How the Tories plan to cut school budgets to fund new grammars

The Tories, not content with waging their ideological war on education through the turbocharged privatisation of schools and education in general, have continued to show their true colours through their recent budget announcements. The current ‘Funding Freeze’ on education coupled with the National Funding Formula will see mainstream schools face sweeping cuts of £3bn from the overall budget. Never ones to be socially divisive in half measures, the Tories have also decided to set aside £320 million for new grammar schools and free schools. This is at a time when many state schools are in a state of disrepair, and when the National Audit Office estimates that £6.7 billion is needed for repairs and refurbishment.

Back in 2015, the Conservative Party pledged in their manifesto that they would continue to protect school funding, but as usual nothing is quite so straightforward when it comes to Tories and their promises. What it actually means for schools is that the budget will not increase with inflation leaving schools, many with budgets already ‘on the floor’, unable to cover costs. Continue reading

Lucy Powell needs to explain if Labour aims to end selection or just to limit it

PowellThe Secretary of State for Education (Nicky Morgan) has approved the opening of a so-called ‘annexe’ to the Weald of Kent grammar school. The subterfuge of calling the new school for 450 pupils an annexe despite being 10 miles away in Sevenoaks fools no one. Even the Telegraph puts annex in scare quotes:

The school was granted permission to open as an “annexe” of the already existing Weald of Kent – despite the locations being 10 miles apart.

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Grammar schools do nothing to promote social mobility

MorganLast week it was announced that the first new grammar school in a long time is to be opened in Kent. It’s using a loophole in the law by claiming that it’s really an expansion of an existing school – even though they’re nine miles apart. Apparently, in order to prove it’s one school, kids will have to be bussed backwards and forwards.

This is being presented as an unusual one-off event which doesn’t mean Tory policy is changing. According to Nicky Morgan “I don’t want to fight the battles of selective and non-selective… This is one particular application with one particular set of circumstances. Why would I deny a good school the right to expand?” Continue reading

Ofsted chief exposes grammar school myths, but most are happy with nostalgia

Michael WilshawI cried yes, I would like to see all private schools and grammar schools closed down, and then told the man that sorry, the conversation would have to end, as I wanted to dance to Dusty Springfield. We had been arguing for what felt like half an hour. It had started off on another topic, but at some point along the way, my interlocutor saw cause to ask me “What’s wrong with private schools?”

Once again, I was in an argument about the British education system, and faced with simplistic and unintelligent arguments in defence of elitism. I hope I do not sound arrogant in this statement. Hearing an endlessly propagated but entirely unsubstantiated myth repeated again and again is enough to wear anyone down. The myth in question is that grammar schools assist social mobility, and it was rightfully ridiculed in Sunday’s Observer by Ofsted chief Michael Wilshaw. Continue reading