When the government consulted on today’s grammar school expansion plans, it only allowed people to comment on the detail - not the principle.
But that did not stop a “significant number” of the people using the consultation to raise concerns about selection anyway, the Department for Education revealed today.
The disclosure comes in an analysis of the responses to its Schools that Work for Everyone consultation, which included proposals to create new grammar schools and expand existing ones.
The government today announced £200 million of funding for existing selective schools to expand, but confirmed that no new grammar schools will be created.
Analysis of the consultation responses, carried out by MORI, examined 6,688 “valid” responses. Of these, 1,793 came from teachers, and 2,598 from parents or grandparents.
The report says: “Outside of the specific questions asked, a significant number of respondents used the forum of the consultation to raise concerns about selection itself, and selective schools - many of whom did not give further detail.
“Some disagreed with selection schools [sic] per se, and cited a preference that selective schools should not be expanded or should be closed.”
Grammar schools ‘not accessible’
It says that specific objections to the expansion of selective schools “centred around perceived concern with the accessibility of selective schools, the impact on other surrounding schools and children who are not able to attend, and requests for government resource to instead be focused on supporting non-selective schools”.
When asked what proportion of children from lower-income households should be admitted to new selective schools, the most common response was 100 per cent.
The analysis says: “A smaller subset of respondents said that between 75-90 per cent of pupils should be from lower-income households. In many cases, these respondents were opposed to new selective schools in general, and said they would be supportive only if they were made available almost exclusively to lower-income pupils.”
And the government’s plans to impose sanctions on grammar schools that do not meet the government’s criteria received a frosty response, with more people opposing than supporting.
They were concerned that sanctions would not be effective, and would lead to schools being risk-adverse.
The government today announced there would be £50 million available in 2018-19 for existing grammar schools to expand.
The analysis of the consultation responses says that, in answer to a question about how to best support existing grammar schools to expand, funding was most commonly cited, but “some respondents” suggested that more than £50 million would be needed to meet demand.
Call for changes to admissions rules
The third most common response was to ask for an improved selection process “to increase confidence that admission tests accurately capture real, rather than tutored, academic ability”.
The report says: “Some respondents expressed concern that it is currently too easy for pupils from wealthy families to receive tutoring to help them pass entrance examinations. Others asked that admissions rules prescribe a minimum number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
The consultation also sought views on five potential conditions the government could apply to new or expanding selective schools in order to increase the number of “good” and “outstanding” places in non-selective schools.
The most commonly supported proposal was taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income households.
Most respondents commenting on the idea of allowing entry into selective schools at the ages of 14 and 16, as well as 11, were “largely unconvinced about how this would work in practice”.
The document adds: “Furthermore, a number also expressed concern that it may not be fair for non-selective schools to lose their most able students at 14 and 16.”
The government’s response to the consultation makes no mention of introducing new entry ages for grammar schools.
