify talent from all areas of our community early on and nurture it
  3. Ensuring that classrooms play host to good quality teaching and learning
  4. That we have in place an inspection regime that focuses on the above three areas  

Everyone’s education is directly affected by their background, yet we must be careful not to label children and assume they ‘won’t do well’ based purely on their parents’ socioeconomic status.

Yes, the latter can indicate that a child might need more support from teachers, and suggest their journey through school might be more challenging at times – but it doesn’t mean their potential is capped. They simply need some extra support and exposure to programmes which can help give them that boost they’ll need to achieve their dreams.  

It’s our responsibility as teachers to make sure all children get the best from us in the classroom. As leaders, it’s our job to see that every pupil gets the same opportunities as their peers, regardless of background, and find ways of enhancing pupils’ experiences beyond what they can do themselves.  

At Mossbourne, we have a rowing programme – a sport most of our pupils will, in all likelihood, never access again later in life. But it brings with it incredible opportunities, such as the potential to gain scholarships to US colleges and experience what still remains a fairly elitist sport. We also have an architecture programme and a medical bursary programme – two further fields of study typically closed off to most, unless you happen to already know someone in either sector.  

We must devise as many opportunities as we can for all children to succeed. That is where our focus should be; not on the intricacies of how we structure our schools.

Peter Hughes (@ProgTeaching) is the CEO of the Mossbourne Federation trust and a trustee of the headteacher-led charity, The Elephant Group

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