£50 Million for Grammar Schools Despite Education Cuts Crisis

Government £50 Million for Grammar Schools Row: The Department for Education announced today that £50 Million will go towards expanding grammar schools.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:”Children only get one chance at an education and they deserve the best, wherever they live and whatever their background. Standards are rising in our schools and we’ve created hundreds of thousands of new places since 2010 but we want to make sure every family can access a good school.”

The aim is to provide new ‘good school places in areas where they are needed most’.

Bristol does not have any grammar schools, other than one independent, and will not benefit from the scheme despite school funding being in crisis in the city.

The funding will be used to expand the premises of schools, thus increasing places at existing selective schools which are Ofsted good or outstanding. This has been done to give more ‘disadvantaged’ children the chance to attend.

The initiative is part of the Schools the Work for Everyone consultation, which is about creating a good school place for every child.

The £50 Million will be available for grammar schools for the year 2018/19. Schools will have to set out an action plan stating how they will be increasing admissions of disadvantaged children.

Grammar School Heads’ Association Chief Executive Jim Skinner said: “We are very pleased that, like other good and outstanding schools, selective schools now have access to a fund to allow them to expand their premises. This is particularly important at a time when there are increasing numbers of pupils reaching secondary age and such high demand from parents for selective school places.”

But Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, Kevin Courtney slammed ‘grammar school corpse’ which as ‘climbed out of its coffin once again’.

He said: “In the face of such overwhelming evidence, it therefore beggars belief that the Government has announced it will plough £50 million to expand the number of places at existing selective grammar schools. Schools up and down the country are desperately short of funds. This is money that would be better invested in ensuring all schools could provide for the basic needs of their pupils without having to ask for money from parents.

“Education in our country is facing real problems – mental health issues for our children, a growing teacher recruitment and retention crisis, and huge funding cuts. This Government seems to have no idea how to tackle these problems and is simply recycling its same old failed policies.”

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