VIEWS FROM LEADING POLITICIANS ON A SEVENOAKS
GRAMMAR SCHOOL
The Sevenoaks parents’ campaign for a grammar
school in the town has featured extensively in the national media over the last
month, and many well known commentators have expressed their views on the
subject. Perhaps most significantly, a number of leading politicians have
publicly stated their views on the matter, including the three leading players
in the ongoing debate, Michael Gove, Mike Whiting and Michael Fallon, as well
as Stephen Twigg. We have therefore set out their views
below.
A. The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP,
Secretary Of State For Education
Q: Some grammar schools are
seeking to expand and there is talk of opening satellite schools. Would you
welcome this?
A: “We have allowed all
schools that wish to, and which are successful, to expand.
“The particular case that has come to people’s
attention is in West Kent. In Kent, you have a significant increase in
population overall. If you have population growth in an area where there is
selective provision, then you should allow schools in that area to expand to
take account of it.
“The number of children who are educated in
grammar schools rose under the Labour Government because of population growth.
And because of population growth, the number of children overall to be educated
in every sort of school will rise. In a selective area, if provision needs to grow
in order to take account of that, that’s absolutely
fine.
“But it is not our intention to extend
selection beyond those areas where it currently
exists.”
Evidence provided to the Parliamentary Select
Committee on Education on 31st January 2012:-
Please scroll across to 10.56am.
B. Cllr. Mike Whiting, Kent County
Council Cabinet Member For Education
“We have rising populations in
Kent. I have a duty as Cabinet Member in charge of Education in Kent to ensure
that there are adequate places for the children of Kent, and to offer some
parental choice for those children...And as the population grows, I need to
ensure that there are grammar school places too, which is exactly what the
parents of Sevenoaks are asking me to do.”
“We do live in a selective system
and currently we have some 1100 or so (Sevenoaks area) children every
morning…going to non-selective schools outside of the area. So introducing new
(selective) provision in the area, which is the request of the parents here,
(is) the thing we need to look at to see how many of those 1100 children we
could cater for in new provision in the town. (This would) save the young lad
you mentioned, and others, from hour and a half combined journeys per day, which
is difficult for children.”
Interview on BBC Radio 4 “PM” programme
on 26th January 2012
C. Michael Fallon, MP For
Sevenoaks
Q: Will Sevenoaks get a grammar
school?
A: “Kent County Council is
considering opening a new grammar school in Sevenoaks. If the plans go ahead,
this would be the first new grammar in the UK for 50 years. Kent is able to
propose this following new school admission rules published by the Education
Secretary Michael Gove.
“Kent has a grammar school system, but Sevenoaks
is the only one of its districts without one. Pupils in my constituency have to
travel north to the Wilmington or Dartford Grammars, or south to Tonbridge and
Tunbridge Wells. There is a huge cost in making over 1,000 pupils travel
backward and forward each day, and a lot of lost time. And there’s a growing shortage of places. With
at least 300 places going to children from outside the county, and an increasing
birth rate, unless we take action now, Sevenoaks children face being allocated
places as far away as Sittingbourne, Maidstone and
Ashford.
“This isn’t an ideological issue. Kent has a
duty to provide sufficient secondary school places, both at all-ability
academies such as Knole Academy and at grammar schools. Parents have the right
to choose. So far, over 1,500 parents have signed a petition calling for a new
grammar in Sevenoaks: we should respect their views.
“We need to get on now with the practical work.
Finding a suitable site, selecting a partner school in Tonbridge and Tunbridge
Wells, and earmarking the necessary funding. With the support of the council and local
parents, I am optimistic that Sevenoaks may finally get the grammar school that
we need.”
Published in the February 2012 edition of Vine
Magazine.
D. Stephen Twigg MP, Shadow Education
Secretary
On 16th January
2012, Stephen Twigg
stated:
“Labour is today announcing that we will be opposing the
Tory-led Government’s plans to amend the School Admissions Code to allow the
expansion of grammar schools. The Tory-led Government is expanding selection at
11 by the back door, by trying to sneak through changes to the Admissions Code
without parliamentary debate. They are removing the rights of parents to appeal
to the schools’ adjudicator on the expansion of grammar schools. Labour will
oppose the changes to the School Admissions Code, and ask the Government to
carry out an honest consultation with parents and teachers.
“The Government needs to be clear what its position on grammar schools and the 11-plus is. Before the election, David Cameron promised no return to the 11-plus and no return to a grammar school system. But in Government, the Tories have given powers to grammar schools to expand, and parents are now powerless to stop this. I will be writing to all Liberal Democrat MPs to ask for their support in opposing this decision to sneakily expand the grammar school system.”
“The Government needs to be clear what its position on grammar schools and the 11-plus is. Before the election, David Cameron promised no return to the 11-plus and no return to a grammar school system. But in Government, the Tories have given powers to grammar schools to expand, and parents are now powerless to stop this. I will be writing to all Liberal Democrat MPs to ask for their support in opposing this decision to sneakily expand the grammar school system.”
In
response to Stephen Twigg’s statement, a spokesman for the Department for Education said:
“We are making it
easier for all popular and successful state schools to expand to meet the
demands of parents – grammar or not. It’s wrong that places have been rationed in
good schools for so long. It is
right that schools have the power to meet parental demand and decide the number
of places they offer.”
On 18th
January 2012, Stephen Twigg, Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman* and four other
Labour MPs signed an Early Day Motion calling for Parliament to annul the new
School Admissions Code. (No Liberal Democrat MP signed the
Motion).
On 24th
January 2012, a House of Lords committee met to consider whether the Early Day
Motion should be granted a parliamentary debate. On the basis that “the special attention of the House need not
be drawn to” the Early Day Motion, they concluded that no parliamentary
debate should be held. Stephen Twigg’s bid to annul the School Admissions Code
therefore failed.
The School Admissions
Code then became law on 1st February 2012, and thereby took full effect in
respect of admissions arrangements for the 2013/14 academic year and
thereafter.
*Harriet Harman’s son
attended St Olaves, a grammar school in West Kent.
