If relinquishing the ban on new grammar schools is going to have a real chance of increasing social mobility it’s crucial that more deprived areas are targeted first. I have often argued that parents need a choice of all education offerings in whichever town they live. Currently, there are far too many parents with no…
This week I was invited to be an audience member for a BBC Radio Kent debate on grammar schools. They had a very diverse panel, from a headteacher of an Academy vehemently opposed to grammar schools to journalist and author Peter Hitchens, a passionate advocate for the return of grammar schools. You can view the debate…
Fifty years ago Harold Wilson announced he wanted every comprehensive school to be as good as a grammar school. Half a century on and we’re still nowhere near to achieving that goal. How much longer do we leave it, another 50 years? No, and that’s why I’m delighted that the government is proposing to put…
There’s been a sweeping change of the guard at the top of our political establishment, with a grammar school educated Prime Minster now at the helm and the first-ever Education Secretary to have attended a comprehensive secondary school. Since Theresa May and Justine Greening, the new Education Secretary, took hold of the reins of power,…
As a working-class boy whose academic success led me to where I am now, I’m truly saddened that thousands of this generation’s brightest children could be missing out. Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has now raised his head above the parapet and said we are letting down the nation’s bright children – particularly those from…