Friends of Grammar Schools

“Grammars did help to move a few people from close to the bottom to the very top and Labour’s abolition of most such schools is one factor behind the continued private-school domination of Oxbridge and key professions.”

David Goodhart            2116 words

Publication date: 26 July 2009   Source: The Sunday Times

Page: 2             (c) 2009 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved

Last November America elected not just a black president but also a leader who is the son of a single mother who was, at least briefly, dependent on food stamps. All very well … but it couldn’t have happened here, said the … Continue Reading

“Since the eradication of grammar schools, many children from low-achieving backgrounds have been denied what was once a pathway to the top professions.”

472 words        Publication date: 22 July 2009

Source: The Times        Page: 23

(c) 2009 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved

Sir, What hope is there of political decisions being evidence-based when one reads Alan Milburn’s article about education and particularly his comments about the need for professional careers to be open to people of talent, regardless of background (”Give parents the keys to a better school”, Opinion, July 21). Elsewhere he is reported as having accused the professions of discriminating … Continue Reading

“The golden age for social mobility was the era of the grammar schools: before their abolition, more students from state school entered Oxford and Cambridge than from private schools.”
654 words        Publication date: 21 July 2009

Source: The Evening Standard  Page: 14

(c) 2009 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

THE report by the former health secretary, Alan Milburn, into social mobility which is published today contains a bold bid for mass appeal: its claim that the middle classes are being excluded from the professions. The report also recommends that the state should be a surrogate pushy parent, by raising the aspirations of children whose … Continue Reading

State schools have been wrecked and now it is the turn of our best universities, says Simon Heffer

By Simon Heffer

1270 words

Publication date: 22 July 2009

Source: The Daily Telegraph

Page: 16

(c) 2009 Telegraph Group Limited, London

The Department of the Bleeding Obvious is one of the most cash-hungry in government. It employs politicians and bureaucrats at huge expense to inquire into the failings of society, and discuss how they might be put right. It has just published another report, of an inquiry led by Alan Milburn, the former cabinet minister, into the lack of social mobility for the lower classes. Various reasons are … Continue Reading

“Mr Milburn advocates that the state should “act as a surrogate pushy parent” to children from deprived backgrounds. Which, of course, is exactly what it did under the old grammar school system.”

Source: Telegraph Online

Author: Janet Daily

(c) … Continue Reading

THE MELANIE PHILLIPS COLUMN

Selective education is the single most effective vehicle ever devised for propelling poor children out of disadvantage. Destroying the grammar schools not only trapped poor children within their impoverished backgrounds.

1280 words      Publication date: 20 July 2009

Source: Daily Mail        Page: 14

(c) 2009 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

THE Government’s ’social mobility czar’, Alan Milburn, is due to tell us all this week how class barriers can finally be broken down.

According to the advance spinning, his report will say that the rate of access to top jobs by people from disadvantaged backgrounds has got slower.

Apparently, the former Cabinet minister … Continue Reading

By Simon Heffer           118 words

Publication date: 11 July 2009   Source: The Daily Telegraph

Page: 27           (c) 2009 Telegraph Group Limited, London

Research by Manchester University has found that working-class men struggle to break out of their backgrounds and move up the career ladder. I am amazed that it required any research.

It is not just that they are made socially redundant by our appalling education system – and are worse off than their fathers and grandfathers, who had the chance of a grammar school. It is that the state demotivates them by providing all sorts of auxiliary parenting services for the mothers … Continue Reading

“The difficulty, which led to the disastrous destruction of the grammar school system, is that the grammar school model is too popular.”

979 words        Publication date: 12 July 2009

Source: The Mail on Sunday     Page: 7

(c) 2009 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved

Bruton, a medieval Somerset town, has long been associated with education. Bruton Abbey had its own school before the monasteries were closed between 1536 and 1541. King’s School was refounded in 1550 during the reign of King Edward VI; Sexey’s School springs from Hugh Sexey’s imaginative charity, which established both the school and a hospital for old people after his … Continue Reading

Stephen Pollard            994 words

Publication date: 10 July 2009   Source:  Times Educational Supplement

Page: Page News & Opinion 35           (c) 2009, TSL Education Limited

Comprehensives have led to apartheid in education, where a child’s chances are determined by a postcode lottery.

The past, wrote Gerard Kelly, editor of The TES, in an attack on grammar schools last week, is a very pleasant country. I disagree. The past is not something anyone should try to recreate. Our only concern should be how we best educate pupils today and tomorrow. And that must mean – as part of the mix – allowing an element of … Continue Reading

From the BBC:

This evening will see a different Question Time to usual, and it is fair to say that the production team and studio audience will both be slightly younger than usual! In addition to the usual 22.35 slot on BBC ONE, the programme will first be broadcast live on BBC THREE at 20.00.

Two students from each of the four UK schools chosen as winners of the Schools Question Time Challenge have been working with David Dimbleby and a BBC/Mentorn production team to make a unique … Continue Reading