The school standards minister will today urge grammar schools to form multi-academy trusts with neighbouring schools.

Nick Gibb is expected to tell headteachers, in a speech to the Grammar School Heads’ Association, that they should prove they are “engines of social mobility”, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

He is expected to say that, where local schools are failing, grammars could take over their leadership and become responsible for their performance. They could also create non-selective schools which would still have a “grammar school ethos”.

Collaboration ‘adds momentum’

He will say: “Collaboration between schools can add momentum to raising education standards, as we have seen with the growth of high-performing multi-academy trusts. I would like to see more grammar schools engaged in this type of work, which we know can be mutually beneficial.”

The government is bringing in conditions for grammar schools that want to expand, including that they must include “ambitious and deliverable” proposals to increase access for disadvantaged pupils.