Theresa May’s plans for a new wave of selective schools in England has began to unravel as they were condemned across the political and educational spectrum, but some councils in Tory heartlands have rushed to sign up.
Authorities who fireded in applications include Kent county council, Thurrock in Essex, Windsor and Maidenhead, Central Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Sutton/ Croydon, London. More are expected within weeks as plans for selective schools, held dormant for decades, are well advanced.
The fiercest critics of the plan included former Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and the chief schools watchdog.
Mrs Morgan said lifting the ban on new selective schools, including grammars, risked undermining six years of education reform. All schools are to be given the right to apply to select pupils by ability under the plans, but Mrs Morgan said it was “at best a distraction from reforms to raise standards and narrow the attainment gap” and at worst risked “undermining six years of progressive education reform”.
Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said the idea that poor children would benefit from a return of grammars was “nonsense”. He added: “My fear is we will put the clock back, and the progress we have made over the past 10 to 15 years will slow.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would block the proposals at every stage of their passage in the Commons.