Theresa May promises new wave of grammar schools but vows they won't discriminate against poorer pupils

Chloe Chaplain9 September 2016
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A new wave of grammar schools will not discriminate against poorer children and will give them the chance to go to a good school, the Prime Minister will announce.

Theresa May’s controversial education proposals will call to end a current ban on opening grammar schools and allow schools to introduce selection "in some circumstances".

Mrs May will today vow to end "selection by house price" and give grammar schools targets requiring them to have a certain number of poorer pupils.

The reforms will also require universities, that charge the higher fees, to set up a new school or sponsor an existing underperforming school.

Labour have criticised the reforms and warned the expansion of grammar schools would "entrench inequality and disadvantage".

In her first domestic speech since entering No 10, Mrs May will claim that back-door selection by postcode and wealth is "unfair".

She will say: "For too long we have tolerated a system that contains an arbitrary rule preventing selective schools from being established - sacrificing children's potential because of dogma and ideology.

"The truth is that we already have selection in our school system - and it's selection by house price, selection by wealth.

“That is why I am announcing an ambitious package of education reforms. This is about being unapologetic for our belief in social mobility and making this country a true meritocracy - a country that works for everyone."

But Shadow Education Minister, Angla Rayner, has accused the Prime Minister of going against her premise of making a country "work for everyone".

Ms Rayner said: "Theresa May talks about standing up for the majority but her actions reveal the opposite: working for the few at the expense of the many.

"However you package this up, the Tory Government are bringing back selection to the UK education system.

"By enshrining selection into our system the Prime Minister is wilfully ignoring the overwhelming evidence that it leads to a more unequal country.

"Instead of adopting this fundamentally flawed approach, the Prime Minister should be investing in schools for everyone, not the chosen few."

There are also plans to relax rules that stop faith schools from selecting more than half of pupils according to religion and to allow more faith schools to open.

A Downing Street source said that the cap on faith schools had "prevented new Catholic schools from opening, which are more successful, popular and ethnically diverse than other types of state school".

"We're going to change the rule, so we can allow new Catholic schools to open, while making faith schools of all kinds do more to make sure their pupils integrate with children of other backgrounds," they added.

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