Two
local authorities are competing to be the first to use a "back door"
route to get around a legal ban on the creation of entirely new selective
schools.
Croydon, in
south London, which currently has no selective schools, is planning to open a
600-pupil grammar on a site it has identified. The move follows a vote in Kent
to open a similar-sized grammar school in Sevenoaks.
In each case,
the school would open as an "annex" of an existing grammar elsewhere
– a tactic sanctioned by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary.
Conservative-led Croydon council has committed nearly £15 million for a new
120-pupil secondary school in South Norwood, to be run as an annex of an
existing school. Grammar schools in neighbouring authorities have been invited
to take it on
Experts said
the plans were likely to open the floodgates for other councils to set up
grammars where there currently are none.Mr Gove's proposal to scrap GCSEs and
return to traditional O-levels, revealed last week, is also likely to fuel
demand for the academic rigour grammar schools provide.
Since a
change of law under Labour in the late 1990s, the construction of entirely new
grammar schools has been banned.
But Coalition
reforms now allow existing schools – including grammars – to expand where there
is demand, even if this means opening an annex many miles away as it was
revealed last year that as many as half of pupils who pass the 11-plus entrance
exam fail to get a place in grammar school because of the sheer competition for places.
Nick Seaton,
secretary of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "Parents everywhere
will welcome these developments.
"Most
existing grammars schools are vastly oversubscribed and parents should have the
choice of a grammar school place if their child is eligible."
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