Comprehensive Future is fundraising for an exciting new project that involves creating an interactive map of every selective area and every grammar school in England.
The aim is to help people to understand better how selective education impacts on an area, and the social inequalities caused by 11-plus selection. Our research, published in Schools Week last week, showed that despite 5 years of work with the DfE, grammar schools have failed to increase the proportion of disadvantaged pupils by even 1%. It is a sad fact that many people still believe grammar schools are good for social mobility. We need funds to help bust that myth in a completely new way.
The map is based on an idea created by Strike Map and will take many hours of research effort to create. With the click of a button, we want to make information about the unfairness of selection accessible. For example, we aim to provide the percentages of disadvantaged pupils in a grammar school compared to its neighbouring non-selective schools. We also want to look at ways of explaining the scale of grammar school ‘tourism’ which sees pupils travelling in from non-selective areas to take up another area’s grammar school places.
We hope you will feel able to donate towards our new project.
I fully support Comprehensive Future’s interactive guide to selective areas. This map is an exciting new way for everyone to be able to access facts about selective schools and information about the problems with academic selection.
Most importantly, the map will help people to better understand schools in areas of England which still operate selective education, as well as highlighting the fact that the 11-plus is not a thing of the past and still affects a significant proportion of pupils.
Professor Stephen Gorard, Director of the Durham University, Evidence Centre for Education
Thank you very much indeed, and with best wishes from all of us at Comprehensive Future.
Dr Nuala Burgess, Chair, Comprehensive Future
