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Education

Grammars ‘unnecessary distraction’, say MPs

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

grammar

The government has failed to make a convincing case for opening a new wave of grammar schools in England, say MPs.

The education select committee has cast doubt on claims that they can help social mobility.

There is also scepticism about whether an entrance test for grammars can be made “tutor proof”.

Neil Carmichael, the committee’s chair, says the focus on expanding grammars has become an “unnecessary distraction” from improving the school system.

The Department for Education has argued that removing the ban on opening new grammars will be a way of making “more good school places available, to more parents, in more parts of the country”.

The cross-party committee of MPs, responding to the evidence gathered about plans to increase selective education, said ministers still needed to demonstrate how this would improve social mobility and close the gap between rich and poor pupils.

Funding warning

MPs said there had been no convincing evidence that a test could be devised which would not favour those who could afford private coaching.

As such they argued that such tests should not be the only criteria for entry.

The MPs also raised concerns about how an expansion of grammars would affect other non-selective schools, in terms of funding and the supply of teachers.

The committee called on the government to carry out an assessment of the potential impact on the wider school system.

Head teachers wrote to MPs last week to express their “incredulity” that grammar schools were being offered extra funds to expand places, while they were facing job cuts because of deepening pressures on their budgets.

The cross-party committee also highlighted the vagueness of the plans so far – with no clear outline of how many grammar schools would be created or how local demand for such grammars would be measured.

There were also questions about whether this push for academic selection should be a priority when there had been so many concerns about vocational skills shortages.

“The focus on opening new grammar schools is, in my view, an unnecessary distraction from the need to ensure all our young people are equipped with the skills to compete in the modern workplace,” said Mr Carmichael.

Top 10%

Since the prime minister last year announced the ambition to create new grammars, there have been few details of how this might be put into practice.

But last week the Grammar School Heads’ Association published details of a private meeting with education ministers, where they discussed options for expanding selection.

This suggested that new grammar schools could open from 2020 – but in the meantime there would be £150m funding to expand existing grammars or to introduce grammar streams through academy trusts.

There was also a suggestion that these new grammars would be much more selective than traditional grammars, with places for the top 10% of the ability range.

Another idea was that there would be a single national entry test for grammars, rather than a range of local tests, with the aim of designing an exam that would be more resistant to coaching by private tutors.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said that grammar schools have a “track record of closing the attainment gap to almost zero between children on free school meals and their better off classmates”.

The spokeswoman said that “99% of grammar schools are rated good or outstanding; and even when you take higher ability intakes into account pupils still perform better in selective schools than in non-selective schools”.

Labour’s shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “When even the Conservative-dominated education select committee calls Theresa May’s new grammar schools an ‘unnecessary distraction’, it’s time that ministers finally sat up and took notice.

“There is a crisis in teacher recruitment, schools budgets are being cut for the first time in decades and hundreds of thousands of pupils are in super-sized classes. The Tories should be keeping their pledge to protect school funding rather than pressing ahead with this policy,” she said.

John Pugh, the Liberal Democrats’ education spokesman, said: “Instead of ploughing ahead with these divisive plans, Theresa May should address the £3bn funding black hole facing our schools over the next five years.”

Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust, backed the calls for the government to show evidence that new grammars could close the attainment gap – when less than 3% of grammar school entrants are eligible for free school meals.

“Until existing grammar schools demonstrate they can be vehicles for social mobility, the number of grammar schools should not be increased,” said Sir Peter.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Grammars ‘will not boost poorest pupils’ science grades’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

School chemistry experiment

Top scientists fear plans for more grammar schools in England will not boost disadvantaged pupils’ grades.

Overall, the poorest pupils do worse in science and maths subjects in areas with selective schools, suggests research for the Royal Society, the UK’s independent scientific academy.

New grammars are likely to help “only a small proportion” of the poorest pupils, it says.

Ministers maintain that their proposals will improve social mobility.

A government consultation on plans for more selective education closed earlier this month.

“Social mobility is a complex issue,” said Prof Tom McLeish, chairman of the Royal Society’s Education Committee.

“We support the government’s commitment to ensuring all students fulfil their potential, regardless of their background.

