Gove calls on Ministers to be 'driven by what works' in grammar school debate

TORY MPS have expressed 'severe reservations' about Theresa May's plans to create a new generation of grammar schools.
Michael Gove, former education and justice secretary.Michael Gove, former education and justice secretary.
Michael Gove, former education and justice secretary.

Education Secretary Justine Greening insisted expanding selective schools could help improve pupil attainment as she set out proposals to MPs.

But numerous Conservative backbenchers, including former cabinet heavyweights, spoke of their concerns in a sign that the Prime Minister could face a difficult task in pushing the proposals through Parliament.

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Alec Shelbrooke, Tory MP for Elmet and Rothwell, and Michelle Donelan, Tory MP for Chippenham, said they were worried that the plans could lead to children who do not get in to grammar schools being “stigmatised”.

Ms Greening said the Government planned to introduce a range of conditions which new grammars would have to meet in order to open and that would likely include “demonstrating local demand” for places.

According to the Green Paper published yesterday conditions for an expanding grammar would include taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income households, setting up a new non-selective secondary school or establishing a feeder primary in low-income area.

Former education secretary Michael Gove did outline his support for selective education at the age of 16 but failed to directly reference the Government’s new grammar school plans. He also called on the Education Secretary to reassure the House that she would be “driven entirely by data and what works”.

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Fellow former education secretary Nicky Morgan also sought assurances. She asked Ms Greening to explain how the proposals on selective education “will benefit those pupils in areas where expectations are still too low, where results are too poor”.

Ms Greening said she would “very much like to see some of the most disadvantaged communities in our country perhaps get the chance now to have a grammar”.

She is the first education secretary to have gone to a mainstream comprehensive school.