What happened to the grammar school revolution?

The Conservatives paved the way for a new generation of selective schools - what happened?

It is now approaching a decade since Kent marked a significant moment in the history of grammar schools.

The then Conservative education secretary Nicky Morgan announced that the government would back controversial plans for a grammar school annexe - a project being backed by the county council.

That pledge came in 2015 and two years later in 2017, children who had for years become accustomed to a lengthy round-trip to enable them to take up a much-prized place at a selective school, could now do so with a much-reduced journey back and forth.

Only it was not exactly the solution required as the squeeze on places affected mainly boys who faced a 25-mile round trip while the annexe plan mainly increased capacity for girls.

Nevertheless, it was a totemic signal for Conservatives that grammar schools could have a future - albeit one that saw schools contorting themselves to engineer a demand for places that was not being met.

But for those who opposed the 11-plus on ideological grounds, the annex appeared to be a disaster.

After years of frustration, a Conservative government had finally delivered on a pledge to widen access to grammar schools and to do away with a ban on new ones.

Only that does not tell all the story. An avalanche of new schools failed to arrive. There was no new generation of selective schools; John Major’s promise of a grammar in every town faded away. Teresa May announced her plans for new grammars saying they would be an integral part of wider plans to improve social mobility - the idea was never tested.

Most significantly, however, was that the Labour government did not budge on moving to scrap the remaining grammar schools, instead insisting that the legislation in place permitted parents to petition for a ballot to end selective schooling, something considered highly unlikely.

Meanwhile, a fund set up to help grammars and others deal with the pressure and demand for places - the Selective School Expansion Fund - was quietly withdrawn in 2018 - though not before the government had distributed £50m to schools to help them accommodate more pupils.

Kent fared poorly with just one school - Rochester Grammar - successfully bidding for a slice of the money allocated

So, why might the issue be back on the agenda? The uneasy political truce over the future of grammars has continued but efforts to create new ones have faltered.

Labour would like the issue to be left alone but the new secretary of state Lucy Powell is no shrinking violet on the issue.

She is no fan of grammars and has been highly critical of the Conservatives over the government’s stance.

New education secretary Lucy Powell - ‘we’ll block new grammars’

In an uncompromising article written jointly with opposition MPs, responding to the then Prime Minister Teresa May about the then government’s plans to allow expansion, she wrote:

“While grammar schools “can boost attainment for the already highly gifted, they do nothing for the majority of children who do not attend them.”

“Indeed, in highly selective areas, children not in grammars do worse than their peers in non-selective areas.”

She pledged Labour would fiercely contest any move by the government to allow the revival of selective schools.

Referring to plans for the Sevenoaks, she said:

“If the government agree to this one school, the legal precedent will open the floodgates to a massive expansion of selective education – something that is bad for social mobility and aspiration, for children, parents and the wider schools system.”

“This shows the complete lack of new thinking on education policy from the Tories. We could have a situation where the legacy of David Cameron is the return of selective education in this country.”

Cameron himself was directly responsible for severing the party’s support for grammars, provocatively denouncing its obsession with grammars while he was opposition leader.

But the party has many MPs who are keeping the grammar flag alive even while the outlook appears a rather a bleak one for supporters of selective schools, nationally as well as in Kent.

The issue is unlikely to get much traction while there is a government and an education secretary vehemently opposed to anything that would facilitate more selection among our schools.