“However, we are concerned that the approach to selective education outlined in the green paper may only support the small number of high ability disadvantaged pupils who do attend selective schools, at the cost of disadvantaged pupils who do not.”

Researchers from the Education Policy Institute, commissioned by the Royal Society, looked at the impact of selective education on the attainment of the most disadvantaged young people – those on free school meals – in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

The researchers found free school meals pupils performed less well in GCSE maths in areas where there were selective schools.

In non-selective areas in 2015, 48.1% of free school meals pupils got a C or more, compared with 72.3% of pupils not eligible for the meals.

But in selective areas the attainment gap was wider, with only 43.9% of free school meals pupils getting at least a C, compared with 74.8% of pupils not receiving the meals.

The researchers found that free school meals pupils in selective schools performed very well, with 98% getting at least a C, compared with 99.2% of non-free school meals pupils.

However, free school meals pupils make up only 3% of selective schools so their achievements are not enough to make any difference to “an overall negative impact on the attainment of all free school meals pupils in GCSE mathematics in selective areas”, say the researchers.

Specialist teachers

They also found that fewer free school meals pupils in selective areas took double or triple sciences at GCSE.

“We have found no evidence to suggest that overall educational standards for free school meals pupils in STEM subjects in England would be improved by an increase in the number of places in selective schools,” the Royal Society concludes.

Dr McLeish added that the best way to help every pupil achieve their potential is to make sure that they are taught by “well-trained, motivated and supported, specialist science teachers”.

Support is essential, he said, to help teachers “draw out the natural curiosity and creativity that grows from a framework of knowledge in science”.

In particular, the Royal Society proposes partnerships between universities, schools and businesses which could involve university staff teaching part-time and even carrying out some of their research in schools.

The Department for Education said its proposals were “about creating more choice, with more good school places in more parts of the country”.

It said grammar schools have a “track record of closing the attainment gap” and the department was also raising standards for maths and science for all pupils.

A spokesman added: “We have introduced rigorous new qualifications and in science we are investing £12.1 million over the next three years to improve the quality of teaching in schools.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Surrey heads tell Theresa May of ‘vehement opposition’ to grammars

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

grammar

Almost every head teacher of a state secondary school in Surrey has signed a letter to the prime minister expressing their “vehement opposition” to plans for more grammar schools in England.

The heads say this “unprecedented” coalition reflects the “confusion” caused by plans to increase selection.

They say 95% of pupils in Surrey are already at good or outstanding schools.

The government says that providing more grammar school places would give extra opportunities for poorer pupils.

The letter sent to Theresa May and Education Secretary Justine Greening says that heads in Surrey are strongly opposed to creating a “selective, segregated, two-tier state funded system of education”.

In a hard-hitting letter, they accuse ministers of creating “confusion and fragmentation” in England’s school system, with a policy based on a “nostalgic and unrealistic vision of society”.

Funding cuts

The heads have told the prime minister that the current comprehensive system delivers high standards and that this will be put at risk by the return of a grammar system and selection by ability.

“It is impossible to have grammar schools without secondary modern schools or their equivalent,” says the joint letter from head teachers.

The head teachers say that poorer pupils are under-represented in grammars and that there is no evidence of any positive impact on social mobility.

They also call on the prime minister to focus on real problems facing schools, which they say are “continuing funding cuts, an unassuaged and escalating recruitment crisis”.

This is the latest example of head teachers exerting their collective influence – apart from the lobbying of their unions.

Every state school head teacher in West Sussex signed a joint letter to the prime minister warning that they could have to cut school hours because of a lack of funding.

The House of Commons education select committee will be carrying out an “evidence check” on Tuesday on plans to expand selection.

Committee chair, Neil Carmichael, said that since the plans for more grammars had been announced “the air has been thick with the sound of claims and counter-claims on the benefits and disadvantages of grammar schools”.

He said that it would be important for MPs to “get underneath the rhetoric and examine the evidence”.

The consultation on expanding selection will continue until next month.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “Grammar schools have a track record of closing the attainment gap between children on free school meals and their better-off classmates and 99% of grammar schools are rated good or outstanding.

