New research shows grammar schools educate a far smaller proportion of pupils with SEND and looked-after children than their neighbours

Schools Week reported on CF’s research that showed grammar schools average just 4.3 per cent of pupils with SEND, compared with 15.5 per cent in non-selective schools in grammar areas.  Grammars also educate on average just two looked-after or previously looked-after children each, compared with an average of 14 in non-selective schools. Sixty-eight of the 163 schools have no children in care on their rolls at all.

CF’s Chair, Dr Nuala Burgess, explained, “there are a few grammar schools with a relatively high proportion of SEN pupils, which makes us question why there are so few in every other grammar school? It would seem that the vast majority of grammar schools are making absolutely no effort to be inclusive.” Read more about this research HERE.

The arguments Labour should use when they phase out selection

Former CF Secretary, Margaret Tulloch, wrote an excellent letter to Keir Starmer about the lack of Labour policy on ending the 11-plus. She outlined the points Labour ministers and shadow
ministers had made to her over the years about why selection was too difficult to challenge, and answered each of them. Sadly it does seem that there is a huge body of evidence proving the problems of selection, but what is lacking is the political will to act. Read Margaret’s letter in full HERE.
New videos from the Time’s Up for the Test team
The Time’s Up for the Test campaign has released new video interviews from a range of people who support ending the 11-plus. They include a parent from Kent, a student who failed the test, and the Chair of Headteachers’ Roundtable. The interviews are well with watching. You can view them all HERE.
A study looking at the impact of secondary moderns in the 50s and 60s
The Wilsthorpe Project studies working class pupils who attended secondary modern schools in the fifties and sixties. Diane Roby has named the study after her old secondary modern school. She says, “This is a social and historical enquiry into working-class children who, like myself, failed the 11-plus and went to a secondary modern school in the fifties and sixties. It was inspired as a result of reading ‘Education and the Working Class’ by Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden… My own research is concerned with the 80% who didn’t pass. It’s not an academic thesis despite my extensive reading about the 1944 Education Act and how it led to ‘Secondary Education for All.’ It is a companion piece to Jackson and Marsden and an attempt to explore the impact of that failure on children, both in secondary education and beyond.” Read more about Diane’s project HERE.
Peter Hitchens’ grammar school book reviewed
Peter Hitchens is convinced that there was a ‘golden age’ of grammar schools that was wrecked by ‘egalitarians’ introducing comprehensive education. This book review from CASEnotes  states that Hitchens approach to evidence is, “insouciant, to say the least” which, “completely undermines his claim to be a defender of standards.” The review suggests the book has a “determinedly anti-intellectual and unscholarly approach.” Peter Hitchens was not a fan of the article and penned a review of our review! You can Read about ‘A Revolution Betrayed’ HERE.
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