I WRITE to express partial agreement with Conor Burns MP.
Grammar schools really are not working for children from poorer and disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mr Burns appears to back a “relaunch” of grammar schools along the lines of their original, Victorian, philanthropic ideals.
Liberal Democrats, however, believe that the ship has already sailed.
As long as parents are prepared to send their children into the private sector, or have their children specifically tutored in order to pass the 11+ exam, grammars will never serve the role they were originally intended to perform.
Rather than being instruments of social mobility, grammar schools have, in some ways, become an enforcer of social and educational segregation.
Dr Dorian Lewis, head of Bournemouth School, claims there will be moves to change entrance procedures in order to promote social mobility from 2018. Why wait until then?
It is within the remit of him and his governors to change their entrance requirements right now.
In fact, in recent years local grammar school heads have been requested to allow children from deprived areas to sit the entrance test in their local schools as they could not access the existing test centre.
This request was turned down. Why was this?
The fact is that if we can ensure our comprehensive schools are well run and fully supported by local communities, they are every bit as capable of producing academic success as a grammar school.
Twynham, Highcliffe, Lytchett Minster, Queen Elizabeth and Corfe Hills are all examples of great local comprehensives in areas that do not segregate children at age 11.
PHIL DUNN
Spurgeon Road, Bournemouth
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