“We want all children, whatever their background, to have access to an education that will unlock their talents. That’s why we will scrap the ban on new grammar schools and make more good school places available, to more parents, in more parts of the country.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Ethnic-minority pupils ‘more likely to attend grammars than white children with same Sats scores’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Likelihood of success in 11-plus is higher for ethnic-minority pupils than for white pupils with same Sats results at key stage 2

Ethnic-minority pupils in four selective areas are more likely to attend a grammar school than white British pupils with the same key stage 2 test scores, data analyst Education Datalab reports in a new blog.

The analysis of test results from 2010 to 2015 comes after a ResPublica thinktank report said that of all pupils with disadvantaged backgrounds, white British children were least likely to do well in school. It recommended that new grammars were focused on the needs of white working-class children.

Rebecca Allen, director of Education Datalab, looked at the number of high-achieving 11-year-olds, from different ethnic groups, attending grammar schools – the vast majority of whom had passed the 11-plus. She compared how they performed at key stage 2.

The analysis used pupils’ “fine grade scores” in the Sats tests, a measure created by the non-profit company FFT, which provides detailed data to schools on how their pupils are performing.

The study found that just 29 per cent of the white British pupils in Kent, Medway, Buckinghamshire and Lincolnshire who achieved a fine grade score of five, went on to grammar school – compared with 56 per cent of Asian, 61 per cent of black and 44 per cent of “other” ethnic minority children.

The ‘private tutor effect’?

There is little research on why ethnic-minority groups are so successful at passing the 11-plus test, she added, but some research has found that ethnic-minority groups are more likely to use private tutors.

 “Understanding the reasons for these disparities might help us understand whether there are policy interventions to support those ethnic groups who are less successful in gaining access,” Dr Allen writes.

“But while the idea of discounting the 11-plus qualifying score to help free school meal pupils access grammars is now broadly accepted as an idea, discounting to help white British students gain access would surely be more controversial.”

[Source:- tes]

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Education

New grammars and more selection by faith proposed

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Two school children walking in a corridor

A new green paper is set to propose opening new grammar schools and allowing further selection by faith, BBC Newsnight has learnt.

The consultation document will also propose placing requirements on universities and private schools to enhance social mobility.

The package will be part of Theresa May’s attempts to frame her government as one focused on social mobility.

It is expected to be presented on Friday,

The most contentious suggestion in the consultation paper is likely to be that the government should pass legislation to permit new grammar schools. This would be required to overrule the 1998 Education Act, which barred the opening of further grammar schools in England.

To help overcome opposition in the Commons, where some Tory MPs are concerned about the proposals, and the Lords, where the government does not have a majority, the paper is expected to propose changes designed to overcome the historic problems with selective education: grammar areas have tended to have higher educational inequality.

The preferred option in Whitehall is that the schools should dedicate a quota of places to children from poorer backgrounds. Grammar schools may also be required to act as academy sponsors to other schools.

Universities could also be asked to sponsor academies as a condition of being allowed to raise their fees. A similar condition may also be applied to private schools as a condition for their status as charities.

The paper is also currently expected to include a relaxation of the rule that limits oversubscribed new faith schools to only selecting half of their intake by reference to faith. This rule was intended to limit the segregational effects of new faith schools. Officials have said these schools will, instead, be encouraged to do other work to that end.

Downing Street declined to comment on the leak, but made an argument for the abolition of the rule on faith schools in similar terms to an argument made publicly earlier this year by Nick Timothy, one of the prime minister’s two chiefs of staff.

He who wrote in January that the law “does little to increase the diversity of Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu schools, because for now at least they are unlikely to appeal to parents of other faiths. But the rule is effectively discriminatory for Roman Catholics: it prevents them from opening new free schools because it is almost certainly against canon law for a Catholic Bishop to set up a school that turned away Catholic pupils on the basis of their Catholicism.”

Mr Timothy, a supporter of faith education, argued: “We won’t succeed in bringing together our divided communities by pretending to be something we’re not, penalising people for what they believe, or trying to turn others into something they do not want to be. We will bring communities together by encouraging people, especially young people, to understand, respect and like one another for what they are.”

[Source:- BBC]

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