Friends of Grammar Schools

Simon Doyle, Education Correspondent   450 words

Publication date: 17 September 2009    Source: The Irish News

Page: Pg. 11     (c) 2009, The Irish News Ltd.  All Rights reserved.

Entries for new 11-plus tests are continuing to pour in with some schools already indicating they will have more children sitting the papers than they have places available.

Tomorrow is the deadline for parents to register their children for either, or both, of the new grammar school entrance exams.

There is no longer a state-sponsored 11-plus and education minister Caitriona Ruane has asked that all post-primary schools operate non-academic admissions criteria only.

However, grammar schools are planning to defy … Continue Reading

By Thomas Lowe
An organisation called Comprehensive Future has just launched a pamphlet called Ending Selection at 11+, with the word ‘selection’ provocatively crossed out and replaced with ‘rejection’. Behind the pamphlet are a number of members of the political left, not least Fiona Millar, the partner of spin doctor Alistair Campbell, who has penned the introduction to the pamphlet.
The introduction starts with the assertion that ‘labelling children as failures at … Continue Reading

916 words        Publication date: 7 September 2009

Source: Belfast Telegraph         Page: 26

(c)2009 Independent News & Media (Northern Ireland). All Rights Reserved.

A 10-year-old girl listens as her parents explain to me how she hopes to gain entry into a grammar school in Northern Ireland.

Naturally they want to do their best for her. They tell me that, come September next year, they hope she will attend either a Catholic grammar school or one of the 34 schools which have signed up to the Association for Quality Education.

At the end of the day, it will be down to the child. A winter … Continue Reading

Basil McCrea MLA, education spokesman for the Ulster Unionist Party, said: “How can the Education Minister not see what an excellent education system we already have when she looks at these results?
“They should make her think again about her plan to outlaw academic selection from Northern Ireland.”

By Kathryn Torney, Education Correspondent, ktorney@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

702 words        Publication date: 21 August 2009

Source: Belfast Telegraph         Page: 22

(c)2009 Independent News & Media (Northern Ireland). All Rights Reserved.

News | Frantic scramble begins for university places and jobs

IT will be tragic if students who received their A-level results yesterday are not rewarded with a place … Continue Reading

Publication date: 10 August 2009

Source: The Independent          Page: 30,31

(c) 2009 Independent & Media PLC

Comment | You ask the questions: Michael Gove, Tory spokesman for children, schools and families

Why does no one advocate introducing proper grammar school-style education into top streams in comprehensives? This should keep the grammar school brigade happy and, because children develop at different rates, avoid the pitfalls of the old two-tier system with selection based on one exam. And are you going to raise the bar for entry in to the teaching profession? We should demand a 2.1 or better for secondary-level teachers, as in Finland. Depending … Continue Reading

“Before those institutions were all but wiped out by the legislation of an earlier Labour Government, the grammar schools outclassed the independent sector in terms of their academic results”

Dominic Lawson    1280 words

Publication date: 11 August 2009          Source: The Independent

Page: 22,23      (c) 2009 Independent & Media PLC

Comment

I think it’s called cognitive dissonance. The front page story of this weekend’s Sunday Times was headlined: “Mandelson to favour poorer pupils”. It revealed that the First Secretary of State was considering plans to request universities to set preferential lower entry standards for the least well-off; but the photograph accompanying this scoop was of … Continue Reading

“Grammar schools were the great lever by which children from disadvantaged homes could be lifted to the ranks of the academic elite.”

Mary Warnock    824 words

Publication date: 29 July 2009   Source: The Independent

Page: 29,28      (c) 2009 Independent & Media PLC

Comment:

LORD MANDELSON, himself an Oxford graduate from a maintained school, has raised the old cry: down with elitism, pull apart the ivory towers. The word “university” does not feature in the title of his department, BIS (Business, Innovation and Skills, in case anyone has forgotten), and it’s not surprising, given the depth of ignorance and misunderstanding of the universities shown by … Continue Reading

“IN THE Fifties and Sixties when I was at school, most Oxbridge entrants came from State schools. That’s because we had brilliant grammar schools. Today, private schools dominate because they get by far the best A-level results. So much for equality.”

Chris Roycroft

Davies Political commentator    871 words

Publication date: 29 July 2009   Source: The Daily Express

Page: 12           (c) 2009 Express Newspapers

LEADER

HELLO and welcome to a pecial edition of University Challenge, with teams drawn from the Labour Party. Over to Jeremy Paxman: “Here’s your starter for 10, no conferring: Which politician set a target that 50 per cent of school-leavers should … Continue Reading